Catfishing Article
Little STRESS
BIG Cats
Text and photos by Rick Olsen, Leavenworth
If you’ve ever dreamed of catching giant catfish on rod and reel, the Missouri River provides the opportunity. The author shows how to make such an adventure both productive and peaceful.
The sky was clear, moon bright, and the stars glistened on the peaceful river water. Not a soul in sight, just the blue herons, beavers, coyotes and the usual nightlife on the Missouri River. It was about 10 p.m., and I was getting ready to bed down for the night. Suddenly, one of my poles slammed to the water, the line stripping off my reel. I knew I had a 50-pound plus catfish on my line. When the fight was over, I landed a 62-pound flathead, one of many large cats caught in the Missouri River.
I love to fish for big cats, but I do not have the patience to sit and wait. Therefore, I’ve devised a system that allows me to enjoy the great Kansas outdoors and not have to sit tied to my fishing poles.
Ever wonder how many waking hours an angler has to sit to catch a big cat? Probably too many hours for most fishermen. But for those who salivate every time they see a picture of someone with a big cat, I have some good news. Maybe you can’t sit still long enough to catch a record catfish, but you don’t have to. Take if from a guy who does not like to sit still for every long, but loves to fish long hours to catch big cats.
“I love to fish, but I don’t have the patience to sit and wait,” a friend recently said.
“Why are you sitting hostage in a boat and staring at your fishing poles?” I replied. I will tell you the best way to catch large cats, and enjoy every moment doing it. One disclaimer — there are catmen and women all over the United States who have different tactics and are even more successful than I. I’m simply going to outline what has worked for me.
When I prepare to fish, I also prepare to camp. There are many items a camper needs to camp and fish for large catfish. This is not supposed to be a miserable trip. Take your favorite food, snacks, drink, fire starting materials, camping utensils, and a very comfortable sleeping bag with a fluffy pillow. And of course, insect repellent. Believe it or not, between the insect repellent and the campfire, most of the mosquitoes stay away. Camping with a campfire on the mighty Missouri River at night is one of the most beautiful and serene experiences you will ever have.
In addition to prepping for your trip, you need to prep the family. It is quite helpful to have a loving, supportive, understanding wife to let me go out all night once a week. (I think she figures there are worse activities for men than fishing.) I tell my wife, “Since no one is crazy enough to be on the river at night, I could not get into trouble even if I wanted to.”
It has been said, “If it can go wrong in the day, it will go wronger at night.” Fishing at night takes practice, and each time you go out, you learn something more you need to for a non-stressful event. Be prepared to have lots of lessons learned. A word of caution: Be prepared to be chased off of the water when a storm pops up. Check the weather, and be careful on any body of water at night.
Fishing on the Missouri River at night can be serene but also dangerous, and this is no place to take the kids. When there is no moon or stars to help light the sky, it is even darker. A radiant fire and a good head lamp will allow you to see. I also ensure that the entire camp site is in very close proximity to my boat. My whole camp site is no larger than 20 feet in circumference. The less you travel on the ground, the less you are going to trip over something in the dark.
Back up batteries (or fuel) for every device that produces light. How do you find anything in the dark? Put everything back in its rightful place. If everything has a specific place, you’ll know where it is even in the dark. After a few fishing trips, you won’t even need much of a light to find common items.
I use South Bend -foot—inch medium/heavy action fishing rods, an Okuma Corrida BR 90 Reel, 80 pound test Power Pro braided line, size 2 barrel swivel and a 3- to 5-ounce egg sinker. My hook of choice is the Eagle Circle C, size 5/0. My line attached to the swivel is approximately 12-18 inches long, but with two hooks, creating a trotline effect. There is a drawback to two hooks — you double your chances of snags. I only use double hooks when I know the body of water I am fishing is flat, with very few snags. Otherwise, one hook will do the job.
What has really keeps my sanity is bells on my poles. I use Rod & Bobs Beacon Bell Light Stick combo. I tape it on the end of my pole with a waterproof adhesive and electrical tape, so I don’t have to sit and stare at poles all night long. If I get a bite, I know immediately no matter what I am doing, which is usually something else, like eating, reading, tending the fire or just admiring creation and all of its beauty. I sometimes use my bait clickers (an accessory on the reel to make if free spool). If you use them, you must be near enough to hear the line pulled down the river. It only takes a few seconds to have 30-50 yards of line spooled off your reel, especially as a big cat heads to the channel.
I use a bass boat, with 90 horsepower motor. However, this loud motor should only be used to get within 100 or 200 yards of your camping/fishing spot. On the Missouri, I overshoot my fishing spot by 200 yards up river, and then silently float down, guided by my trolling motor. I attribute part of my success in catching large catfish to this technique of entering their domain undetected. A quiet trolling motor is essential. Research has shown that when boaters come into a fishing area, some catfish move away from the area. Some say catfish will return, but research shows otherwise. In scientific studies, catfish were rated very high on the order of intelligence. How do you think those cats got to be 50-80 pounds?
I use a Minn Kota, 80-pound thrust trolling motor that gets me on a rock dike or shoreline with very little noise. Once you are there, practice what we in the military call “noise discipline.” No loud noises or vibrations. Quietly get your poles out and set up camp. (Just remember there is a two-pole limit in Kansas, three with a three-pole permit.) Since you will be here for the next 12 hours, make sure you bring those comforts mentioned earlier. Remember, there is no substitute for time on the water. Fishing for big cats takes time to be successful. And if you love coffee, there is not better way to wake up than with a hot cup of coffee at sunrise.
