# Do Catfish jump?



## Specktur (Jun 10, 2009)

I like the Doobie Brothers, but every time I hear "Black Water" and the line "catfish are jumping" I want to scream, "Catfish don't jump!" But, maybe I am wrong about that. I have never seen a catfish jump, at least not any that I have caught. I thought of this again tonight when I hauled in this 22-incher on a yellow-belly and olive square bill. What is going on this year?. I have caught four catfish and a carp on lures fishing for, I thought, smallmouth. Here is another song; "The Green Leaves of Summer" has the lyric, "When the catfish were jumpin' as high as the sky." Are these southern catfish they are singing about?


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## Frankie G (Aug 18, 2014)

Yes, I've seen channel cats jump and feed on small fish towards the surface. I've also caught quite a few catfish over the years while bass fishing with cranks and swim baits.


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## Deazl666 (Mar 30, 2012)

Nice catch!!! I had one jump and grab a bait that I just pulled out of the water.


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## FishThis (Sep 2, 2005)

I caught a channel cat once that jumped a good two feet out of the water, I remember that like it was yesterday!!!


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## maxpower (Jul 2, 2008)

I haven't experienced much in the way of jumping catfish, but about this time every year, I catch a few on lures. Most often (for me), it's after the shad hatch in the above-ground reservoirs, and they seem to be following the schools of shad fry around. Last night, I got three small CC's on jigs fishing an above-ground res. in NW Ohio.


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## fastwater (Apr 1, 2014)

Haven't seen many jump but have caught a mess of cats on cranks while bass fishing. Especially this time of year when the water temp. gets up there, there's more oxygen at lower levels and I'm usually using larger deep diving cranks burning them to get them as deep as possible.


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## bare naked (May 1, 2015)

Have seen them jump many times in Sandusky Bay.


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## percidaeben (Jan 15, 2010)

Channels be crazy! Watch out wading at night!


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## BMustang (Jul 27, 2004)

Catching channel cats on plastics and other plugs is very commonplace in Tennessee River Chain lakes in the early spring. We easily catch a half-dozen on Kalin Grubs each time out. Drum are right up there with them. When you get a hit and set the hook at Pickwick there is no guarantee whatever that it is a bass.


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## Specktur (Jun 10, 2009)

An update on the channel cat season. I went out this morning from 6:30-9:00 and caught 9 fish, two of them channel cats, one was 21 inches. All caught on the same setup; a Rapala floating minnow with a 1/8-0z splitshot about 18" up the line. I went with this to fish a deep area, where I struck out, but it was good every place else, pools above and below riffles. The cat didn't jump, but it did put up a fight.


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## BuckeyeCatDaddy (Sep 10, 2013)

Night fishing.. I have had a few large channels jump and kick just like largemouth!


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## yugrac (Aug 24, 2014)

I have never fished for catfish in 50 years of fishing, but I have caught plenty of channel cats bass fishing, my son says I should target catfish, maybe then I would catch more bass. As far as jumping, I have never had one do what I would call "jump" but they will sometimes roll around on top of the water tangle and nick my line, they are fighters, but I still hate the slimy grunting things.


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## tedfy (Jul 14, 2016)

Nice catch!


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## MassillonBuckeye (May 3, 2010)

Great song


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## Flannel_Carp (Apr 7, 2014)

I swear I saw one breach most of it's body length out of the corner of my last Saturday while fishing below a lowhead. Found it strange, but don't see why it wouldn't be possible. Caught a channel on a squarebill that day too...


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## Saugeyefisher (Jul 19, 2010)

Alot of times I (and others) mistake catfish for saugeye blowing up on shad
in areas the shad are packed.
Ive had them jump straight out of the water on the hook set and in the middle of a fight.
There main food source(where available) is shad,live shad. And like almost every other species at one time or
another(yes even carp) are opportunistic feeders. I catch more carp in the the winter with swims an sticks then you can imagine. Same with catfish but year around with them.
If you go out to buckeye lake now you will see channel cats busting shad on the surface,especially with the amount of small shad hanging out around the surface now.
Last year inseptember at a local lake,there was a yellow water retaining fence that the wind was blowing against. It took us a few minutes to figure out what they wanted,but after we did it was game on. We each caught 15/20 nice size channel cats pitching a small crappie tube on a 1/64oz jig head up against the fence,an let it drop. They were blasting it on the fall. The catfish were herding shad against the fence,really small fresh hatched shad. We had a ball on that fence everytime the wind blew on it for a month. Even hit a few good crappies. Im suprised there was no saugeye taking advantage of it,im sure at times they were,we just didnt time it right.


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