# Would like to learn about how others catfish first hand.



## afellure12

Hi, so I am new to the forum, but to new to fishing. I have been fishing/been somewhat of an outdoors man since I could hold a rod:F However in my 17 or so years or so of fishing the largest catfish I have brought in was 15 lbs. Now don't get me wrong, that was awesome and I was/am proud of that. However, I would like to learn from someone who pulls in fish larger than that throughout the year. I think firsthand experience is much more usefull than reading about how others fish. If anybody would like to simply just go out fishing let me know. I am in the Columbus but, I would be willing to drive somewhere. Most of my cat experience is on Hoover Resevoir, O'Shaughnessey, and once or twice a year the Ohio River around the Gallia county area. I enjoy catching the small ones as much as the larger ones, but come on, who doesn't want a true fish story?


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## Salmonid

if your looking for fish over 15 lbs, that pretty much rules out channel cats so youll have to look for waters holding good populations of Flatheads. In the Columbus area that really leaves just 1 fishery, the Scioto river south of Rt 70. 

Next thing to qualify is are you shore fishing or have access to a boat? if shore fishing for flatheads the rigs are pretty standard, forked stick, deep pool, live bait like a chub or a small bluegill and cast out with a bigger j hook or a circle hook dpending on preference, most have a 3 way or a slip sinker rig so when the fish inhales the bait, he swims off and doesnt feel the weight of the sinker. 

If using a boat, Id get some quality rod holders and set up off shore casting towards shore structures like wood or rip rap banks. 

Good luck, Im a channel cat guys who boat fishes so Im not who you are really looking for. 

Salmonid


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## afellure12

I mostly do shore fishing, but I have access to a small boat too. What do you mean by 3 way? Thanks Salmonid!


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## katfish

I believe by first hand advice you are searching for some experience with someone who catches big catfish. If you are just looking for advice OGF has lots of it.

If you were looking to fish with experienced catmen I thought I would offer some tips.

1. Develope relationships with catmen. Don't just show up and expect to get taken to someones secret fishing spot and have everything explained. You can learn a lot in Winter asking questions and learning rigging and such.

2. If you are invited to fish be gracious. First is not to reveal locations or to go back with families and friends to spots with trophy fish. Do your share of the work and bear your part of expenses. Show up at appointed times to fish.
Few people will delay or cancel their fishing because of your inconsiderate timing.


Understand that catching trophy fish is a more difficult task and have lots of patience. Big cats are rare and it often takes time for all factors to come together.










Trophy catmen have a strong sense of CPR and rarely teach anyone until after they are satisfied their student will not abuse the knowledge gained to degrade the fishery. Most trophy catmen go beyond "legal" and insist on ethical practices and behavior. Keep in mind the teacher has little to gain but risks his own success by showing others.











Keep asking questions and fish as often as you can. Keep notes if you wish to compare ideas from year to year to learn what works where you fish for big cats.

Have patience. Working out all the variables for trophy fish can take years and as weather and environments change so do the habits of fish.


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## jjshbetz11

Wow that answer was awesome. I am by no way a "big" cat slayer, but I can relate to the things that were just posted. Am learning quickly that there is a lot of technique to good sized cat fishing. Reminds me of steelhead fishing, not the techniques, but the perpetration and scouting and Keeping hot spots tight lipped


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## afellure12

Wow, thankyou for that reply Katfish! That is very helpfull for putting things into perspective.
In my opinion reading advice is very helpful, and I have been making my way through the OGF pages trying to pick up what I can. However, that can only go so far, reading about a floating rig, or seing pics of a blood knot are one thing, but experienced hands... well that's a whole nother fish so to speak. For me that goes much further.
I would never "expect" someone to just give up a secret spot, or explain then and there things that may have taken years, if not generations to figure out. That takes away from it all, as with many complex, or specialized skills, I recognize that you need to know your ABC's before you write a sentence. I am more than willing to work, that's part of the fun of fishing.
As far as CPR goes (had to google that acronym) I whole heartedly agree. Taking the apex animals out of an ecosystem will clearly throw off what is sometimes already a delicate balance. The only fish I would keep, would be common ones in a smaller or average size range for eating.
By the way, nice pics Katfish!


