Downriggers for Catfish?

The eight pound downrigger ball was holding my bait at the desired depth as the water rushed past at close to 4MPH. Suddenly a fish struck and the line released. After a good fight, the target of the exercise was brought over the gunwales. Not a coho, or a lake trout. Not even a walleye, but a big channel cat. Have I discovered a way to troll J-plugs in lake Eerie for monster cats? No, just an interesting new way to utilize existing equipment in the quest for better catfishing.

Often, the key to successful fishing is bait placement. I know that sounds a bit simple, but allow me obfuscate it by way of explanation. See, fish don't have mass transit systems, they don't have SUV's and they don't even have mountain bikes. They live in a much more three-dimensional world than we do, yet they have no elevators. For a fish to travel ten feet is often quite a journey; to travel thirty or fifty or more is like a road trip. I understand about seasonal migrations, and open water schooling fish, and all the other exceptions. My basic point is that to catch fish, the precision of your bait placement is often MUCH more important than the bait itself. I once heard a great axiom from a famous television fishing personality (Roland Martin, maybe?). Whoever it was said something to the effect that [in bass fishing] you can have the exact right lure, presented at the exact right way at the exact right time of day; but if its in the wrong spot you'll catch nothing. Conversely, if you put a spark plug directly in front of an active largemouth, he'll likely hit it.

As it turns out, a great deal of our fishing tackle, equipment, and techniques are geared toward the primary purpose of putting the bait where the fish are. Think about your boat, your fishing weights, your anchors, etc. The technique described here is a method that I developed to help precisely place baits for large river catfish.

I'll start by describing the problem. There is a very large snag on the edge of the main river channel. In this particular cast, it is an entire cottonwood tree, roots downstream, in 20-25 feet of water. After taking several very nice channel cats from the perimeter of the brush with more traditional methods, I started to probe deeper into the cover. My efforts yielded even bigger cats, but bait placement began to be a real issue. Estimating the location to drop a 2-ounce sinker so that the current would drift it to the right place before it settled in 25 feet of water proved to be a challenge that cost me many rigs. I increased the size of my weights almost to the point of being silly. That managed to increase the amount of money I lost every time I got hung up. And of course every time I snagged up, it had the possibility to disturb the fishing.

I finally hit on the solution, drawing back to my days of trolling downriggers on the St. Croix for midsummer pike and walleye. I didn't have a downrigger, and didn't want to go to the bother of purchasing cannon balls or anything. I did have some 6oz mushroom-type decoy anchors, and I had some clothespin-type releases for my planer boards (TEASER: look for an upcoming article on using planer boards to catch cats!). So I tied the 6oz weight directly to the end of the 80lbs Tuf-Line on one of my muskie rods, and set out for the snag.

When I got to the snag, I idled the boat into position directly over the location I wanted to fish. I lowered the weight (on the muskie rod) straight down to the bottom and left the reel in freespool, and placed the rod in a rodholder. I then moved the boat upstream to an anchor position. Once anchored, I tightened up the line to the 6oz weight and put the muskie rod back in its holder. Now, I had a 6oz anchor exactly where I wanted to place my bait; and I had a heavy line from my boat to that anchor. The line had about a 30 degree angle on it, coming more or less straight upstream. So now I rigged up a circle hook on one of my cat rods and clipped on a 1oz rubber-core about 18" up from the hook. Once baited with fresh cut-bait, I half-hitched a rubber band to the line about 12" above the rubber core, and half hitched the other end to a large snap swivel. I clipped the snap onto the 80lbs Tuf-line and sent the bait down to the waiting anchor.

Using this configuration, the bait slides down the heavy line to the anchor, and waits for the bite. The rubber band breaks when the fish is on (with circle hooks, he's generally already hooked). The fish is brought in, the hook rebaited, and sent down on a new snap swivel. I've literally caught half a dozen good sized cats without moving the weight, with all those snap swivels just piling up down there.

One of the problems associated with this technique is that the extra line in the water can be an obstacle when fighting big fish. Incidentally, I did try pinch-pad type downrigger releases, but found the rubber band approach to work better.

This method allows extremely accurate bait placement in difficult environments. It also shows how angling knowledge from multiple species in many different situations can be put into play to solve challenging technical problems. Since that first experiment, I've used downrigger balls up to 8 lbs to hold bait in specific locations. Varying weights, releases and boat positions gives a variety of presentation options.

