Catfishing the Less Traveled

Catfishing the Less Traveled

By Brad Durick

Humans are creatures of habit and generally looking for the easy way of doing things. This goes with our lives and in many cases our fishing. I remember reading a catfishing book many years back when I was getting started and the author pointed out that many anglers don’t necessarily fish the best spots but rather the easiest spots to get to. In many cases the one that they can drive to or only have a short boat ride to.

Find a spot near a road where you can back the truck right down to the water set up your lines, crank up the tunes and sit back. The people who live by this are generally rewarded by poor or mediocre catches. These spots may or may not be good spots. More often than not whether you fish from the bank or a boat these easy to get to spots are good spots that are simply over fished.

Many anglers do not consider or realize that spots are not created equal. Each spot is unique in shape, size, current and even time of year. This is where some pattern study comes into play to figure out the best combination of structure elements to hold more fish.

There is an area on my home river that is about one mile from the boat landing. It has a deep cutout hole with a steep current seam and usually a snag in or near it. Many local anglers, myself included, have caught their personal best catfish in this area. This area is not a secret, it does hold big fish and it is very easy to get to. Because of all those attributes when the river is busy this spot is pointless to even bother fishing because there is a steady stream of boats coming in and out of it all day every day. On weekends it is common to see two or three boats in it at one time.

Back to the point of humans being creatures of habit. Many times, an angler will have the day of their lives on a spot or a couple spots. For the rest of their lives they will fish that spot or group of spots no matter what the conditions state. Most of the time they are the anglers complaining of poor fishing simply because they are fishing memories.

Get off the Beaten Path
This has been written many times before but it is also one of the biggest truths in fishing. This does not necessarily mean that you have to walk, drive or boat many miles to accomplish it. What is means is look at your structure and understand your patterns.

Making the big runs can get you into the waters less fished and on some of the best most overlooked structures. The willingness to run a river 10-15 miles with the boat or get out of the truck and walk through some challenging terrain can catch you lots of fish.

Back to my home waters for a moment with two examples from this past year. The flows were low and the fish were spread out. Local anglers were fishing the close waters and the community holes that had decent current on them. To avoid the people and find fresh fish I sacrificed some fishing time to make a big run in search of greener pastures. What we found was a series of smaller holes with a fast current over them. It was quickly clear to us that nobody had fished this area in quite some time. By the end of the day we had put together a great bag (figure of speech as the fish were released) and a successful trip.

Another time we were fishing an area that is a known community spot but with the use of Humminbird Side Imaging we were able to figure out that the fish were laying in a shallow water pattern. We were able to fish the same general area as all other anglers while at the same time fishing completely off the beaten path.

Work Smart Not Hard
Work smart not hard are words to live by and it is still astonishing as to how many anglers forget this lesson. Clearly going to an easy to get to spot is not hard versus driving 10 miles or walking a mile. It can be worth the drive or the walk if you have done your homework and have your research done as the time you spent getting to your location will be off set by the success you have at said location.

Going back to an earlier point. Even if you go to a community hole many times you can be successful by simply moving a few feet or yards to a different structure element. It can even be a further cast or a shorter cast to put you on a different pattern.

You would not believe how many times I have boated up to a general area near shore anglers (staying out of their way of course) and witnessed them casting halfway across the river dealing with snags and not catching fish. Meanwhile, we anchor next to shore and fish right off the shore with great success. We were simply fishing smart, not hard. This goes back to an observation that shore anglers always want to fish as close to the middle as they can cast and boat anglers sometimes could just as well be on the shore. It should be noted that sometimes current does not allow the bait to sit where it needs to be from shore and it is easier to place the baits shallow from a boat.

The lesson here is do a little homework, understand the basic patterns and be willing to put in a little extra effort. Get off the beaten path and fish smart not hard. You will see more success and have more satisfaction with your outtings.