I was just presented with the opportunity to fish a private pond stocked with catfish. These fish were stocked about 10 years ago and were about 15" at that time. They have never seen a flyline in their life.
My question(s): I have never FF for cats before, will they hit fly’s? If so, what type, terrestrials? others? And what time of day is best for their feeding patterns? early vs. late? warm vs. cool weather?
Thanks in advance for the advise.
Official Flyfishing gear tester. Liscense # OUC012
Dear countrygent,
I put a couple of channel cats in my pond when I lived in NY a few years ago.
I forgot about them until one day I was slowly stripping a wooly bugger for bass when a 25 inch catfish inhaled the fly. I only ever caught 2 more, but both of them had grown considerably since they were stocked at 10" of length.
I honestly don’t think the fly selection matters much so long as it looks like a food item of sufficient size for the catties. Slowly working streamers should do just fine, especially if you soak your wooly buggers overnight in chicken liver juice. 
Regards,
Tim Murphy
[This message has been edited by Tim Murphy (edited 30 June 2005).]
bread-fly. seriously. tie a few bread colored glo-bug style flies and toss 'em out there.
Now that’s a stinky bugger’s trick I never thought of. LOL I understand that, depending on food supply, they can double in size rather quickly.
I’ve fished some ponds where they feed the catfish on a regular basis, and the fish wouldn’t hit anything else–they just waited for the food. I’m talking some HUGE fish. So I tied some spun deer hair on some heavy salmon egg type hooks and trimmed it down to the size of a pellet.
I caught as many as I wanted, and even caught a 30# blue on my 7 wt. Sort of cheating but it’s all they’d hit. Otherwise, I agree that a woolly bugger is a good place to start, and I always seem to do better at dusk or at night.
We use to bait the trot-lines with live leeches. Also used leeches to catch them on spinning gear. Sounds like a woolly bugger to me. 
LadyFisher, Publisher of
FAOL
I’ve caught a lot of channel cat on flys. Most all on wooly buggers.
Fish the shadows.
Joe
my biggest channel last year was caught while fishing the Crappie Candy fly fishing for crappies. Over five lbs. I’ve caught cats on small nymphs, marooskas and wooly buggers, but nothing beats a black Gill Buster jigged slowly along the bottom. Those little things catch fish! All of this said, I can’t remember ever targeting channel cats on a fly. They’ve all been tremendous surprises. JGW
If the catfish have not been fed pellets, I agree with using a black wolly bugger as your go-to fly. I have also enjoyed excellent success with an all black minnow pattern tied like a baby bunker using icelandic sheep hair. I usually tie them about 6-7 inches long and have caught some very nice channle cats on this pattern. Fish it by letting it sink for about 10 seconds and retreive it in long even strips.
Good luck, they’re a blast on a fly rod and while they’re not aerobatic, they make most other fresh water game fish seem like light weights.
Jim Smith
I agree with most here, the cats I’ve caught are always a “mistake” while fishing farm ponds for bass and gills. Caught one last weekend on a craw daddy fly. Remember cats in a natural setting are opportunists, so match the local hatch: craw daddys, large nymphs like dragon flys, clauser minnows, etc. Target the shallows at dusk. Once hooked, be ready for a battle, and a couple long runs.