Hi. My name is Aquaman and I'm a Kittyholic.

[Aquaman01]

Got one nice one once by accident earlier this year (28" Channel) and a nice one yesterday intentionally (26" Channel) and now I'm as hooked as she was on that 1/0 circle hook. Couple of questions now, if I may -

What do I look for in a catfish rod? Strength is obvious - what about sensitivity and the right tip action for putting a bait right into that good-looking snarl?

Reels? I don't wanna put my walleye rig through too many more of those bare-knuckle brawls.

I realize the importance of a swivel in the rig - how long of a leader is too long for accurately dropping into timber-snarls?

I found out one type of location and situation for finding channels from a boat. What about when I'm looking at the river from shore?

Thanks, ya'll.

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Aquaman
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Peace and Fishes

[tulikow]

Aquaman
For a channel cat rod I would suggest something at least 7 feet long that is rated for 15-25 lb line and 1/2 to 2 1/2 ounce weights. It should have a moderately soft tip to cast baits like paste and blood.
If you want an all purpose reel I would suggest an Abu Garcia 6500 which has a clicker and holds 190 yards of 17 pound line. If you fish flatheads try the 7000. Those are some of the finest baitcasters made.
For fishing timber dont use a leader over 1 foot. Sometimes you dont need a leader at all.
Fish large river bends where the channel curves toward shore. Holes in those areas often hold alot of timber.
Good Luck Catfishing

[Guest]

For an off the shelf option, I use Berkley Re-Flex rods for all my guiding needs. They are tough...........very......very........tough sticks.

The Re-Flex rods have the correct amount of load capacity to work cats effectively on circle hooks or conventional shanked hooks. I like the 8-9' med-hvy rods for larger cats and the 7-8' med for lighter action needs. The lighter med action rods are also very good crank bait trolling rods for walleye.

Day or night they shine, and I mean shine. They are wrapped with 3-M hi-reflective materials that make bite detection a snap to see even in low light.

For line, I recommend you give Berkley Iron Silk a shot too. I like it because it is highly abrasion resistant yet will cast better then many mono's with far less abrasion resistance. In general flexibility and abrasion Resistance do not go well together, it is a trade of on other lines. I like the 20-30# range for most cat needs.

For super braids, go with Power-Pro, far superior and wears less on guides. It is a round braid so it will not bury in the spool like other flat braids, FAR less FUBARS Eh. Good stuff, great for peckers in fast water as it is thin and super sensitive. You can feel a frog fart at 30 yards on that stuff.....yup..yup!

ABU reels are my pick too, I would suggest the Big Game series from 6000 on up, very nice reels and will handle whatever fresh water has to offer them. C-5 mags are a very good option too.

If your into serious spinning reels, check out the new Mitchell Fullrunner 7500 & 6500, very cool units. Serious stuff...ARRR....Arrrr....Arrr!

Hooks, I am a Gamakatsu fan...yup...yup. Try 6-8 O/T octopus styler circle hooks or G-Mag hooks. VMC makes some very good hooks too. especially the 4-6 O/T wide gape circle hooks.

Get 80# swivels in bulk, save some cash that way. Try 1-4 Oz No-Roll sinkers, you will like them, less snags.

Go Catch a piggy!

Just some sugestions that work well for me, hope this was of help.

Ed "Backwater Eddy" Carlson

Backwater Guiding "ED on the RED"

[This message has been edited by Backwater Eddy (edited 05-19-2003).]

[mistermom]

I was a witness to Aquaman's conversion and may have become a convert too! I say may because I am still a walleye fanatic; though there may be room in my heart for another species of fish. I think that the pursuit of walleyes and cats could be quite compatible. I might be a kittyaholic soon too.... I suppose wrecking props and lower units could cure a guy though.... (I know get a RiverPro)

mm

[Fisher Dave]

As Eddy said .. the Reflex rods are great off the shelf rods. There are starting to be more high-buck specialty cat rods on the market, but a theres also more shelf rods that are great cat rods. Another company makes a series of *Catfish Special* rods that are also very good. The rods with white rod blanks do come in handy for night fishing. I prefer a graphite rod in the 8' class myself, but the fiberglass always comes out for the flats.

I witnessed a 50 lb flathead come in on one of the lightest reflex rods .. they will hold up.

As for reels for cats ... I like the Abu-Garcia Baitcasters in the 5500 and 6500 models (65 for flats with bait alert). For spinning reels I really like the Shimano Baitrunners. For strictly channel cat fishing, I do like heavy *bass* type baitcasters also because they are a little more freindly for casting lighter weight.

No matter what you do, dont *skimp* on a reel, especially if your going to fish flatheads because they will not last long. Cat reels get more abuse than most muskie reels.

[Aquaman01]

Thanks, ya'll. Good solid info with lots of consistency.

I'll stick to Channels this season, unless a 10-15 hp motor takes up less of my tax-return and I can afford another rod/reel this year. Propulsion is a priority for me at this point, but I like to shop thoroughly before parting with any do-re-mi.

I'd like to get into some smaller ones this year on the Crow, Elk or Sauk for the table. Do they hang out in the same type habitats as their Mississippi & Red River brothers & sisters?

