Hammering Channel Catfish on the Fly (And a Few Quality Carp)

 Channel catfish are a species I've caught only sporadically over the years. My first on the fly was tiny, under a bridge just down the street from my house. It was less impressive than bullheads I've caught in the same stream, and a fairly underwhelming lifer- though I wasn't life-listing at the time yet, really. The next channel catfish I caught on the long rod was far more impressive, but also very close to home. I was kayak fishing my local lake. It was late in the day, and I was meandering back towards where the kayak was being stowed at that time, trolling for perch as I went. I'd just caught a white perch and cast back out, but fiddled around a bit before starting to paddle again. When I did and I came tight, I really came tight. There was a serious fish on, what I thought was probably a pretty typical carp. It ended up being a roughly ten pound channel catfish. 

Since then I've caught the species sporadically, both by accident and intentionally. The closest I came to really successfully targeting channel catfish was a night trip last summer that produced just one quite nice fish. This year it has been something I was especially interested in, as I've drifted away from crowded trout streams and away from schoolie striper fishing as much as I once did. I've fished for white suckers more than ever, had loads of time and success on common carp, and I've been thinking about catfish. I'd seen some in an area I'd targeted them before and I had a handful of casts at some unwilling ones, but I wasn't finding what I wanted. Then, on a before work trip a week ago, I hit the mother load. Fishing for catfish was what I hoped for that morning, but what I expected was some smallmouth and maybe bowfin or pike. I was rolling in the kayak, spending most of my time standing and spotting fish. I flubbed a decent shot at a group of carp in a very unexpected spot, a place I'd never seen any before, then spooked more as I poled my way around. I saw no bowfin and no pike, but eventually I did see rather a lot of channel catfish. They were lining the bottom of a very deep hole with a few commons mixed in. I disturbed everything there a little bit, so I backed off and gave it a moment. I came back with a Polar Bugger tied on and low expectations. The fact that my first cast- completely blind, mind you -produced a very high quality common carp was encouraging.

Given how much more opportunistic catfish tend to be, I figured I was pretty much assured to pull some out of that water if even the carp were willing to suck up that big Bugger. A short time later that proved true, though the fish I got wasn't especially impressive.

I then got a second nice common before the flood gates opened, and the catfish bite of my dreams materialized. I needed but one fly and my trusty TFO 5wt, and nothing more. The presentation was a simple slow crawl. The takes were obvious, the hook set a simple strip and lift, and most of the time the fly was in the very corner of each fish's mouth. They weren't huge catfish, but over the next two hours I caught a whopping 26 and a few were in fact pretty good sized individuals. 

Frankly it seemed nuts, and I began to wonder if I'd just been missing this bite in this spot ever season or if this was atypical. There are always catfish in the general area throughout the summer, I see them and occasionally catch them, but this was clearly different. 

Anyone that has caught enough channel catfish knows they pull pretty hard. They tire out before a carp would, but I do think the dig harder and they do sometimes go for pretty good runs. By fish 15 my arm was already pretty tired, but I could see fish rolling the next hole down and I just couldn't stand to leave, not yet. 

I was already very tired out when far and away the largest of the day at my fly. When I set the hook it put an awful bend in the 5 wt, and for a spell I just couldn't peel this one off bottom. When I got it up I proclaimed "hooaaah yeah, that's the one I've been looking for" in the gravelly tone of a fisherman that fully expected what he'd hooked but was still impressed... perhaps as much with himself as the fish. Some days I feel like a pretty damn good angler and this was one of those days. Other days I just flat out suck. There's fortunately enough of the latter to keep me from being an absolute ego-maniac, but in this moment I was pretty chuffed with what I'd just managed to make happen.

There's really one simple thing that makes catching catfish on the fly possible, and one thing only... being able to get flies in front of catfish. They aren't picky, but they also usually won't move to a fly as far as a bass would. There needs to be a lot of them around to have a good chance at consistently putting flies in front of them, and I'd finally found a whole lot of them in a confined and easily fished location. It was a pretty spectacular discover, and one I intend to turn into a pattern. It would be really nice to be able to have bites like this with relative consistency. It'll certainly be logged, and I'll be back there when time allows to see if they've stuck around. 

Until next time, 

Fish for the love of fish.

Fish for the love of places fish live.

Fish for you.

And stay safe and healthy.

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