How to Bring Home a Stinger Full of Catfish

Here are some fishing techniques to catch some good eating catfish. Keep in mind certain methods are good for certain kinds of waters. But with some proper bait and a bit of patience you will have a mess of fresh catfish on your stringer.

Catfishing has always been one of my favorite sports. I still love to eat catfish anytime I can get it. To me it seems that catching catfish is as easy as rigging my rod, baiting my hook, setting the sinker and throwing out the line as far as I can and waiting. By the end of the day (or night) I'll usually have a stringer full of 3-5 pounders. I want to share with you how I fish for catfish with you.

You want to use a good-sturdy pole for catfishing. I wouldn't use a pole that is less than 6ft long. I like to use a crappy rig with about a 1/2oz weight on it. Put a size 6 snelled fishhook and attach one to each of the out rigs and your ready to go. You want the bait to be still and not move and to keep a tension on the line at all times.

If you don't have a crappy rig you can tie your weight to the end of your line and attach your #6 Snelled Fish Hook about 18" to 24" up the line. Again you want to weight the line so that there is as little movement of the bait as possible. The fish will not feel any weight and it will be too late after they have taken the bait and are hooked.

Now lets talk about bait. Every one and their cousins has a favorite catfish bait but the best baits are always those that nature produced. So go on over the grocery store and get some clams or some medium sized shrimp. You'll need to remove the skin and tails of the shrimp to be able to attach it to the hook. Of course catfish will also bite on minnows, night crawlers, snails, catfish paste, chicken livers. Catfish are scavengers and like what is called stink bait. I have caught the most catfish on one fishing trip on fresh water clams than on anything else.

A word about chumming. Chumming is simply throwing small amounts of bait mixtures into your fishing area. This attracts the catfish by sending out the good smelling flavor of food they love to eat. The more catfish you attract this way the more you will be taking home for dinner. One important point about chumming to keep in mind is you want to chum with the same bait mixture you will be fishing with.

What tackle to use? This really is not too difficult. You will want to use a good sturdy rod. I have found an open faced spinning reel to work best for me. But you will want to use heavier test line as a good-sized catfish on the other end can bend your rod pretty good. I use nothing less than an 8lb test line. You don't need the top of the line rod and reel just one that's about 6 feet long with a spinning real.

Once you have your rig set up, bait on the hook and you've chummed the fishing area, you want to toss the line out and bring up all of the slack in your line until your rod has just a slight bend on it from the line tension. Now wait. A catfish strike will not always pull your poll down. Sometimes the fish will take your bait and swim towards shore causing your line to go slack. Although the technique involved in catching catfish is somewhat dull this method is effective. In the end it's not technique but the bait that attracts and brings the catfish in.

When you are removing the hook from the catfish mouth you will want to use a pair of pliers. Be careful when you grip the fish because the tip of some catfish's fins is poisonous. By putting your finger on one side of the fishes head and your thumb on the other you shouldn't have any problem.

You have had a successful catfishing trip and now it's time to clean the fish. One of the things you will notice from the start is that catfish do not have scales like other fresh water fish. Catfish have a special skin on them. You will be skinning a cat...fish.

Take your filleting knife and cut completely around, just below the skin at the base of the catfish's head. After gutting your fish you want to brake off the barbed fin on the fishes back. Cut a line all the way down the fishes back just enough to free the skin from the meat. Then grab your catfish by its head and take your pliers and peal the skin away from the back just where the two cut sections meet. By pulling the skin back with your pliers you will be able to skin your catfish pretty easily.

Remove the head and all that's left to do is decide if you want your catfish whole, in fillets or nuggets. Now you're in for some good eating. I'll talk about some good fish recipes in another article sometime. Happy catfishing and good luck!