Fishing for Catfish: Channels, Flatheads and Blues

I don't specifically target catfish while fishing, but they are often a by-product of my carp fishing quest along with small and big mouth buffalo. 

More people certainly fish for catfish than carp. It's perfectly understandable too. Catfish are generally considered more edible than carp. They do sell catfish in some of the most popular chain restaurants in the country. I have never heard of a restaurant selling carp.

I'm not a catfish expert, but I do know that catfish will bite traditional carp baits like corn and boilies. Observing some of the catfish specimen specialist fishermen locally, I've noticed that most use night crawlers, shiners, minnows, and cut bait. Good ole nightcrawlers seem to bring in most of the fish, but I have not tested effectiveness for any of those baits personally. Maybe I should.

We have an acquaintance locally that we sometimes share our catfish catches with. Recently, my friend delivered 25 pounds of channel and flatheads to him. He is an elderly man that we met while fishing. After getting to know him, we learned that he relies on catfish for a primary food source in spring, summer and fall. Catching catfish for him takes on a special meaning. The difference between catching and not catching equates to food or no food on some days. It really puts things in perspective. 

Catch and release works for me, but I do like catfish. It's one of my favorite things to eat when we visit Cracker Barrel. I prefer farm raised to fish exposed to some of the harsh chemicals residing at the bottom of our local rivers in the sediment where Mr. Whiskers gets many of his food sources. I've been told that the chemical build up in the smaller fish is much less than in these larger 9 and 10 pounders in these photos, but then again, as you can tell from my physique I am not dependent on catfish for lunch and dinner.

If someone reading this post has more expertise catching catfish than I do and want to share an article here, I'd be happy to link back to your website and/or YouTube videos.

At the current time, I couldn't begin to tell you difference between a channel, flathead, bull head or blue catfish, but my understanding is that blues are highly sought after by catfish specimen anglers. 

Maybe I'll spend the offseason this winter brushing up on my catfish fishing game and even target them in the future. Based on some In Fishermen articles I've read over the years, I do know that targeting them is easier from a boat, but targeting them from shore is doable. I am not sure how doable it is to catch 20+ pound catfish from shore here in Michigan, but I am open to learning more if you have catfish expertise.

Several Carp and a Catfish: Dog Days of Summer

I headed out for a day session on Sunday and ended up with several nice carp and a channel catfish. The weather was warm, but luckily there was a gentle breeze that provided some relief.

I apologize in advance because some of the fish are properly posed and some pictures are "mat" pictures, but my photographer had to leave early. As you can see in the pictures these fish were in good condition with nice colors and scale patterns.

A few of them are on the smallish side, but I enjoyed every single one. I'm not particular. Some fish are much better than no fish at all.

As I started to pack up, I caught this little guy on a screaming run.

Late day carp 

Another late day carp

Ten pounder

Biggest fish of the day in the late morning weighing 13 pounds

1st fish of the day about 8 a.m.

Channel catfish

I loved the clouds on Sunday and just couldn't resist taking a picture of the swim.

I like to fish this venue at a medium range (40 yards or so), but the fish weren't biting in the 4 feet depths. When I concentrated on long range casts (near 100 yards), I started catching fish and it continued throughout the day. All fish were caught at 75 yards or greater distances.

Michigan Carp Anglers Group July Social Fish In

Today I traveled to a new water for the first time and fished from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. I fished a spot with no pre-baiting and no prior knowledge of carp being caught from that particular spot on the lake.

When I arrived the temperature gauge on my vehicle said it was 65 degrees, but today's session turned out to be my hottest day of fishing this year with temperatures hitting 99 degrees.

The view at "the spot"

It took quite a while to get a fish on the bank, but I broke the ice with this nice looking channel catfish

Another view of the channel catfish. I didn't weigh the catfish, but I am sure it exceeded 10 pounds

As a member of a carp fishing club, I target carp exclusively and sometimes manage to catch some other nice fish like channel catfish or small mouth buffalo.

Other days I fish all day and struggle to catch the target fish no matter how long I fish, how much bait I use and what techniques or other rabbits I try to pull out of the hat to put a fish in the net.