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Aquaman
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Peace and Fishes

[This message has been edited by Aquaman01 (edited 05-20-2003).]

[EBass]

Backwater Eddy,

Power Pro rocks! That's all I wanted to add.

Oh and I'm a kitty-o-holic to. I have been for years, but I didn't even know it.

[Guest]

Yes, my EVIL plan of world domination is right on schedule.

Soon all those INFIDEL Bass and Walleye anglers will be deeply, and hopelessly addicted,........to Catfishing.

HA

Ha...Ha!

Haaaaaaaa...Haa...Haaaa....Ha!

[DARK30]

The Catfish Cometh Soon!!

...Although these Walleyes are hard to beat.

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cast,cast,cast,cast......

[Guest]

Dark I like the Sumo guy!

LOL!!!!!

[Aquaman01]

Nice pics, ya'll! Now that the PULL-PULL-PULL and serious lunges into timber haunt my dreams and every waking moment, I keep coming back to "sumo".

Anyway, back to the rod. I do, in fact, have room in my budget for a rig. Bait-clicker and a rock-solid reel seems a must, either the Abu 6500 or a Shimano Baitrunner for a spin-rig. I'm a frugile guy, so I want this rig to pull general river duty (carp, sucker) as well as live-bait for northerns and like Eddy said, maybe troll cranks. I know I want & should have it over 8', and I like a lighter rig, so I'll go medium-heavy. I'm still gonna try to keep it with Channels for now. Flatheads can come next year.

Sooooo...whadda ya think about surfcasting rods?

Is the use of fiberglass in a cat-rod for flexibility, and if so, how much is too much before it affects long castability? and how stiff is too stiff?

My weight preference kind of puts me in spinning gear, but this seems like a good opportunity to learn about baitcasters, what with the Abu 6500 & all. Is it detrimental to channel catfishing to have say a ...medium/heavy moderate action graphite rod?

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Aquaman
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Peace and Fishes

[wastewaterguru]

Aquaman,

Just as an option.....

I caught my two 30+ flatheads last year on a 6 foot medium heavy bass fishing rod with an inexpensive Shimano 4000 spinning reel with 80 pound power-pro line on it. With the drag cranked as hard as it will go, it works perfect.

I would rather have the bait runner version that has the audible clicker, but haven't figured out what I want yet.

If your not gonna go for cats too often, the 80 pound power pro can be pretty foregiving when spooled on one of your existing undersized reels. I have caught 40 or 50 channels and 2 big flats on that shimano 4000 reel with 80 pound line (its only rated for 8-15). I did upgrade the rod a little to a Red wolf off the shelf cheapo to get a little more length, but plan on using that reel for a little while longer.

[Guest]

Surf rods and glass go hand in hand, just for long range casting applications. Glass has a load and unload capacity that slingshots a heavy bait up too 100's of yards if need be. The world casting record is held by glass by the way.

Glass has a slow to fast rating just the same as a graphite rod would, just the characteristics change. Glass can be spun or reinforced with hi-tech fibers such as kevlar to get incredible load capacity's. Special rods are in the testing stage now for getting Amazon cats out of the rivers, they tend to bust up rods, and boats, and people in boats, and whatever else tries to hook up with them.

In any rod selection, sit down and think, what do I need and wish to accomplish. Do I need brute force at the get-go, or staged mechanical advantage? Factors of use will dictate the composition.

Graphite and hi-modular rods are all the rage, and have been for some time now. They are lighter and transmit vibrations fast, a good deal on fussy fish with some range between you and the hook. Glass was here and going strong way before that, because it is adaptable and strong. New hi-tech glass will be serious stuff Eh! There will be cool new systems out and in the field very soon.

I have been leaning to custom built glass rods in recent years because you can tinker with the design, fine tune your process to the needs of the situation. Glass rods are especially user friendly and adaptable.

I wouldn't discount the glass rod systems becoming modular interchangeable systems?

Interchangeable sections that fine tune the rod to the application. The Europeans have already tinkered with this for long rod competition fishing. They take their rods very serious over there Eh.

If I have a point in all this yada-yada. It must be, find the need and glass will find a option to fill it.

Ed "Backwater Eddy" Carlson

Backwater Guiding "ED on the RED"

[This message has been edited by Backwater Eddy (edited 05-22-2003).]

[Flashman]

I just picked up the Okuma Epixor Baitfeeder series 50 and some rods from gofishing .com They have some pretty resonable prices and offer a 10% discount to all NAFC members. I also have one of the reels FisherDave was talking about, works great but I can't remember the series # on that one either. I haven't put the Okuma to use yet but it's rigged and ready for action, hopefully I'll get on the river soon.

[Fisher Dave]

My *main* spinning rod for flatheads is a small surfcasting rod (Mitchell Advantage) in a heavy action(Fiberglass). It's 10' 6" or 11' and is capable of casting a rig+bait efficiently up to about 1 1/2 pounds across the Minnesota river in most locations, and more than 1/2 way across the Mississippi in the twin cites in alot of areas ... That rig is overkill for channel cats with the exception of areas where large fish are likely in very strong currents, or in an area where an extremely long cast is neccessary. The fact is when Flathead fishing especially, you rarely need to cast more than 25'. Channel cats are not much different.

