Catching catfish at night

Selecting a location

Regardless of the depth of the holes or the steepness of the banks, the place can be profitable for catfish fishing, or losing.
Therefore, before you go fishing for catfish, you need to ask knowledgeable people for their recommendations for such a case. In addition to specifying a suitable location, it is worth getting advice on the bait preferred by catfish in a particular location. Catfish is a finicky fish, but not whimsical. It can always peck at bunches of crawlers, because for catfish it is a universal bait, but when changing fishing places, go only for frogs and live bait, or for offal and other baits.

Catfish habitats

The American catfish tolerates strong currents more easily, so it can be found in stormy canals and rivers, while the common catfish feels better in calm water.

In cases where fishing is carried out from the shore, trying to catch a catfish under a snag is ineffective. In case of danger, the fish immediately goes deep into the trunks and branches, which is likely to allow it to tear off even the strongest gear. You should choose places with holes that, with a certain skill, can be seen visually in the current. The cast is made to the upstream edge of the pit.

Fishing in snags is best used with a boat and an echo sounder, when the fisherman is mobile and does not allow the fish to tangle the tackle, even to the point of using forceful fishing.

There are several tricks for determining the presence of catfish in a pond area.

Frog. These amphibians instantly detect the presence of catfish in the water. It is better to catch the frog in advance and simply throw it into the water in the place where you are going to catch it. If it, smoothly moving its paws, calmly remains on the surface or hides in the depths, the catfish is not nearby at the moment. Otherwise, the frog very quickly runs away from the water to the shore, creating a lot of noise and the impression of panic.
Fry. Playing fish (except for splashes due to predator hunting) and fry in the coastal zone are indicators that there are no catfish in this hole. However, at night he may well come to this place to hunt; if you find a deep hole, consider whether it is worth looking for another place for fishing.

Night fishing

By nightfall, catfish gather in various pits and spend the night there in peace and quiet. At dawn they begin to gradually set out on new day trips. The pits where catfish gather can be very different: pebble, clay, rocky, but each one will be characterized by a relatively strong current. Most often, there is no aquatic vegetation in catfish pits. Places on the boundary section of the reverse and forward flow jets can be called very advantageous.

Preparing bottom gear for catfish

Donka for catfish is a rigid rod with a multiplier reel, a thick cord, a sliding sinker, and a large and very sharp hook.

To properly prepare your tackle, you can watch a video that describes catching catfish with a donk. The main condition is that the equipment must be durable and comfortable. Use only proven fishing line for tying tackle. It is better to give preference to branded devices.

Plug-in carp rods are good. For such fishing rods, use powerful reels that can catch fish weighing more than ten kilograms. The fishing line should be monofilament braided with high strength, which can withstand even two-meter individuals.

Read: Choosing a carp rod

The choice of reel should be approached most seriously, paying attention to the volume of its spool. Most often, they take multiplier or spinning reels with a marking of at least 4000.

In addition to choosing gear, you need to take care of the bait. It is better to use organic bait.

Sometimes fishermen use a donka with an underwater float to catch catfish. However, it must be supplemented with a sinker so that the float does not rise to the surface of the water.

Tackle

To fish for catfish you need to use strong and reliable gear. The fishing rod is chosen to be solid and durable. If the spinning rod is of a light class, then the catfish’s mouth will not be cut through. The reel needs to be of good quality, with a powerful clutch. Any fishing line with a diameter of more than 0.8 mm makes sense, because its thickness does not affect the bite in any way. A thin one is not useful; it will make the process of catching catfish very difficult.

Hooks No. 24 and with a higher number according to the domestic classification are useful for fishing for catfish. The bait is selected according to the habits of the catfish, depending on the fishing location. Crawlers are a universal bait for catfish; he never remains indifferent to such bait. If you use a large market hook, then small catfish will be caught on it, weighing up to 1 kg.

Bait and tackle for catching catfish

Now that the fishing location has been chosen, let's look at how catfish are caught.

Tackle Tips:

Catfish is a strong fish. The fishing rod should be durable and not long; for example, the author uses inexpensive Crocodile fishing rods with a length of no more than 2.15 meters.
The reel must withstand heavy loads, have a reliable friction clutch, which should not be weakened at the time of fishing.
When fishing with bottom tackle, you should check the strength of the fishing rod in the stand several times - a catfish bite can often turn it out of the ground and carry the fishing rod into the pond.
The fishing line must have an appropriate test, even if you do not plan to catch a large specimen. As practice shows, it makes no sense to take fishing line with a test weight of less than 16 kg.

Very often, bottom equipment is used, tied so that the hook or tee with bait is located below the level of the weight and can lie on the bottom.

Catfish rig

Now let's look at bait options for catching catfish. There are two basic principles: the bait must have a strong smell or be mobile.