Pike on Flathead Technique

I was on Lake Of The Woods this last Memorial Day weekend with a great group of guys from my church. We were primarily targeting walleyes, with a here-and-there side-bonus of pike. After we had some close encounters with WUS's (walleyes of unusual size), I ran into Baudette and picked up a dozen nice 5-8 inch sucker minnows. My plan was to rig them on smaller circle hooks and slowly drag bottom. You see, even on what may arguably be some of the finest walleye fishing in the US, I'm still just a catman at heart.

My plan didn't work so well on the walleyes, I just had smaller ones shredding my sucker without actually taking it. And others in the party were hooking up with nice fish with a simple jig and fathead minnow. So I abandoned the tactic, but left the suckers in the baitwell...just in case.

Towards evening, my self and my two boat partners were limited out on walleyes with several hours of daylight remaining, so Mark said we should go cast for some pike. For reasons I won't go into here, my bow-mount electric motor was unusable, so I decided to just let Mark and Malcom cast spoons and spinners while I stayed at the console, controlling a weedline drift with the outboard. Then I remembered the suckers and rigged up a classic (if downscaled) version of my favorite flathead float rig. A simple circle-hook under an inflated water balloon, with some sizable splitshot in between. I lip-hooked a 6" minnow and just flipped it out a ways from the boat.

While working the reed edge, a nice pike rolled on a buzzbait, but repeated casts with various lures yielded no results. As we drifted past, my boat mates shifted their attention to an upcoming turn in the weedline. I pitched back to the location that the pike rolled, as we drifted away from it. I set my rod down and backed the boat a few feet to control our drift. Within 30 seconds, my rod started to climb over the side of the boat. I looked up to see my balloon half submerged. Not knowing if I was on a weed, I simply started reeling with my rod tip pointed at the balloon. It quickly became apparent that there was a fish on. The circle hook had worked like a charm.

I was running a medium action rod, with 8 lbs test Trilene XL. There was no steel leader, the mono was tied directly to a 3/0 Gamakatsu circle hook. Luckily, as circle hooks are supposed to do, this particular toothy pike was hooked firmly in the corner of the mouth. When I got her in, she was a healthy, heavy 38 inches (about 17 lbs), my third biggest pike ever. As I released her, I reflected on how my catfish rigging experience had proven so useful in this situation. Often we get stuck in a rut as to how we think about certain fish species, when much of what we learn from one species can be applied to others.

If you've been following the articles this author has written, you doubtless have seen this at work in the fact that as an avid muskie and pike angler, I have brought insight and attitudes about those species into my catfishing arsenal. In this case, there was a bit of payback; with my catfishing skills helping to catch a nice pike.

I also wanted to include a picture of this incredibly nice 41 inch fish that one of my boat partners caught the next day. Mark was fishing with a lure designed and built by me when he hooked and landed this pig. Fifteen minutes before, he had hooked one that was a bit smaller, and we lost her and another of my original lures.

Cut Bait For Flatheads?

I was alone in the 14 foot jonboat on an overcast, muggy August morning. I had one rod on the front side of a piece of brush on an outside bend of the Minnesota River. The rod sported a rather large, 2 inch by 4 inch piece of sheephead fillet. The current was heavy, but the bait clicker on my Diawa could hold the bait still. Suddenly the rod jumped to life, sounding like a 16" Stihl chainsaw. I grabbed the rod and let the hook find home. A nice 25 lbs flathead...my first on cutbait.

As with any discussion regarding baits for catfish, this one is sure to arouse some controversies. Some die-hard flathead chasers may even consider it heresy. But my goal is to catch more and bigger catfish, not to follow convenstional wisdom. So let's explore the myth and reality of using cut-bait for flatheads.

The scene I've described was the first, but far from the last instance where I've caught decent flatheads on cut bait. Was I fishing for flatties? No. I was fishing for channels, but what a nice bonus. Since then, I have never intentionally set out to specifically catch flatheads on cut bait; but I have probably boated several dozen "accidentally" while fishing for channel cats. So, having spent alot more time targeting channel cats, I may well have caught more flatheads on cut bait than on live bait.

Everything I've read and heard about fishing for flatheads tells me that live bait is the only possible bait. Of course, the first flathead I ever caught was on a #5 mepps spinner...so there goes that wisdom. And, I've seen several decent flatties caught on a gob of nightcrawlers. I do believe that flatheads don't care much for "dead" offerings. So why do they slam cut bait with seeming regularity?

Over all the instances of flatheads on cutbait, there are some common circumstances. If we explore these commonalities, we may be able to discover an overall pattern. Here are some of the things I've noticed.

