Searching for New Cats

Searching for New Cats

By Brad Durick

You are headed to new catfish waters? A river you may never have fished before or maybe it has been ages since you were there. You could also be just trying to work out a new section of your home water to have more options for a quick outing. Whatever your plan, you need to know a few things about the water you plan to fish and something about the fish that call it home. Above all other topics this may be one of the most important when it comes to catfishing because you have to find the fish or should I say structure, before you can catch them.

Pre-Trip Preparation
You have probably read many other articles about the pre-trip research and preparation. Since they are so important you are going to have to read them again. Take these steps into consideration when looking for information.

First, in the information age find some local web sites and or social media sites with like-minded anglers in the area. WARNING: this is less productive than it used to be because people feel too much intel is being given out. You can still find much less specific information that is very useful or find a contact who is willing to message with you behind the scenes some answers to your questions.

These people can prove to be huge assets as they will give you that inside scoop on baits, locations, and presentations. Don’t expect too many location details, but they can point you in the right direction on what to look for.

Bait shops are sometimes great places to get reports. Some shops keep good tabs on the catfishing while others not so much. It is worth asking when picking up your supplies or worth a call to see what is happening in the area. They tend to visit with a lot of people in a week so this can be a great start. The only downside of bait shop intel is you are relying on third hand info. I am not saying it is necessarily bad info but the bait shop employee is telling you what he heard from someone else. How reliable this info is rests in how reliable the person telling the bait shop employee is. Nonetheless, asking a person at the bait shop is always a good idea.

The last thing you should do before you leave your house is get on Google Earth and take a look at the river or lake you want to learn about. Use the satellite photos to find what looks to be the best water that you can access. Find some of the locations that should hold fish to develop a starting point to your trip. This will at least give you an idea of where to go. Sometimes the images are older or in high or low water conditions that are different from the current time so keep that in mind.

The Dry Run
This is part of the process that most of us don’t do. This could be one of the most beneficial parts of learning new water. Just taking the boat out or walking down the river and looking at it. See how the banks look, watch the water, check out the snag piles and other structures. Make mental notes as you go, for places to try later.

Most of us start this process and see a spot that is just too “fishy” to resist and have to stop and fish it. Once we catch a fish it’s over. The drive by mission is dead and that recon will take much longer to collect than it would have.

This may sound like a dumb idea but it has caught me a lot of fish over the years by simply driving the river and looking for certain things. On my home river, I like to take a drive in the fall when the water is low and look at the banks, take notes and see the holes where cottonwood trees once stood. This way when the spring floods hit I have a handle on all the structure that is now flooded and holding fish.

The same thing holds true with looking at water. If you look at what is in the water and what the water is telling you. You get an idea of what is going on underneath. A river is a river and a catfish is a catfish so you just need to understand what they want based on the time of year and find that structure or current while you are information gathering. Sounds simple huh? Well it can be if you understand how to break down water.

Utilizing Electronics
While you are on your dry run it is a great time to utilize your electronics. Depending what electronics you have will determine how much information you can extract efficiently. If you only have a 2D depth finder you will just drive along looking at the banks and water. They will point you in the right direction to look at your depth finder. Take the time to find the holes and the break lines as you pass. Find the transition lines and structures that may be advantageous to a hunting catfish.

If you have some newer electronics equipped with side imaging such as a Humminbird 797 and newer to the Helix models you can drive over the structure and see what is actually in the holes and how it is situated. This will allow you to dissect an area of river that takes a whole season with 2D sonar in a few minutes.

If you are fortunate enough to have access to the new Humminbirds you may have Autochart Live. This will allow you to make a usable map at the same time you are running the side imaging. Now when you come back to the spot you have a detailed map and the knowledge of how the structure is set in the spot and how the fish will relate to it.

This technology can make everything so much easier to work new water without ever having been there. I have been able to break down new holes in rivers in as little as five minutes and know where in the hole the fish are holding.

Break Down Sections
By now you are thinking this sounds like a lot of time just to go fishing. It doesn’t have to be on your recon mission. The best way to break down new water is break it into sections. When I work out new sections I don’t try to do more than about two miles per day. I want to fish some too and remember what I just looked at while on my dry run.

Breaking the water into sections will help you learn more details about the water faster. They say 80-percent of fish are in 20-percent of the water. We have to find that 20-percent. Breaking it into sections can help you speed up this process.

Understand the Fish
Breaking down new water with your electronics, a dry run, and pregame research are all important but if you do not understand catfish and how they change and react to certain conditions during certain times of the year you may be doing all the research in vain.

This could be put under the pre-trip research section. Good off-season study is to read up on what makes fish tick. What they do and where they go. In-Fisherman has an array of great books to teach you this with Catfish Fever being my favorite. That gets you started but then what?
Over the past years I have done extensive research on the topic to stay on fish all season long. I have been able to put all this research into two books. (Insert shameless plug here) Cracking the Channel Catfish Code (2013) is the in-depth how and why catfish do what they do. My newest book Advanced Catfishing Made Easy (2016) is a small sized book that is broken down by region, season and conditions. You figure out the season the fish are in and with a little research on water and weather conditions you can simply turn to the page and get the starting points for patterning the catfish. I like to call it a pick your own adventure catfish book. It is meant to be kept with you to refer to as you are fishing and the conditions are changing. Both books are available on Amazon or can be ordered direct at www.redrivercatfish.com.

Making it Happen
You now know how to plan your trip to new water or expand on your home water. You know the steps to take to understand the catfish, do the research and break down the structure to learn the new waters and be successful.

There still is no better teacher than time on the water. All the research, reading and planning you do before you go is good but time on the water and trying things to fine tune it are the best teacher one can have. Once you experience success you can move and try to recreate the pattern for the rest of your trip. Breaking down the water will become faster and you will be more effective on your trip.