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## carpslayer

keep looking for a fishing budd / mentor afellure12. There are good people who r willing and ready to help someone who want to learn a new style fishing! whether they admit it or not someone helped them along the way. theyve just turned into fishing snobs..


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## BuckeyeFishinNut

If you live in Columbus and wanna catch nice size cats, get away from Hoover and O'Shay. You will catch plenty of channels but if you wanna get into flatties take Salmonids advice and hit the Scioto south of 70. 

I lived in Columbus for 9 years and fished flatheads pretty hard in that area. There are a lot of nice fish down that way but you gotta know what to look for. You want deeper holes with structure, preferably wood, nice lively bait (we used to use 6-10" suckers), and the equipment to catch them (we used musky rods with 50 lb braid).

I spent a lot of time just walking the bank looking for potentially good spots, I wouldn't even fish I would just scout. I did some research on areas that flatheads like then I went looking. Good cat holes won't be given away by someone.


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## Salmonid

LOL, I have been involved heavily with many of the serious groups over the years, Catfish, trout, musky, bass, smallies etc and I can tell you without a doubt, the catfish guys are, by far, the most tight lipped folks out there. 

I tournament fish so If Im taking someone out who is totally a new-bie, Im not worried about them seeing and noticing all the little things I do to make a differece but if your a serious cat guy, Ill deliberately cut out a lot of things and yup, we will still catch fish but Im certainly not showing you my tourny rigs, my bait prep, my gps marks on the FF, nor will I use hardly any of my electronics. Like Katfish said, tourney or even serious guys who have done all there homework only have info to loose and not getting anything in return.

If your ever in Dayton area and wanna catch channels, give a me a shout 

salmonid


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## katfish

I don't want anyone to misunderstand, I do take people and show them 
how to catch trophy fish. What I wanted to stress is that it takes a while
for me to decide if a fella is the type of guy who will be ethical and
not publish secrets and locations over the internet.










I normally want to assure myself the catman is mature enough not to 
claim to be an expert himself to impress his friends and then take them 
where I have showed him big flathead. Some of my spots have taken 
years to locate and prove to hold big flathead.










I trusted these three but I think Misfit and Shortdrift forgot the way to 
spots the next day










I stressed patience and I think Shortdrift fished 3 or 4 years before
landing this beauty.










It only took Chuck 2 days.










This boy only fished with me 3 nights and got a nice one.










This boy fished with his dad and I since he was 4 years old. When
he announced he thought he could handle flathead we got him this
dandy. Columbus paper did an article on his big fish and a radio 
station offered him loads of prizes to tell them where he caught it.
He refused and his parents and I got quite a chuckle but in truth 
we were proud of him.










Kayla was the smallest person (37 pounds) that I ever saw that 
was determined to reel in a big flathead. When she was 4 she insisted
on a spinning reel because push button reels were for kids

I can suggest you contact Cripple Creek tackle at Tappan lake. I am 
sure someone would partner up with you for a tournament held each 
month and give you pointers. The lake has plenty of trophy flathead
as well as catmen capable of catching them.


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## BBO Ohio

Very good info. I'm only 19 but it's taken me almost 8 years to learn everything I need to know on catfishing but I still don't know it all. I'm still on channel catfish but slowly working towards shovels next. I've been fortunate enough to have some one much older and wiser than me about catfishing. It's really payed off as now as I've started to put it together I've been catching some nice fish the last year or so. So now I'm working on bigger cats and I feel like I did when I first started channel catfishing but this time I know to watch and learn and be respectful to the trade. 


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## BBO Ohio

Here's just a few of the dandy channels I've pulled in the last couple of years. When you start to doing it and watching learning everything you can, it's a very fun fish to go after 


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## afellure12

Also, I should mention, when I go catfishing, my experience is almost exclusively with night time fishing. That's just beause that is what my dad always said was best, never catfished with anyone else, and rarely see others out at night.


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## Salmonid

as far as channels go, I definately would say that my best luck is durring daylight hrs...We get them all day long, bright sun or not. When tourneys start switching to nighttime for summer hrs, I never get the numbers or size I do durring day tourneys. Flatheads would be a different story...

Salmonid


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## afellure12

I hanve never really fished below 70 on the Scioto, but I have set turtle lines there, ans pulled in a couple 10 to 15 lb catfish incidentals once in a while. There are some big snappers in that area, and some really nice softshell turtles too.


