I’ve been having some fun lately catching longear, bluegills and greenies on a rig using a Flyrod Hula Popper with a #8 Prince Nymph as a dropper. The last two times I’ve been out I’ve had great success with gills and longears on the nymph and green sunfish on the popper, but twice now I’ve hooked large channel catfish on the nymph. I lost the first one but landed the second one which measured 24 inches. Talk about an unexpected pleasure on a light rod. Has this happened to anyone else? I’ve caught many channel cats using larger bass patterns (especially on Clousers and crayfish patterns) but it seems strange that such a large warmwater fish would hit such a small fly. That’s what I love about fishing - you just never know what’s going to happen.
Catfish eat what’s available. They’re not that picky. I catch them on shad and minnow patterns all the time, below the dam.
Gigmaster, yeah I know. I used to do the same years ago with live or dead bait of all kinds, but just never heard much about them hitting flies, especially trout size patterns. I always thought they fed primarily by smell and vibration. I understand they have very poor eyesight.
Actually, Channel Catfish (Ictaluris Punctatis), have very keen eyesight, and excellent color-vision. However, it is pale compared to their incredible sense of smell and taste…so acute that they can detect concentrations as little as 1 part per million. This is comparable to a sharks sense of smell, except that sharks detect mostly blood. Catfish can not only detect, but analyze and identify most smells, including many outside the range of human detection.
If you want to have some great fun sometime, tie a shad or minnow pattern on an 8 wt rod, spray it with Shad, or Minnow Smelly Jelly, and cast up into the gates at a spillway. Let it drift, and hang-on! I catch as many Cats this way as I do with live-bait. Another way is to tie on a large treble hook, and dip it into Danny King’s Punch Bait. Then, cast it up towards the gates and let it drift. Cats on fly gear is my version of Big-Game fishing.
I’ve actually been concentrating on channel cat this summer, and I’ve found that I have better luck in lake situations on smaller flies than I do larger ones (rivers and tailwaters seem to be the opposite). One of the keys for me has been finding areas that hold lots of very small green sunfish, then fish the edges of these areas. Turns out places I wouldn’t usually have fished heavily for gills and such because there’s only small ones was exactly where I need to be for cats. Another myth: cats only feed at night. Most of my biggest fish (up to 29") have come in the middle of the afternoon on 90+ degree days.
Right on! I fairly frequently catch channel catfish from local ponds while I’m fishing for bluegills with boa yarn leeches. I catch them day or night. I’ve found they are more active during the day within a day or two of a good rain. My biggest was caught last year during my lunch hour…31"!
Thanks guys for all the helpful information. I didn’t realize they had excellent vision - their eyes are so small compared to other fish. Not sure where I heard they had very poor vision. Dave, that 31 incher must have been a lot of fun. My personal best is 28" on a bugger and I didn’t think I was ever going to land her with a light bamboo rod and 4 lb tippet (I was fishing for bluegills). Between catfish and carp, there should be plenty of action for warm water flyfishers during the so-called dog days fo summer, you just need to find the right water.
Normally I don’t see the catfish before I catch it…but a couple years back I was fishing a public pond during my lunch-hour, and saw a catfish rummaging nose-down on the bottom at the edge of a weed/algae line. I dropped a boa yarn leech down to the bottom near it, and it quickly turned and attacked it. FISH ON! :o)
My biggest Cat on a fly rod has been a 14 pound Flathead Cat, caught at the spillway behind Lake Alatoona in Ga. I caught her on an 8 wt tipped with a Pugliisi Shad, last year.
Now that you’ve done catfish, next you should try Snakeheads on a fly rod. They are AWESOME!
Thankfully, we don’t have any of those around here…yet.
Do I remember you catching snakehead around Rome, GA? HNT is planning a trip to NW GA soon, that might put him in the right area if I remember correctly.
Gigmaster - Fortunately, we don’t have snakeheads here yet either (I think). But just in case they do make the trip someday, what kind of patterns do you catch them on? Also, while I’ve never caught a flathead on a fly rod and did catch a 12" bullhead one time on an orange flash fly attached to an in-line spinner.
I have caught 2 cats on the fly. I caught the first one on a #4 olive/green epoxy head double bunny on a 7wt rod (i saw backing!!!). The second one was caught on a #10 sinking spider on a 2wt rod. In both cases I was not specifically targeting catfish. Both were on private ponds. In both cases I thought I had caught a big bass. From my highly limited knowledge of getting cats on the fly, it appears that they are rather opportunistic. If the fly is in front of them they will probably eat it whether it is a nymph, streamer, spider, etc.
wackaloo–
I’ve seen them show preferences in color and size ocassionally, but I don’t know that I’ve ever seen them actually outright refuse an opportunity, so I think you’re pretty much right.
I’ve seen them follow my fly in, with their nose pretty much touching the back end of the fly. I think they were “tasting” the fly before chomping it. Unfortunately, when I’ve seen them do that, they didn’t bite.
I caught this one a week or so ago on a 3/0 Deceiver tied to imitate a small crappie. It’s 35" and 17 lbs. I’ve been catching them for three decades or better , mostly on large flies to imitate the local forage. I first chased them in a reservoir in New Jersey where they fed on herring. Big silver and white streamers fished from my johnboat worked there. Occasionally I’ve caught them on smaller flies, but never larger than 3 or 4 lbs. The larger ones are very predatory and seem to prefer large meals. I’ve ogled the ones Stu Thompson catches on his DDH leech, but his experience is a little different than ones I’ve had farther south. The one in the pic came from a backwater off the Hudson River, I also have good fishing for them on Lake Champlain.
Charlie
That had to pull the kinks out of your leader. Nice fish, probably a lot of folks down here would be surprised at a NY’er fishing for cats.
NICE fish, Charlie!! Wow, 3/0! Well, why not?
I’ve noticed that their mouths totally change as they grow. Small cats have fairly small, soft mouths, the but big ones have larger, broader mouths with thick bony jaws. Their diets DO change. They are opportunistic, but the bigger ones definitly have predatory tendencies.
Dave, that’s a great point. I kick myself for leaving barbs sometimes. It’s a battle getting them out of a cat if they get caught behind that bony lip. They’re jaws start to approach the capacity of largemouths. . Any cat is great on a fly, no matter the size. They’re neat crittetrs.
Charlie
Charlie, if you don’t mind, maybe post some pictures of the fly patterns you’ve tied and fish for catfish, for our enjoyment?
One of the pictures in the latest Catch Magazine (www.catchmagazine.net) issue is of a guy that caught a decent flathead catfish on fly gear. THAT would be a serious battle!