Expert Advice on Fishing for Catfish

Expert Advice on Fishing for Catfish

By: Peter Egan

Peter Egan is a college graduate with a degree in Public Relations, and has a career working for EGAN Home Health and EGAN Hospice in a PR and Marketing capacity (he knows enough about health, medicine and nutrition to be a healthcare professional, however he does not have the credentials). His knowledge of health and medicine gives him a great advantage with regard to the public relations and marketing work he does.

He has worked in journalism, has coached a championship football team (6th-8th grade), and has a resume that's quite impressive to say the least. He knows a lot about a lot, and has been successful in virtually every endeavor he's ever undertaken. I'm sure there are exceptions, but can't think of any at the moment.

All that said, perhaps Peter's greatest passion in life is fishing. He really enjoys inshore saltwater and brackish water fishing. However because his residence is located alongside a major river (for St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana), he finds himself fishing for freshwater catfish more than any other species. Peter likes to fish for bass, however the Tchefuncte River has been under tremendous fishing pressure in the twelve years since the area's population more than tripled in a span of a few years.

Tchefuncte Bass and Gar Populations are Suffering

The bass seem to be feeling the added pressure more than the catfish. Gar (both alligator and spotted) have seen their population decimated from being a prevalent fish to being nearly nonexistent in under a decade. What's truly intriguing about this is that gar are not good fish to eat, but their dinosaur-like appearance has made them the target of an annual fishing rodeo specifically for gar, and that rodeo has fished them to near-extinction in the past decade.

Catfish Hold Their Own Amidst Added Fishing Pressure

Catfish however, while not as prevalent as they were pre-Katrina, still have a healthy enough population to justify spending time fishing for them. They (and bluegill/bream/sunfish, etc.) are the only species one can set out to catch and provided they know what they're doing, can conclude the trip with at a minimum enough fish to make a meal for an average-sized family. On a good day, it's not outside of the realm of possibility to catch 20-50 catfish weighing over 1.5 pounds (an arbitrary number I determined was the approximate size at which a fish is worth keeping for food as opposed to releasing at letting it grow).

Admittedly, other fishermen may not have the success I routinely experience. The reason for this is that I have had two decades to experiment with chumming techniques, and after 20 years I've mastered the science of it. There is always scent appealing to catfish in the water behind my house, and I've found over the years which scents the fish prefer and which scents travel best. In other words, I'm really good at chumming the waters for catfish.

The idea behind scent traveling is that the river's water-level is constantly rising and falling, and with it the water-level in the bayou along which my house exists roughly 125-150 feet from the main river. When the water level falls, the scent from my chum buckets goes into the main river along with the water. The fish in the main river that encounter the scent then follow it back to my back porch. This has resulted in me consolidating several hundred catfish that I can catch at any time right from my back porch.

Anyway, in the article appearing at PeterEgan.net, I go into detail about the various methods of fishing for catfish, and explain which water conditions and water bodies (think pond vs lake vs river) correspond to the fishing techniques available.

I broke catfishing into six primary categories:

1. Weighted bottom fishing.
2. Bottom fishing – no weight.
3. Just below the surface using a bobber to keep the bait at the desired depth.
4. Fishing near the bottom using a bobber or sliding cork to help identify when a strike occurs.
5. Jugs/Noodles/Trot-Lines
6. Noodling

Please read the article at PeterEgan.net entitled Fishing for Catfish to learn about each different technique, and learn when each should be used to maximize the effect of the technique relative to the conditions.

If you have any questions, I'll be happy to follow up. Please direct questions to the main article at PeterEgan.net in the form of comments and I will try to reply in as timely a manner as possible with the most accurate information I can obtain.

Learn to Chum for Catfish