I use the rod for the sole purpose of being able to use lighter lines for larger fish (15-20 lb test). The length of the rod give a *noodle rod* effect and I can pull as hard as I want and not break the line. At the same time, the smaller line diameter lets me use much less weight in heavy current.

A major downfall of BIG glass rods is the weight. They are fine sitting in a rod holder, or fishing a fish, but they suck for the purpose of casting a lure, or using them to troll without a holder.

Last but not least .. the tip is way too heavy to effectively pick up light bites unless the wind is minimal, and your eyes are stuck to the tip.... on the other side, if they hit hard while tight lineing, they generally hook themselves.

I guess there are advantages and disadvantages to everything.

BTW .. if the budget is tight, Shimano has some spinning reels with *fighting drags* that also work very well all around for cats. The drag will go from minimal to tight instantaniously by a lever at the rear drag. I dont which of the modern models are that have the option, but its a very nice feature, and could save some money. Baitrunners are not cheap.

[Aquaman01]

Got the rig yesterday. I wanted it to pull general river duty (carp, sucker, loch ness) as well as channel cats and eventually flatheads. Wanted to cast a ways from shore, but not quite a country mile, wanted it to triple lake duty - trolling loud stuff for northerns, 3-waying cranks, and deep-jigging, 3/4 oz. & up. I think I will also be able to pitch with it, with a lot of practice.

Abu Garcia 6500 w/baitclicker. Oh my golly! What a quality piece of equipment! I pulled off some line and at first I thought the guy at Gander had spooled me up poorly (12/50 powerpro) and then I realized it was the drag, silent and smooth.

8' medium heavy/fast (on the moderate side) house-brand IM8. The mgr. said they carried a lifetime over-the-counter Craftsman tool type warranty. Rated 3/4 oz. to 3 oz. baits

The combo has a nice balance and is really light. I can't wait to load it up!

Thanks for all the advice!
I would've gotten the Re-flex or another long glass, but for a while yet I need my rods to pull multiple duties. At $27.00, though, I could always pick one up if this rig is deficient.

I'm headed up to Kab tomorrow morning for a week of (yawwwwnnn) walleye fishing (j/k) and hopefully I know more than I did last year! There's only a couple of rivers to hit off of Kab and I hear they're not hot for fish.

I think I'll find that out for myself

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Aquaman
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Peace and Fishes

[CANOPY SAM]

Sounds like that'll get er' done! I can relate to the "double duty" scenario. I use my heavy bass and pike rigs for channel cats all the time. Fishhead rides me like a rented mule about it, but I have yet to have a channel cat I couldn't muscle up with a good stout bass rig. Plus, I like to feel the power of those cats through a little lighter rig.

You'll probably need to graduate to a heavier rig once you pursue big flatties though. I'm guessin' by your current enthusiasm that you'll make it to about late June before you start shopping for the ultimate Flathead rig. The Garcia 6500 can pull double duty for both species of cats though.

I bought a pair of Cabelas "king cat" reels last year for fishing flatheads, and I'm still worried that it may have been a mistake. They're awfully big, and one of em' has got a quirky drag that doesn't always behave. I'm really wishing I would've spent the extra money for a pair of 6500 series. Do you think I could still return em' to Cabelas for a refund? It'll be just my luck that the first big flathead of the year will take the rig with the quirky drag and I'll end up chuckin' the whole rig overboard after she breaks me off!

Good luck with the new catfish rig. Let's get together sometime between the Prior lake event and give em' a try down on the Minnesota river. The truth be said, "Once you go Cat, you can never go back!"

[Lunker]

Help! I think it's got me! I just went on my first cat excursion, and my buddy and I caught 3 channels from 22-25" long. Boy are they fun. I'm already planning my next outing. I was using a 6 1/2 mh baitcaster with 17lb test, and those cats were making me work to get them in. I think I like my kitties!

[vern]

Yep, you're hooked now Lunker. I appreciate all species, but cats are my fave. I'll be bassin' tomorrow, but hitting the cats again by next weekend. Welcome to the club, Vern

[Aquaman01]

Spent a week hunting walleye at Kab, and all I heard was the Call Of The River! The family & I went to The Missy last night and in two hours caught 1/2 as many fish and twice as many laughs as a week on Kab. 4 itty bitty channel cats, a couple of carp, a couple of smallies and a snapping turtle that was in my favorite smally hole! First fish on that river rig was a carp. That rod doesn't really come to life until it gets 4 or 5 lbs. of fish on it.

I'm heading upriver to Little Falls this weekend - gonna try for kitties, smallies and maybe one or two of those pesky bug-eyed green things.

I got the fever for the flavor of a kitty!

Canopy - I'd love to go out! Wait - are you going to Cat Gathering in Elk River or are you pre-fishing Prior? I'll be at Cat Gathering with my kids and Walleye GFA is Mistermom's partner for Prior.

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Aquaman
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Peace and Fishes