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Catfish on the fly

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I would like to try to target catfish. I have never caught one on a fly. We have some big flatheads among others in my area. Has anyone targeted cats and if so what did you use and some tips?

 

Kevin

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Never caught one on a fly. I know they eat bluegills suckers and Chubs. Biggest to date (40" Allegheny river about 1am) was on a 4 or 5 inch chub sitting on the bottom for a hour or two. I imagine you'd catch loads of incidentals before getting a Flathead.

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Never caught one on a fly. I know they eat bluegills suckers and Chubs. Biggest to date (40" Allegheny river about 1am) was on a 4 or 5 inch chub sitting on the bottom for a hour or two. I imagine you'd catch loads of incidentals before getting a Flathead.

What part of the Allegheny was that. It might be a spot for me to look into? I do like live bait from time to time.

 

Kevin

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I've caught several on a fly, but I wasn't targeting them. Fishing for sunfish, as usual, and caught a catfish.

The only constant among them, they all took a bottom bouncing presentation. All cats are opportunist, and will eat anything that attracts their attention. Since scent is a big portion of their "world" ... smelly baits often work, especially on smaller catfish.

 

Big catfish become more predatory. Scavenging is insufficient to fill a big cat's belly. So, the same large flies you'd use for bass or pike will take a big catfish. However, you MUST make them weedless. Catfish tend to hug heavy lay downs and thick weed beds for ambush points.

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I've caught cats several times while bass fishing with crankbaits. Never while fly fishing for bass. I have caught many in clear ponds sight fishing. Drop just about anything that looks edible in front of a rooting or cruising catfish and they'll crush it.

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Never caught one on a fly. I know they eat bluegills suckers and Chubs. Biggest to date (40" Allegheny river about 1am) was on a 4 or 5 inch chub sitting on the bottom for a hour or two. I imagine you'd catch loads of incidentals before getting a Flathead.

What part of the Allegheny was that. It might be a spot for me to look into? I do like live bait from time to time.

 

Kevin

below lock 3, from a boat. I get them from shore as well though. But myself and lots of others catch them from the wv border on the mon, to the Ohio border on the Ohio River, up to at least lock 5 on the Allegheny. June has always been my best month for them.

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Sail cats and ordinary hard heads in the salt are a nuisance as much as anything (although sail cats can get up to about five or six pounds...). In the backcountry of the Everglades we have a two catfish rule - catch two of them and it's time to move...

 

They're pretty aggressive and will hit anything that comes near - lures, flies, etc, provided you're not stripping too fast. It's been many years since I fished for freshwater cats -but I'd look for moving water with a slow sinking intermediate line and fish dark colored big streamers across current and down - right along the bottom if I were looking for a big cat and I'd expect any bites to come as the fly swung slowly across the current. I'd be working the fly just fast enough to keep it from snagging just like we do dredging for big tarpon in rivers...

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I've gotten into the sail cays plenty of times in SW Florida. Funny how your perspective changes. Here in SW PA if I had a day on channel catfish like I've had with those pesky sail cats I wouldn't quit bragging about it and have the neighbors all over for a fish fry! Somehow it's an incredible disappointment catching a dozen 3lb catfish one after the other in the salt, but would be amazing locally.

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I've always found a dark woolybugger to work well for cats but I've also had good luck with a squirrel leach. I've fished for them mostly in ponds. Sometimes under a strike indicator, other times by slow stripping. If there are cats in the water, they aren't hard to entice into biting. It does have to be on, or near, the bottom to be effective, though.

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I've caught several channel cats in the Susq on flies from scraping the bottom all the way to the surface. The first time one took a deer hair bug from the surface and made that first run, (25"), it was a bit confusing.

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It's pretty routine to catch channel cats while smallmouth fishing. Flatheads are a different story. I accidentally catch channels all the time. Like fisherboy says, they can be very agreeable to almost any streamer. I've never accidentally caught a flathead even though they are in the same areas I fish. I don't go fishing for channels but I do go fishing for flatheads once or twice a year. I've never caught a flathead on anything artificial although I must admit I've never really fished for them with artificials. Live sunnies, small pond bullhead catfish and suckers are the preferred bait for flatheads. I've never even heard of anybody catching flatheads on a fly but it's also not tried that often by flathead fishermen. Use your fly rod to catch some sunnies to use with your spinning gear for the flatheads. For channels a bugger works as does a clouser or anything else that works for smallmouth.

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It's pretty routine to catch channel cats while smallmouth fishing. Flatheads are a different story. I accidentally catch channels all the time. Like fisherboy says, they can be very agreeable to almost any streamer. I've never accidentally caught a flathead even though they are in the same areas I fish. I don't go fishing for channels but I do go fishing for flatheads once or twice a year. I've never caught a flathead on anything artificial although I must admit I've never really fished for them with artificials. Live sunnies, small pond bullhead catfish and suckers are the preferred bait for flatheads. I've never even heard of anybody catching flatheads on a fly but it's also not tried that often by flathead fishermen. Use your fly rod to catch some sunnies to use with your spinning gear for the flatheads. For channels a bugger works as does a clouser or anything else that works for smallmouth.

Decades ago used to catch catfish smallie fishing with Clouser crayfish flies, where a spritz of bass-crayfish juice would up the catch rate & on Thunder Creek minnow patterns out of the Potomac & Shenandoah Rivers. Saltwater & freshwater Clouser minnows usually gets catfish if other fish don't get to the fly first.

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