Four Ways to Catch More Catfish

Four Ways to Catch More Catfish

By Brad Durick

“If you follow these steps for a few seasons, especially on home waters you will become a force on that body of water.”

We all want to catch more fish. In this case it is catfish. Nothing written here is earth shattering news but it is a few simple things that seem to be forgetting and need a simple reminder once in a while. We are all very busy with life but taking a little extra time when fishing can help you become a better catfish angler. These four simple steps can help you. 1. Go Fishing, 2. Learn New Spots, 3. Don’t be Afraid to Fail, 4. Work the Clock.

1. Go Fishing
This is the goal but is doesn’t always happen the way we want it to. Step one to being a better angler is time on the water. Time practicing the craft, learning and getting better so you can use successes and failures to better understand how to improve moving forward.

Going fishing for just a couple hours can teach you something or at least take the weight of life off for a little while. Many people (myself included) see a one or two hour window to fish as not worth the effort but it can be if we just make it happen.

One example of this was May of 2006. I still had a full time job and a buddy called to day there was a good catfish bite going on in an easy to get to part of the river. We took a 90-minute lunch and went catfishing in our dress clothes. We learned what became a great pre spawn area in just over an hour. Pretty sure our office mates were not as excited about this experience as we were when we returned to work.

2. Learn New Spots
I just alluded to learning a new spot but in the world of catfishing the more spots you know the better, especially if you are on pressured water. We all have our spots that we like and have had success on and when limited in time on the water human nature takes us back to these spots. Don’t kid yourself, If you know and like a spot someone else probably does too.

Maybe not every time out but every second or third time, take a little bit of time to find a spot that matches what you have been seeing success on and give it some time. If you can find just a few spots per season you will have a lot of spots in just a few short years. This is simple math that can increase your success.
I make it my goal to find a new spot or two each week. Sometimes the spot looks good on a map or how the current is over it and it just doesn’t work for some reason. Other spots I find myself wondering what took so long to find it.

I use Humminbird’s Autochart live (available in all Humminbirds for the past few years.) to build maps and color code them. While making the detailed maps was fairly time consuming the ability to find new spots is much easier because I can color match the holes to where I have been seeing success.

3. Don’t be Afraid to Fail
We all love to catch fish all the time but reality is that just isn’t going to happen. If you find yourself struggling, embrace the challenge and keep at it. Sometimes a small location change or even change in bait can mean everything to success or failure. We don’t want to have too much failure either because that might turn us off of fishing altogether. We need to figure out the adjustments and see the successes of our efforts to keep us interested and moving forward.

When these challenges present themselves resort back to step one and two. Put more time on the water and force yourself out of the habit of going to the old spots.

4. Work the Clock
Another one that can make a huge difference is pay attention to how long you fish certain spots. Rule of thumb is 15 to 20 minutes in a spot without a catfish and move on to the next spot. That is all fine and good during an aggressive bite but when something in the weather or environment changes then what? Understanding the current seams mentioned before becomes key number one to finding the fish. Should the fish be hiding out of the current and “sulking” as I put it, then you will also probably need to make some adjustments to your sit times to allow the slower feeding fish to find the baits. I have found that just adding ten or so minutes can tell you a lot but in more dramatic cases be willing to sit as much as an hour on a spot. Make sure before you commit to this sit that you are sure there are fish in the spot you are going to sell out on.

None of this should be anything new to you but these basics are sometimes forgotten. I use these steps every day on the water. If I am struggling, I work the clock, make small adjustments, and try to figure out what I am missing. When fishing is great, I make a point to find new spots to try and add to the list for future needs.
Captain Brad Durick is a nationally recognized catfish guide on the Red River of the North, seminar speaker, and author of the books Cracking the Channel Catfish Code and Advanced Catfishing Made Easy. For more information go to www.redrivercatfish.com