Meat burned over an open fire. Most often, it is a sparrow fried with feathers. But it can be any other piece of meat or small animal: mouse, frog, chicken.
Raw meat containing blood. An excellent bait for catfish is a bird's heart, and in small currents, an animal's liver. Once the plume of blood is no longer released into the water, the bait loses most of its effectiveness.
Pieces of freshly caught fish. It is better to take the head - it releases a large amount of blood into the water, and the gills have a specific smell that can attract catfish.
Bunch of worms. For such bait it is better to use a tee. Crawlings are used - the thicker the better. They are fitted with an accordion onto all three hooks of the tee. The peculiarity is that the moving tips will certainly remain. The catfish has special areas on the surface of its body that allow it to feel the slightest vibrations of the water around it.
Live bait. As already mentioned, catfish do not necessarily feed on carrion, so they may well be attracted to live fish. Only the bait must be mounted correctly, and the leash must be of sufficient length so that the fish has freedom of movement. In the lower reaches of the Kuban, on floods, for example, catfish are caught by hanging a simple tackle with live bait and a weight on the branches of a tree bending over the water.
Little frog. It is not effective to take a large frog for such bait, but a frog with a body length of no more than 5 cm (excluding legs) is quite suitable. In many regions, this is a favorite delicacy for catfish. You should place such bait on the hook very carefully. You can hook the amphibian by the nostril, but the best way is under the sacral spine, as close to the bone as possible, so as not to damage the internal organs. It is very easy to determine whether the frog is mounted correctly: you need to place it on a flat surface. If he sits as usual, as if there is no hook in him, or even better, tries to jump, then he will live in the water for at least an hour, you just need to remember to get him out to breathe.

In this case, it is better to use a single hook; it will not interfere with the amphibian sitting calmly on the bottom in a natural position or moving under water, attracting the smell and movement of the catfish. Sometimes frogs are hooked by the hind legs, passing the hook under the muscles of the inner thigh along the bone of first one leg, then the other. But this method greatly limits the mobility of the bait.

There is a theory about catching catfish using a piece of old unscented laundry soap, like the one that was sold in the USSR. Theoretically, this method can take place, since animal fat of the worst quality is used to make such soap. However, the author has neither tested this method of fishing nor observed its effectiveness with his own eyes.

Periods of catfish activity at night

Night fishing for catfish ends in the early morning, until 7 o'clock you can still fish and start collecting fishing rods. You need to prepare for fishing for night catfish in advance. In the evening, by 20 o'clock, unwind and cast the gear. The first peak of active biting at night occurs at approximately 21:00 and lasts about an hour.

Bites are quite frequent and replace a long lull. Then a second calm begins, which lasts until midnight. It’s better to be alert in advance; bites are quite possible from half past eleven in the evening, they can come one after another. The second period of activity of the nocturnal catfish ends with another quiet period; you will have to wait for the next series of bites for approximately two to three hours.

Around three o'clock in the morning the bite continues again and lasts for an hour. After the completion of the third peak of nightly active catfish bites, the next ones cannot be expected. In very rare places, there are times when you can catch a catfish in the early morning hours, such as 5 or 6 o'clock. There are very few such areas, therefore, if the place chosen for night catfish fishing is not characterized by knowledgeable people as particularly successful in the morning, you can collect your gear and finish fishing.

Best bait

Live bait is the best bait for catfish.
insects, small fish, fresh or half-rotten meat are used as bait for catfish , since the preferences of catfish are varied and sometimes unexpected. Quite effective mole cricket , but difficult to get. Instead of a mole cricket, locusts are also suitable.

An excellent bait for catfish is the mussel . The jelly-like contents of the shell are used as bait.

Decent live bait. With its help you can catch decent-sized catfish. Often a frog is used as live bait. Its advantage is that it is easier to get a frog than a mole cricket.

Worms (crawlers) are excellent for catching small catfish (1 to 2 kg). One of the disadvantages of fishing with worms is that, due to their modest size, you need quite a lot of them.

Fishing tactics

Fishing with bottom gear from the shore

If fishing will be carried out from the shore, then you should find a place on the shallows near the catfish hole and carefully prepare it. When using a donkey with a fishing rod, stands, an alarm are installed, and the friction brake of the reel is also slightly released. For ordinary donks, you just need to drive strong sticks into the ground.

Catching catfish on a donk from a boat

You can only hunt the giant predator by boat during the day. When fishing with a bait, you need to use a quok or attract the attention of the catfish by lowering and raising the bait.

Read: Catching catfish with kwok

Safety precautions when catching catfish from a boat

If an angler is fishing from a boat, then he needs to follow a few simple rules to prevent a life-threatening situation from occurring:

If the tackle is in your hands, and part of the fishing line is under your feet, then a strong jerk of a large predator can cause it to wrap around your leg and pull a person to the bottom of the reservoir. In this regard, you must always have a knife with you in order to cut the fishing line in time. In this case, you will have to say goodbye to the catch, but you will be able to avoid the threat;
You should not wrap the tackle around your hand to avoid losing a limb or going under water;
One of the most important stages of the procedure is lifting the catfish into the boat - a potentially dangerous moment. If you manage to catch a bottom predator weighing several tens of kilograms, then experienced fishermen do not recommend lifting it onto a boat. After all, with its weight and large dimensions it can rock a ship and throw a person into the water. Therefore, it is recommended to drive the boat as close to the shore as possible and only engage in fishing there.