Kayak Fishing For Channel Cats

Well, how's it going guys? I'm back out here again today on one of my favorite stretches of river for smallmouth and you know one thing I found out the last few years is that this river also has a good population of nice sized catfish. So I brought out a catfish rig today. I got some cocktail shrimp here I'm using for bait and actually just drifted past that tree right there and I saw a couple nice catfish hanging out. Plan here is to throw my bait right in front of it let the current carry that scent into there and hopefully it'll draw one of those catfish out of there. Let's see what happens. There we go, I got him. Get a little distance between him and that tree there. Hey, he's going away from it anyway. Feels like a good fish. Definitely put some bend in the rod. These things put up a good fight. It's really not even all that big but he sure is fighting. Not a bad-sized cat. First things first, let's get that hook out of you. It's kind of how I grab catfish, at least the bigger ones. The reason I don't grab them like a bass and just stick my thumb in there, they don't really have teeth but I can bite down on your thumb pretty hard and if I get you right on the thumb knuckle it really doesn't feel all that good. And yeah, about this size or smaller I just put my thumb underneath one of those spines and the other one between my middle and my pointer finger there. It's a pretty good way to hold them too. Not a bad cat for the first one. I think I'll get some bigger ones than that though. There he goes. Well, I've had my line in for about 15 minutes since that last fish without a bite so I'm gonna pull it in and go find another spot to try. I'll show you guys my setup real quick here though. I really don't have a catfish rod at the moment so I'm using my bait cast combo here that I'd usually use for topwater frog fishing for largemouth. This is a six foot eight medium heavy power fast action St. Croix Legend Tournament rod with a quantum smoke reel and I've got 30 pound braid spooled onto there. And then the rig itself is pretty much just a standard catfish rig. I've got a two ounce no roll sinker here that slips along that main line and I got a swivel there and see at the sinker end of that I've got this little rubber bead there that just protects the knot from the sinker banging into it and fraying it up and possibly causing it to break at some point. And I got probably about a foot of leader on the other side of the swivel there. We got a 20 pound mono for the leader. One thing you want to make sure of when you set up a rig like this you always want that leader to be weaker than your main line. That way if you do end up snagging up on something and you have to snap it, it'll usually snap somewhere along the mono there and you'll keep everything but your your hook. So keep your sinker and your your swivel and all that. And I just got a four rod octopus hook. If I was fishing from the bank with my rod sitting in a rod holder I'd definitely use a circle hook but today I'm kind of watching the rod tip or actually feeling for the bite so I'm getting a good quick hook set on them. That first fish was hooked right in the corner of the mouth so I think we'll be alright with that hook. And then like I said earlier for bait I'm using cocktail shrimp. I always had good luck with that out on the Red River in my hometown of Fargo. I did a lot of catfishing back before I got my kayak so this should be fun today if we can hook into a few more. I'm gonna paddle on to the next spot. Let's see if we can find a few more fish. This looks like a good spot to try. See if there's anything hanging out in there. That's a good spot. Not much current going through here but I've pulled a couple catfish out of that tree in the past so we'll see. There's definitely something nibbling on it down there. I think it's just some little bass or something though. Oh we got one. Nope, that feels like a catfish. He's just sitting down there chewing on it. A couple little taps there but I lifted up on it and there's something there. That's definitely a good fish. Here I thought I had a couple little smallies nibbling on it down there. Oh man he's a fighter. I'd say the shrimp seems to be doing the trick out here on this river too. He just does not want to give up. He's going to pull me off my spot here. He wants to roll. Uh oh, he swallowed that hook. If I can get that out of there, I probably should be able to get that out no problem. There we go, hook is out. Uh oh, he's bleeding. He'll be alright. Yep, I let that one chew on it just a little bit too long. He was biting it kind of weird though. Just little taps like a little smallie chewing on that thing but nope. I lifted that rod up and there's definitely some weight there. I've done snagged a snapping turtle with my catfish rig. There you go, you're free. That's why I wasn't getting any bites over there. This little spot here looks promising. I'm going to just pull up to this log here. Tied it off to my anchor cleat at the back there. That should keep me nice and still. See if there's anything hanging out in this little cluster of logs. There we go, I got him. That's a big one. Yeah, he's going to pull some drag I think. Yeah, that's definitely a good-sized fish. I can't even hardly lift him. They only sat up there a couple minutes too. He came right out and grabbed it. That's not a bad cat. I figured he was going to be a little bigger than that. Man, he's a fighter. Wow, come here you. Get that hook out of you. Oh man, he's just chewing on my hand there. Yeah, that's a good-sized cat right there. Yeah, those things are fun to catch. Probably the hardest fighting fish in this river I bet. I figured that one was going to be about twice that size by the fight he put up there. Man, he was pulling hard. That's fun though. I'll have to come out here and target these catfish more often.