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## afellure12

Went fishing last night with Mr.A, had a few nice bites, but only pulled in a 3 pound channel cat. Mr.A caught a couple bass. I think tomorrow I am going to go try to scout some of the Scioto below 70 as suggested by several members now. Just learned about circle hooks, going to buy a few(Walmart?) and try them out soon. I'd love to go fishing with others if anyone is interested. Planning on heading out Wednesday, and Saturday.


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## Parttime

I got my circle hooks off eBay. They had the best price and I couldn't find the size I wanted. I run 10/0 for flatties. 


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## afellure12

Ended up going fishing Saturday night with Mr.A again. We were up at Hoover this time. Went to a spot I have always at least caught something in. When I got there I saw some guys setting and checking several dozen jug lines. The entire time we were there we didnot get a single decent hit. I had never been to that spot before and not caught something. He and I decided to go elsewhere for a bit. Later I came back and the jug cheers were just pulling their boat out of the water, so I went over to talk to them. Ound out they had been jugging the same area since March! Also, the idiots didn't understand why they weren't catching much anymore... Now, don't get me wrong, I have nothing against jugging, I have done it. But be smart about it! Don't fish out the entire population in an area! Move around!


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## afellure12

Went up to Charles Mill Resevoir last night to do some catting with my father and brother. I caught the only fish of the night, a 3lb channel on a 4 1/2 inch bluegill. I was quite surprised a fish that small took a bait that large. Also of note, that was my first catch on a circle hook, as well as my first fish on my bait casting reel.


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## afellure12

So, if I wanted to go fishing in the Scioto, how would I know whether I was looking at a deep pool just by looking at it? Darker water? Is that enough to tell? Can it be just a deep area (like upstream of a low head dam), or should it be sort of like a pit with shallower water around it to classify as a pool?


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## pendog66

afellure12 said:


> So, if I wanted to go fishing in the Scioto, how would I know whether I was looking at a deep pool just by looking at it? Darker water? Is that enough to tell? Can it be just a deep area (like upstream of a low head dam), or should it be sort of like a pit with shallower water around it to classify as a pool?


take a rod with you and cast out just a sinker


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## Vince™

This is how I measure depth with a marker float. A bobber will work just as well.


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## afellure12

Cool! I like that Vince!


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## afellure12

So, another question, I know a leader is used so the line is less visible, but why not just make your line all leader so to speak?


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## jjshbetz11

A leader is also used as a breaking point so you don't loose your whole setup in a snag.


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## ducky152000

afellure12 said:


> So, another question, I know a leader is used so the line is less visible, but why not just make your line all leader so to speak?


I rarely use a leader but when I do I just use the same line as the main line, I would use a smaller pound test leader in the river when i used to fish in snagy areas so I didn't loose my sinker, but as for sight I use solar green and i have yet to notice a difference than using a dark green. I don't believe Flathead become line shy.


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## afellure12

ducky152000 said:


> I rarely use a leader but when I do I just use the same line as the main line, I would use a smaller pound test leader in the river when i used to fish in snagy areas so I didn't loose my sinker, but as for sight I use solar green and i have yet to notice a difference than using a dark green. I don't believe Flathead become line shy.


So, that would be in a situation using a 3-way sinker?


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## afellure12

So, kahle or circle hook?


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## jjshbetz11

I would suggest a slip sinker setup with a circle hook


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## afellure12

On this site (http://www.learntocatchcatfish.com/bait-clicker-catfishing) the guy says not to use a clicker when using a circle hook, but does not explain why. Any ideas?


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## afellure12

A few pics I neglected to put up. Nothing big, but fun times still.


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## afellure12

Had a chance to get in the Scioto with a boat that has sonar this week. The deepest spot I was able to find in the area we were was around 18 feet. Was not set up for catfish at the time but set out a few quickly modified setups. Had a few bites but do dice. Dad says he used to catch tons of mudcat out of that area. Thinking of fishing a few of those areas with a Carolina rig.


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## golive

Not using your clicker lets the circle hook do it's job. As the fish turns after grabbing your bait the pressure from loading up the rod will put set the hook in the corner of it's mouth. Thats why you don't set the hook with circles. Because the hook sets itself. Takes a while to get use to not setting the hook but my hookup ratio is way better than before circles. Kahle's work almost the same. Golive.


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