# Catfishing



## tips n tails (Mar 2, 2011)

Last few nights spread over the last week, Ive been trying my luck for catfish with no luck. Ive yet to catch a flathead! I did however manage to hook into a very large long nose gar, somewhere in the 3 ft range. I was using live bream and the hook manage to get him on the outside of its nose/mouth. Ive been fishing bends or places that seem to have submerged logs. Im hoping some of the more experienced catfish anglers on here will chime in. 

Ive been using 3 poles, 2 rigged with live bream and the 3rd with shrimp or liver. During the night my bream poles will double over....fish on...I ll reel down set the hook...I think..start reeling and fish off...:whistling:.....Im thinking more gar probably. Is it pretty common when catfishing to have gar hit them? 

Also what to look for? I try to find structure on the FF in the main river and set up but that doesnt seem to be producing. If it helps Im fishing yellow river, Ive ran into ALOT of night/catfisher man out there at night/dusk. The other night I was coming down the river 2430 and was going past the memorial..anchor/post and saw some guys fishing with a camp fire on the sandy bank there. 

Any thoughts or comments to what I might do to increase my odds of catching a flathead will be much appreciated.


----------



## skiff89_jr (Apr 1, 2011)

Yeah gars will become you're worst enemy. You can usually tell if it's a hat because they will bring you bait almost to the top of the water. Were you using circle hooks?


----------



## tips n tails (Mar 2, 2011)

Yes I was using circle hooks, for them once my rod doubles over I just start reeling, but what was happening I'd have the fish fight....reel zzzing.... Then slack WTH. So I up graded to some 3/0 hooks that I was attempting to set the hook on. Them damn gar put up one hell of a fight. My first night I caught a stripped bass on a live bream!!! Crazy as hell for what would a stripped bass be doing in the place I was. I have flathead on my bucket list of fish species I havnt caught. Where your fishing Skiff do you look for top water log jams??? How do you determine the place your fishing is a "likely" place for flatheads to be? How long do you sit beofre moving on to the next likely spot?

All hail the Cathunter! Please shed some light if you will.


----------



## CatHunter (Dec 31, 2008)

tips n tails said:


> Yes I was using circle hooks, for them once my rod doubles over I just start reeling, but what was happening I'd have the fish fight....reel zzzing.... Then slack WTH. So I up graded to some 3/0 hooks that I was attempting to set the hook on. Them damn gar put up one hell of a fight. My first night I caught a stripped bass on a live bream!!! Crazy as hell for what would a stripped bass be doing in the place I was. I have flathead on my bucket list of fish species I havnt caught. Where your fishing Skiff do you look for top water log jams??? How do you determine the place your fishing is a "likely" place for flatheads to be? How long do you sit beofre moving on to the next likely spot?
> 
> All hail the Cathunter! Please shed some light if you will.


You can be doing every thing right and still strike out so don't get discouraged about it, we fished yellow river a few nights ago and only landed a few flatheads but lost alot of really big fish,we even had a rod broken before we could get it out of the holster.

This time of year for some reason the Flatheads seem to short strike alot, where as threw the rest of the year they will in-hail a bait to the gut.

This time of year dumb your baits down, by that I mean use small bream and even large river minnows from Jim's fish camp, cut bait also works for this time of year.

Don't waste time on a spot, give it about a hour then move on if you haven't got a bite. 

If you are looking for surface structure find log jams that are old and brown, don't waste time on new fallen trees, a good side sonar is great for finding under water structure. Don't bother trying to anchor just find a nice spot and tie off to the bank, bow and stern to keep from swinging and hanging up.

Try different locations as well, alot of guys will tell you to fish deep holes and bends, well that's good but not always the case. These fish take shelter in the day time in these holes and bends then move into shallow water to feed at night on sunfish sleeping. Some of my best fish have come from fishing the head of sand bars in 5 feet of water next to a deep hole. You will also encounter a lot of bluecats on these sand bars.

As for tackle talk I wont really go into that to much on here for tournament reasons, but I will say circle hooks are a waste of time, they are designed for vertical fishing not parallel fishing. Besides its fun to set the hook as hard as you can:thumbsup:


----------



## tips n tails (Mar 2, 2011)

I appreciate the help Cathunter. I ll be giving it a go again later this week. When catching bait (bream) that is in shallow water around stumps would it be safe to say with there being abundance of bait in the area cats will key in on that or does that even matter?


----------



## CatHunter (Dec 31, 2008)

tips n tails said:


> I appreciate the help Cathunter. I ll be giving it a go again later this week. When catching bait (bream) that is in shallow water around stumps would it be safe to say with there being abundance of bait in the area cats will key in on that or does that even matter?


It sure does matter, any place that bream may be living, as the sun sets the Flatheads will be closing in on them. You will hear them smashing bait fish on the banks this time of year.


----------



## jcoss15 (Oct 11, 2010)

Interesting points cathunter about fishing shallow bars... I've been kinda of stuck in a rut about fishing deep bends around cover for flatheads with not to much luck this year ,but like you mention they will move up into the shallows at night looking for bream...so I think next time on yellow I'm gonna try some shallow spots off sandbars and some straightaways on the river.


----------



## CatHunter (Dec 31, 2008)

Just remember to don't set up on the sand bars right away, wait until after 10pm, they will work the deep holes and edges until they feel ready to move up onto the Flats. Anchor at the head of the sand bar and get a good spread with your rods covering from deep to shallow.


----------



## tips n tails (Mar 2, 2011)

Thanks Cathunter, hopefully in a day or two I ll have a successful report.


----------



## jcoss15 (Oct 11, 2010)

tips n tails said:


> Yes I was using circle hooks, for them once my rod doubles over I just start reeling, but what was happening I'd have the fish fight....reel zzzing.... Then slack WTH. So I up graded to some 3/0 hooks that I was attempting to set the hook on. Them damn gar put up one hell of a fight. My first night I caught a stripped bass on a live bream!!! Crazy as hell for what would a stripped bass be doing in the place I was. I have flathead on my bucket list of fish species I havnt caught. Where your fishing Skiff do you look for top water log jams??? How do you determine the place your fishing is a "likely" place for flatheads to be? How long do you sit beofre moving on to the next likely spot?
> 
> All hail the Cathunter! Please shed some light if you will.


When you get a good bite and you fight it for a second and then your line goes slack 9 out of 10 times its a gar...when a flathead takes it, hes got it for good...


----------



## firespan1 (Sep 7, 2011)

Alligator snapping turtles at night,if the pole loads up slow and steady ,then lets go, ---snapping turtles.


----------



## CatHunter (Dec 31, 2008)

Lots of gars they can be a big nuisance but also exiting to think your actually getting catfish bites and keep you pumped up to make it threw the night.


----------



## jcoss15 (Oct 11, 2010)

CatHunter said:


> Lots of gars they can be a big nuisance but also exiting to think your actually getting catfish bites and keep you pumped up to make it threw the night.


Yea we catch gar all the time in the summer just for the fun of it....steel leader good treble hook and a long thin strip of cut bait. You hang a 15-20 lber and the fights on.


----------



## skiff89_jr (Apr 1, 2011)

lol Amen to that cathunter


----------

