Let's talk catfish

[lazydrifter]

It is cold and I want to think warm thoughts so I feel like talking about some good summertime fun...catfishing. Does anyone else do any catfishing from their kayaks or any other way for that matter? I did quite a bit last summer and a river flathead has proven to be my fish of a 1000 casts not a musky. I spent a lot of nights dredging the deep holes of the river and did not catch a single flathead not even a little one. I landed plenty of nice channel cats some pushing 30" and even landed my first yellow bullhead out of lake Moomaw around 12am on July 4th in one of the most peaceful settings I have ever experienced, hell I may have achieved full enlightenment that night.



There was one night that I can't get out of my mind and I know it haunts the other guy too. Me and my catfishing buddy took a guy out with us one night in my friend's spare whitewater boat. He puts a chicken liver on his brand new zebco catfish rod from wally world and damn if he did not hook into a monster on the first cast. That is when the excitement really began, he got tugged up and down about a 75 yard stretch of river. That fish would pull him down to the bridge and then right back up to the end of the upper rapids. He had it on for about 45 minutes and we could not budge the fish off the bottom one inch. The line was making some of the worst sounding music I had ever heard as he strained it to the limit, but as soon as he gained an inch that fish would take off and drag him around like a bobber. In the end the rod snapped at the joint and the line finally wore through near the hook from rubbing up against rocks. Even Jeremy Wade would of called that fish a river monster. I just wish I knew how big that fish was, but hopefully this summer I will find out first-hand.

Here is the video that got me hooked on chasing a New river flathead. It was taken on the New river, I am guessing around Peppers Ferry but the video comments do not say.

[rebelyaker]

The next time you want to go out cat fishin let me know, I haven't done that in a long long time. I love to do it all just not much on going by myself. The only fishing partner I had was my brother and his job wouldn't let him get out much. I'm sure glad I found this club, Its going to be an awesome year

[littleriveryak]

Never out of my kayak but we go and fish out of the boat for catfish, caught a few mud cats this past year nothing huge maybe 7-12 lbs and a few channels, I did catch one of the biggest channels I ever caught this year 30+ inches it was a monster thought it was a mud or a blue but when I got that thing up it was a channel. Live Bluegills are how you catch those Muds in the deep.

[hokiefisherman]

When I lived in Richmond, that's about all I would fish the river for. We caught them from 5-50lbs regularly, but you need the right gear in order to land a monster. Most times I would set 2-3 rods with live bluegill ranging in size from 3-9in. I would rig something similar to a carolina rig with a 1oz weight and an 8/0 circle hook. I'd hook the bluegills in their tail to cause them to swim down into rock crevices, where the flatheads hide. My catfish rods included reels with bait clickers, so I could let the fish take some line before I set the hook (it also allowed me to take a few naps during the lull in the action).

Flatheads are not like channels and blues that will eat just about anything you put in front of them. The prey heavily on live fish, and although you may get lucky with corn, chicken livers, etc. most of your luck will come on some form of live bait. During the summer in Richmond, when the fishing was good, we could sometimes get them to take soft plastics worked through their holes, but most all my fish came on live bluegills. You just have to be careful with the way the laws work. I've been told and understand it as such... If you catch the bluegills from the same body of water you plan on fishing that's fine, but you're unable to catch bluegill from a pond and transport them to a river to use as bait.

Hope this helps, I'd love to hit up the peppers ferry hole, I just haven't gotten a chance to with all the school work and research I've been a part of.

[lazydrifter]

Thanks for the advice Richmond is on my bucket list of places to go catfishing. I almost always hook my live bait below the dorsal fin, but will have to try hooking them in the tail. We typically throw a mix of cut bait, perch, shiners, and chicken livers to cover all of our basis. When I used to live out on Claytor lake I caught a ton of stripers on chicken livers and even caught one below the dam last summer. The dam, Peppers Ferry, and Bluff City are all good places to go with a kayak and paddle up or downstream from the launch for catfish. Someone told me they were doing a study on the catfish at Bluff City because some monsters hang around the celanese discharge. I can't wait for it to warm up and go hang out with on the river at night and wet a line.

[bigd7400]

Ive fished Kerr/buggs island for cats out of the kayak. I strongly recommend making the trip sometime its a blast. Kerr is a great lake without the hassle of lots of pleasure boat traffic.