• It is always daylight when I catch flatheads on cutbait.
• The piece of cutbait is generally quite large, as I'm usually targeting big channel cats.
• The cut bait is generally "twitching fresh".
• It has always been on my favorite rig, with a swivel and a superline leader of 14-30".
• The water has always been relatively deep. In the area of the Minnesota where I usually fish, that means over 10 feet.
• There has always been fairly strong current.
• The majority have come on the top end of outside bends, with brush. The top end of outside bends offer the combination of deep water and strong current.

Let me hypothesize with regards to these parameters. I believe that in strong current, on the rig I've mentioned, the cut bait will often be quite active in the water. I've witnessed this by sometimes getting terribly twisted line when a swivel fails. I've never caught a flathead on cutbait in slack water, although conventional wisdom says that flatheads prefer slack water. I believe that the cutbait is almost acting like an artificial lure, spinning and flipping around. The flathead likely believes that it is a live baitfish.

I further believe that the flatheads spend the daylight hours in deeper water, near current; but in cover. That pretty much nails down the location I've presented...outside bend with cover. To further isolate the location, we move to the top end of the outside bend, where there is enough current to keep the cut bait "alive".

According to true scientific method, I must now test this hypothesis by attempting to reproduce the situation, and observing the results. Although I've never specifically targeted flatheads this way, I will do so in an attempt to prove the hypothesis. (I know, rough work but somebody has to do it :-) I will, of course post the findings of these experiments.

Wild Leeks

Here is John with a bundle of wild leeks (also called ramps) we harvested this morning. We're thinking next spring we're going to spend a week on the river, eating nothing but wild plants and channel cats! Well, it sure would be fun, anyway.

My thanks to the guy that was kind enough to show this nosey yankee what he had in his bag that day...I had no idea these leeks were around.

Still Off Topic

Maybe I should title this post "Back Country Foraging...Take 2". Well, it's that time of year. Hopefully I can get some slack. There are just so many wild edibles out there in April and May that I just can't help it.


This is John with some fiddleheads we harvested . Fiddleheads are the tender young shoots of the ostrich fern. They are quite delicious, tasting kind of like asparagus, with a hint of celery.

John cooked up some noodles and sauteed the fiddleheads and some fresh morels in butter and garlic. The only thing that would have made it better would have been some fried catfish fillets.

Morels In Minnesota

I know this isn't on-topic for this site, but I think most catfish-chasers also spend at least some time in the woods and fields in search of wild edibles. And none is probably more sought after than the wonderful morel mushroom.

I generally begin looking for morels in Minnesota about a week after Easter. The peak generally occurs around the last week in April. A good rule of thumb is that when the walleye bite slows down in pool 4, you may as well go after mushrooms. Weather patterns have some impact on peak, but you can generally expect to see them around the last week of April, into the first week in May.

A great way to spend a warm spring afternoon with the kids. My son John and my youngest daughter Dani Jo went with me on this expedition after morels. We had to work hard, getting way back into the thick stuff to find this mixed bag of black and yellow morels. They are running a bit small this year, but it has been dry for a couple of week.



Incidentally, I ran into a guy at one of my morel hotspots who was picking some kind of wild onion-like plant with an edible bulb. I think he said they were ramps, which is another name for wild leeks. I'm going to try to find some of those in a few days as well. I bet they fry up real nice with some morels and a couple of fresh sauger fillets...

Catfishing For The Impatient

When I was younger, catfishing had a certain flavor to it. There was an expected pace...a specific pattern. Basically, we would find a reasonable looking spot, cast out chicken livers and wait. And wait. And sometimes wait some more. In fact, in my childhood and through my teenage years I can't remember changing locations at all. It was a game of patience. When I rediscovered catfishing several years ago, all that changed.

If you've read my previous articles you'll know that I've spent most of my adult life (some fifteen plus years) chasing primarily large, toothy predators...northern pike and muskies. My primary tactics on these predators was to keep moving, covering water, searching for active fish. When I started catfishing again, this technique just kind of stuck with me. I believe it has enabled me to be a much better catfish angler than I ever was before.

Although I employ several tactics, the aggressive, run-and-gun method I learned while muskie hunting is generally my favored approach. Before I explain in detail the methodology, let me explain that I primarily fish mid-sized rivers with plenty of brush and cover. Also, I will almost always exclusively use fresh cut bait during this technique. I find cut bait the most consistent performer, and it removes one more variable from the equation. In other words, cut bait is my "search lure" of choice.

