As the weather begins to cool in the fall, catfish transition from summer patterns to winter, but finding them is not always easy. Try one of these strategies to get in on the action.
For many catfish anglers, chasing catfish in the fall is a welcome relief from what they’ve had to endure over the last few months.
First off, a large percentage of the recreational traffic is gone. If you’re fishing a big river like the Tenn-Tom or the Mississippi, water levels are generally stable, (considering a tropical storm hasn’t passed through the area) and patterns are more predictable. Lake fishermen on Pickwick, Ross Barnett and a host of other smaller lakes and reservoirs can also be reassured that the spawn is finally a thing of the past and catfish are migrating, ever so slowly, from summer patterns and haunts to where they will eventually spend the winter.
The good news with catfish on the move is that sooner or later, the two of you will cross paths, but that might be easier said than done. Whether you are after channel catfish, Arkansas blues, or whatever you prefer to call a flathead catfish, there are a few strategies to keep in mind that will help you narrow the gap and increase your chances of hooking up with Mr. Whiskers this fall.
Check deep holes
Trophy catfish guide Bob Crosby said deep holes in the Mississippi River are beacons for blue catfish year-round. Catfish use deep holes for different reasons including staging between winter and summer patterns.
“We fish deep holes in the summer and spring and many times of the year, but it’s usually current that catfish are orienting to,” Crosby said. “Current means food, so catfish will be working the currents and they move around a lot more.”
The guide said the deep holes he is looking for in cooling water have a much softer current than what he would target other times of the year. As catfish become more lethargic, their metabolisms tend to slow down, but they will still feed if an opportunity they can’t pass up comes by.
“In warmer weather I will use my sonar and graph a deep hole looking for trees, current breaks, and primarily baitfish,” he said. “I will look for fish too, but I know that catfish will be moving in and out a lot in warm water.
“In colder water, I don’t fish a deep hole unless I see that it has catfish in it. Most likely the ones I mark are the ones I’m going to catch so I’m going to pay close attention to the fish and where they are holding in that hole.”
Crosby said he may fan cast rods when catfish are on the prowl during warmer water periods, but in cold water, he is more inclined to position his boat right over the top of the fish and present his baits straight down to them.
Crosby said he favors lower water levels for colder water fishing. Lower water means less current, which makes for better fishing as catfish won’t fight much current, preferring instead to move somewhere else.
When setting up on a trophy catfish hole in the Mississippi River, boat positioning is critical. Not too many years ago, there would be a discussion about where to anchor and how much rope to use, but since he obtained a trolling motor with a positioning sensor that holds the boat in place automatically via the trolling motor, he has discarded most of his anchors.
“Anchoring in the Mississippi River is tough business and probably the most dangerous thing you can do,” he said. “I have a MinnKota trolling motor that has a feature called “spot-lock” and it will hold the boat in position with a lot less hassle and backache than fooling with ropes and anchors.”
Another option for moving short distances around the hole is by using the jog feature on his trolling motor to fish with baits suspended directly beneath the boat.
Trolling reservoirs
Without a doubt, the best potential for catching trophy sized catfish lies within the boundaries of several rivers that border the state, those waters that have plenty of current that helps dictate both the movements and feeding habits of catfish.
However, for reservoir catfishing, current is rarely available except for in the headwaters of a reservoir or in some extreme such as flooding or drawdown conditions. Even then, the current is more subtle.
To make up for the lack of moving water, reservoir catters will troll for catfish to cover more ground than just picking out anchored spots. Cat’n Around guide David Magness from Tunica said it’s one of the most productive ways to fish a reservoir.
“We call it draggin’, but in other parts of the country they just call it trolling or drifting, even though you’re relying on the trolling motor to move the boat forward,” Magness said. “Average speed is about .5 or maybe even .7 miles per hour as the water warms up. Some folks just use flatlines, but in the last couple of years, we’ve started using planer boards to move the lines out away from the boat.”
Magness explained that the basic set up involves 6 – 8 rods stationed around the rear gunnels and stern of the boat. His bait rig revolves around a three-way swivel. One eye is tied to the main line while the second eye has a 3 – 4 foot section of 50-pound mono leader terminated with an 8/0 hook.
A split crappie float, pegged at both ends, is attached to the leader about 4 – 6 inches from the hook. The float helps float the bait off the bottom and clear of snags. He attaches a specially made slinky weight to the third eye to weight the rig and crawl over the bottom.
“You want to look for humps, ledges, holes, and channels, the same kind of stuff you would anchor up on to catfish, but you’re just going to troll through them,” Magness said. “I especially like a ledge. I can troll on top or get down in the channel.”
To find such areas, Magness relies on a Navionics Platinum Hot Spot map integrated with his sonar unit mapping system. He will get on a contour line and use that as a road map.
Magness said his top bait choice is shad, and preferably any bait that he can catch from the lake he is fishing. Surprisingly, catfish can be picky about their food, especially during the brief post-spawn period, and home-grown baits are hard for them to turn down.
Trolling at .5 to .7 miles per hour, he keeps an eye on his electronics to search for bottom contours like holes, ditches and ledges to troll across as well as bottom structure like stumps, laydown timber and rock piles.
Bumping in the rivers
Back in the rivers, bumping has become the go-to strategy for finding and catching catfish because, like trolling in a reservoir, it helps the angler cover more water. Catfish tournament angler Nick Dimino said bumping is his go-to strategy, especially in the fall.
“Bumping is a really natural presentation. It mimics food washing down current where catfish will lay facing upstream, waiting for something to come by,” Dimino said. “To imitate this, what you do is nose your boat into the current and let the current drift you back, then using the trolling motor, you troll into the current, enough to cut your drift speed in half. The boat is going slower than the current, so the bait is also going slower down river.”
At first blush, bumping might seem to be a vertical presentation, but this is not the case. Bumping is very similar to trolling the bottom, only in reverse. To get the right angle in the presentation, the angler lets out more and more line until the bait is nearly sliding across the bottom with the current at a much slower speed than trolling with the current.
“You want to disengage the reel to be in free spool and you just keep letting line out until you get the rig back behind the boat,” Dimino said. “You can tell by the feel of the rod that you are in a comfortable spot because it will feel like the rig is only moving 5 or 6 inches at a time.
“Bumping is not a multiple rod tactic. With my partner Adam and I in the boat, we fish one rod each, but it will definitely put some big catfish in the boat.”
Obviously, it takes developing a “feel” for the tactic to be effective.
“When you hit that sweet spot, that’s where you want to be,” he said. “You drop the rig to the bottom and you pick it up, as soon as you set it down, you hit the bottom. You only want to lift the weight up about 3 or 4 inches, just enough to get off the bottom and let the current to sweep it along and then set it back down. That sort of scoots the bait along the bottom in a very natural manner.”
If all goes well, that bait will scoot right by the nose of a trophy catfish, then it’s time to get the net.
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