Today definitely falls into one of the "other" day category.

My first fish sounded the alarms at about 8:30 a.m. and I managed to bring it to the bank in short order. But I do not have a picture of the fish because before I could bring it into the net, it managed to flip and flop a few times and perform a self-induced "quick release" technique preventing me from posing the fish and making it famous for a few minutes on my Facebook page and carp fishing blog.

Then the frustration really set in. I had a string of 8 consecutive carp runs and 8 consecutive hook pulls. I tried fighting the fish with a tight drag and then I tried a loose drag. I tried new hooks, although my original hooks were quite sharp and very adequate. Nothing worked to put some carp in the landing net.

I was beginning to think the "skunk" was on. And then it happened...another carp hit the end of the line slamming the alarm hard.

I tried the loose drag technique again, but the fish wouldn't give in. After a few minutes the carp managed to find the lily pads to the right of my swim and lodged himself there. He wouldn't budge.

One of my fishing friends, David, came to the rescue. He felt so bad for my carp skunk and run of bad luck that he waded into the water while I kept pressure on the fish. David found the fish in the lily pads and as he stood in chest deep water relieved the lily pad snag and the fish was swimming freely again.

I landed the small carp in the photo below a short while later. I am sure there are some bigger fish to be caught and perhaps the hottest day of the year isn't the best day to fish this venue. Early fall or spring might produce very different results since the battle with weeds and lily pads would be reduced dramatically.

It was smaller than I hoped, but the scale and color patterns were flawless.

Overall it was a hot day, frustrating at times, but rewarding at the end. David saved the day for me. That is one of the advantages of fishing with friends. We can bail each other out from time to time.

Two Nice Channel Catfish

I got out this afternoon to a local pond and enjoyed the 60 degree weather and sunshine with hopes of catching my 100th carp for the year. With the year winding down I am unsure how many sunny days we will have left before the weather turns colder and the snow starts flying.

Things started off well with some nice fish, but they just happened to be c-a-t-f-i-s-h which are usually a big disappointment for carp fishermen, but not today for me. I loved catching these. The pair of cats had some of the best coloring on them for any channel catfish that I have ever caught.

The clouds came and chased away the sun, which killed the bite so my 100th carp will have to wait a couple of days when get back out again.

10 pound channel catfish

7 pound channel catfish

Tried a New Carp Fishing Venue

I traveled to a new venue today in search of some carp. It was in the 20's when we arrived, but with calm winds it was tolerable for a while. But then the winds arrived with gusts of up to 30 mph at times. It was cloudy in the early morning, but the sun arrived shortly before lunch time. I caught this nice catfish a little while later.

I didn't catch any carp today, but I'll be going back next spring to give it another go.

Nice channel catfish caught just before lunch

Here kitty, kitty

Memorial Day Weekend

I headed out early on Saturday to my favorite local lake for carp fishing.

The day started off with several catfish. I ended the day with 3 catfish in total.

9 pounder

3 pounder

The carp weren't far behind.



13 pounder

Big common carp in the net

Nice 20 pound 6 ounce common carp

Just prior to release this lunker back into the water

Here are a few more pictures from today's activities.

A shot of my Sonic bait runners

3rd carp of the day

4th carp of the day

I had another fish on that I lost. It was a good day to be sure. Bill was with me and landed the first fish of the session weighing 30 pounds 11 ounces. That gave me something to shoot for today, but I didn't catch anything nearing that size.

We'll back out on Monday to try again.

New Carp and Catfish Book

Common Carp and a Catfish

Today was one of the toughest days of fishing I've had in quite some time. It was especially difficult for me because I was getting a lot of bites and runs; but I only landed two small fish. I hooked 7 fish, but lost a bunch due to hook pulls. I was experimenting with shrink tube. My only logical conclusion is that the shrink tube was rigged incorrectly causing the hook pulls due to poor hook penetration.

I also snagged 5 times in one of my favorite spots on the lake. I have never snagged in that area before, so I was either lucky or something has been purposely submerged in that spot during the past week or two, since I last fished that particular spot.

This small 5 - 6 pound carp came early

 

 

This small channel catfish came later in the day

This guy's been playing in the mud