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Bryan

Catfishing

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Has anyone here ever fly fished for Catfish? If so do you know of any useful patterns to use on them? I maybe weird with the Catfish on a fly rod deal, but I have always loved the fight at Catfish gives you. (want to make it even more challenging, lol)

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This past summer I caught a 30 pound cat on my 6wt that steeldrifter built me, I didnt catch it pn purpose, I was fishin for bass in a farm pond, and he nailed a streamer I was using, it was one helluva 45 minute fight, but I got him!!!

 

 

Dustin

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i do it from time to time but i cheat, did not use a fly on my fly rod, i used a slice of pepperoni to catch this one this past summer. hardest part is keeping pepperoni on the hook when casting.

post-9630-1170995971_thumb.jpg

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yeah thats the hardest part about catching catfish is that they are the garbage disposals of the water and you never know what they will bite on to. I've been hooked on them since I was twelve and I had to wrap my legs around a tree to keep him from pulling me ino the pond and I loved it, lol.

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I fish for them often with my spinning outfit, I like to use chicken liver in a toe of some pantyhose, and spray it with a lil WD40, it works wonders!!!

 

 

 

Dustin

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I usually use hot dogs on my spinning rod. The blue catfish around here love them around here, lol.

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A lot of baitfisherman catch them near the dams on my local river. These guys have been catching a lot of fish on half of a hotdog. I tied up a hot dog fly and caught one last summer. :hyst:

I have also caught them by accident while fishing for Carp during the mulberry hatch. I got him on whitlock's mulberry carp bug. The squirrels and birds knock down tons of berries and the fish go nuts. All kinds of fish hang out under the mulberry trees.

I always say that if someone else or something else is tossing food in the water, it's not chumming, it's a hatch.

 

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Most catfish are opportunistic feeders and will take almost any kind of fly. Dark colored woolybuggers, size 6 to 10, work well. I got a couple of nice ones last year on a size 10 woolyworm with a bright orange butt (we call it an "Allieworm," but that's another story.) A large gold ribbed hare's ear nymph has been know to work as well. One guy I know caught a blue cat on a popper, although that's a bit unusual. Generally, you need to get the fly down 3 to 4 feet, but a 20" cat is a blast on a 6-wt!

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I fish for them in the spring when the minnows are running. and also anytime there is a good rain in the summer. I don't realy worry about a specific pattern. big is better i guess. wolly buggers and streamers ect. The key is to target them when they are activly hunting. when the minnows are schooling you can fish a minnow pattern below the school. cats will be down close to the bottem grabing whatever the smallies, gar, crappie, ect drop. And after a good rain (even durring the rain) in the hot summer months the cats will move up to the pool below the nearest damb/riffle and activly seek out anything that swims. I have caught some nice ones at those times while swinging a steamer. a black bugger would be pretty visible in that type of water.

 

Have fun man. those cats can fight well. they will test your rig. tigh lines,

 

chris

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on the delaware river we use stonefly drys when they hatch at night..the channel cats feed on the surface...we use glow in the dark floatant so we can see the take..sometimes theres hundreds in one eddy...

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The catfishing used to be real good around here, but between the river pollution and the "cheating" fisherman around here the fish are dying off or just leaving the area. They still allow people to electrically shock the water to get knock the fish out around here. I wish our Wildlife Commision would do something about that, but we'll just have to wait and see.

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The catfishing used to be real good around here, but between the river pollution and the "cheating" fisherman around here the fish are dying off or just leaving the area. They still allow people to electrically shock the water to get knock the fish out around here. I wish our Wildlife Commision would do something about that, but we'll just have to wait and see.

 

Are you serious: Do-it-yourself electrofishing? If so, is this to help the Commission clean out "rough" fish, or just to get fish for the pan? It would be pretty to manage a fishery with that going on.

 

Bill

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on the delaware river we use stonefly drys when they hatch at night..the channel cats feed on the surface...we use glow in the dark floatant so we can see the take..sometimes theres hundreds in one eddy...

 

 

that sounds like a good time sandflyx. We have a huge mayflie hatch in july and i have heard the carp/cats splashing around at night, I will deffinantly have to give that approach a try this year.

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They electrofish around here for control purposes, but I just read that they were possibly going to change this very soon, on account that it is working a little too good.

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The catfishing used to be real good around here, but between the river pollution and the "cheating" fisherman around here the fish are dying off or just leaving the area. They still allow people to electrically shock the water to get knock the fish out around here. I wish our Wildlife Commision would do something about that, but we'll just have to wait and see.

 

Dude, I didn't know that was legal in North Carolina!!!! I would have never come home without any fish for Mama to cook when I was a kid if I knew THAT!! :wallbash:

 

 

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