I fish off either rock dykes or shallow areas just outside of deep holes, but I prefer shallow flats. I have a new areas where the river is only 4-8 feet deep and very flat. You can check the bottom with a depth finder. Big blues and flatheads will run these flats at night looking for a meal. You have to get used to fishing shallow at night. You can fish deep, but it’s like fishing a spot where the fish have left for the evening. Flat, shallow areas are magnets for large catfish.
It is important to cover all of the areas. If you are on a rock dyke, put one pole at the down-water side of the dyke, and one pole at up-water side, and one pole off the front tip of the dyke, but far down river in the seam between the current and still water. I no longer ignore the front (up-current side) of a rock dyke. I pulled in a 62-pound blue cat a few years ago off the up-current side. The water was only about 4 feet deep. When you cast out your lines, the seams where the current meets still water are also excellent places to fish.
Although many of my catfishing brothers swear by cut bait, I have never been successful using it. I only use live, large bait fish such as green sunfish, drum, bluegill, goldfish, and even smaller catfish. I also believe that the most important pole in my boat is not my catfishing poles but my small bait pole. Using night crawlers, I keep out a small bait pole in high hopes of catching bait fish that are local to the water I am fishing. Nothing beats a 1-pound drum or a small channel catfish. The biggest cat I ever caught, which was 75 pounds, bit on a 6-inch channel cat in only 3-4 feet of water.
The good thing about using large bait is that it will discourage the smaller catfish from biting. Who wants to waste time catching 2- to 5-pound catfish when 30-pounders and larger are what you really want? From about 7 p.m. until I bed down for the night, I change bait every hour, on the hour. If the bait is still alive and very active, I keep it on the hook, but I also put on a fresh one. Yes, now I have two fish on one hook. I keep both hooks supplied with fresh bait. That way, if one bait fish is taken, falls off or dies, I have a back-up.
Start baiting the hook with your smallest bait fish, and save your biggest bait for later. Another important aspect of baiting is where you hook the bait. I know conventional wisdom states you hook the bait fish behind the dorsal fin. I believe that is too much shock and pain for the fish and causes it to die quicker. I hook all of my fish just under the mouth. Do not hook the fish through both lips because the fish cannot breathe and will die on the hook. Many of my 4- to 6-inch bait fish stay fully alive from 11 p.m. until 6 a.m.
Once I get to my fishing spot, I pull the fish from the live well and place them in the river in a very large nylon bait keeper. You want to put them in a container in the river that offers plenty of room. If they are crowded and oxygen deprived, they will die. Nothing is worse than fishing all night with dead bait.
Since I am a night angler, I start about 6 p.m. and fish until about 11 p.m., when I pull out my largest and most lively bait fish. I bait both hooks on each pole, throw out the lines, and go to sleep. Hopefully, I get a wakeup call from ringing bells and stripping line. What a great way to wake up.
What if there are no bells? My motto is, “Worst night of fishing is still the best night of camping.” Catching big cats take persistence, patience, and time on the water. Many of my biggest fish have come in the predawn hours. Do not ignore this time. Some studies show that catfish are most active in the predawn hours.
It’s not easy. I fish one night a week, and I have gone weeks with no activity on my poles. But there have also been times like the summer of 2009. In five weeks, I hauled in a good number of 60-, 50-, and 40-pounders. But as with most things in life, if you are persistent, study the body of water you are fishing, study the science and art of catching large cats, and apply wisdom and judgment, you will eventually be successful.
To be honest, I could greatly improve my odds if I got up at about 3 a.m. and re-baited my lines. To have fresh bait in those predawn hours will certainly bring in more fish. Better yet, stay awake all night and change bait every hour. But I need my beauty sleep.
Take some life advice from a fisherman who has had his share of failures: the second half of June and the first part of July in 2009 turned out to be the best fishing I have ever encountered, at least for blue catfish. But this fortune did not come with luck. It was honed over several times of trial and error.
As mentioned earlier, I fish all night once a week and have sat for weeks on end without a bite. At first I blamed it on the fish, the bait, or the river in general. But there is a lesson in life here. When things don’t turn out the way you think they should, the first place you look is in the mirror. What am I doing wrong? Where can I improve? Who has the right answers for me? That pretty well goes for anything in life. Instead of shooting blame at things outside of ourselves, try looking inward and asking yourself, “What can I do to improve this situation and who is best able to help me? After I realized the problem was me, I got to work. I read everything I could find on catching big cats. In fact, I started a collection of books, magazines, and internet articles. In addition, I sought out reputable fisherman.
Now I have to ask, “Where have all the flathead gone?” The river seems to be teaming with blue catfish, yet landing a decent-sized flathead has been difficult. For three years, I have landed some big cats, but all have been blues. My last large flathead was more than three years ago. When I speak to fisherman who fished this river years ago, they say it used to be the opposite. I don’t have an answer, perhaps our local fisheries biologist does. No matter — as long as the fish are big, fight like champs, bend my pole in half and strip my line, I’m not picky.
Parting Advice:
Find someone who can help you learn about catching big catfish. My mentor is George Hildebrandt of Leavenworth. Getting to know an experienced river angler will pay off big some starry night when the pole is slammed, the line starts peeling, and you have a catch of a lifetime!
Dr. Rick Olsen is a retired Army officer and teaches military leadership at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, For Leavenworth. He put the finishing touches on this article while deploying to Afghanistan. He can be contacted at richard.olsen1@us.army.mil.