I'll start with a known good location and bait up. Set the rods and wait exactly fifteen minute. If there is no action, pull anchors and move. I literally use a wristwatch, and if I'm fishing with someone else, I'll generally announce the "deadline" for getting bit. Depending on the size or complexity of the cover or structure I'm fishing, I may just fish it for fifteen minutes and then reposition the baits or reposition the boat for another ten or fifteen minutes. It is important to stick to your timeline, and be disciplined. A morning can melt away quickly if you spend thirty minutes on four separate unproductive locations.

Here is a typical morning employing the run-and-gun for channel cats on a favorite local river:
5:00am - setup on known good current break/eddy location with brush.
5:15am - no runs, a couple of fickle hits. pull anchor and run up river.
5:25am - setup on front of rocky ledge with topside brush.
5:28am - sporadic run, missed fish.
5:35am - good run, boated 10lbs channel cat
5:40am - boated another 10 pounder
5:55 am - no hits in fifteen minutes, but had 3 decent hits and 2 fish in 30 minutes, so will stick it out for another 15 minutes.
6:10am - no further hits, pull anchor and move.
...

From this brief glimpse, you can get the picture. It helps to have the mindset of "eliminating" spots. I know most people would spend more time on the second spot after boating two decent cats in 30 minutes, but the technique as I've described it has put lots of big cats in my boat.

One of my favorite things to do in a local river is to go brush-hopping. I like this technique best when I'm fishing alone. This allows me to more easily fish with just one anchor, to more readily reposition the boat. In this version of the technique, I motor to the top end of a brushy shoreline; often one that has 15 or 20 good snags along a half-mile stretch of river. I set anchor and fish one rod from the stern of the boat. If you're wonderingwhy just one rod, Minnesota's arguably silly state law says you can only fish with one hook at a time in open water. Sometimes these snags are only really big enough for one bait anyway. I'll often only give these small, isolated snags just ten minutes to produce fish. Then I pull anchor and drift into position above the next snag downstream. This particular variation has produced some incredible catches from seemingly insignificant locations.

Although this technique is quite a bit more work than the average camp-out-all-night in one spot catfishing escapade, it has tremendous potential to produce large fish, and numbers of fish. It has the added benefit of helping you learn the river more quickly. Give it a try and don't be afraid to move the boat.

Unique Bait Placement Technique

Some years ago I discovered a very unique method for precise placement of very large flathead baits. The technique works equally well with other baits, and is really quite enjoyable.

The problem was, I was fishing with live sheephead that weighed over one pound. Oddly, none of my flathead rods are rated for 16oz. baits. I do have some very heavy rods I use, and I could kind of "toss" the poor baitfish out there; but my bait placement was quite inaccurate.

Then one day I was float fishing for flatheads, having a large sheephead suspended below an inflated balloon. In this method, I would typically position the boat directly upstream of the location I desired to fish, and simply float the bait into position. This technique can be quite productive, but it often takes several attempts to get the depth set correctly. On this particular day, I was fishing the upper branches of a large dead tree that had long ago fallen into the water. As I navigated the balloon into the branches, it hit a sharp stick and popped. I typically use a fairly large weight in this situation (something like 2-3 oz) so of course the whole rig sank immediately to the bottom. I figured it was in good position anyway, so I set my baitclicker and put down the rod to begin blowing up another balloon.

Within a couple of minutes, a flathead picked up that bait and was subsequently boated and released. As I reflected upon my good fortune of having accidentally gotten my bait on the bottom, in almost perfect placement, I began to wonder if there was a way to do this intentionally. Not every spot I fish has such a convenient balloon popper built in, you see. Then I hit upon it. My son has a Daisy Red Ryder BB gun; the kind with the single-cock lever action that holds like a hundred BB's in the tube outside the barrel. Using such a weapon, I could precisely control where the balloon is popped.

My next trip flathead fishing saw me toting this airgun along with an ample supply of balloons. The technique is basically to rig up as if you were simply going to cast into the location, and then attach an inflated balloon. Float the bait into the exact position you want to fish and then shoot the balloon with the BB gun. The balloon pops, the bait drops, and you are in the strike zone.

A few tips for using this technique:

1. Make sure your balloon is firmly inflated, an underinflated balloon is much harder to pop. I typically use water balloons.
2. If you're using a slip sinker, attach the balloon directly to the sinker using a rubber band. That way there will be no balloon residue on the line to interfere with slip sinker operation.
3. Be sure you comply with all local laws and regulations regarding the use of an air gun. In some places, even these innocuous little guns need to be cased during transport.
4. Have fun, my son loves to use this technique for obvious reasons.