Kayaks and catfish: here are some tips

kayak catfish tips
Many kayak anglers are intimidated when it comes to catfishing from a paddle boat, but needn’t be, with the right gear and mindset. (Photo by Phillip Gentry)

Catfish from a kayak require a little more planning

Probably the first fish a kayak angler new to the sport attempts to catch is a largemouth bass or a redfish, depending on whether your home waters contain sodium or not. Some anglers never look much further. But others find adding different species to the list of fish landed in a plastic boat to be part of the fun of it all.

Surprisingly, a lot of novice anglers are intimidated when faced with trying to catch catfish from a kayak. That’s probably because catfish tactics are very different from tactics used to catch bass, panfish and popular saltwater species. In other words, you aren’t casting to the fish.

Here are some kayak catfishing and gear tips to help alleviate that apprehension.

Get geared up properly with these kayak catfish tips

Rod holders. Multiple rods and baits require the use of rod holders in order to provide more opportunities for you to find catfish and catfish to find you. Rod-holder configurations and styles are varied. And they can be easily removed, so pick what suits your boat the best.

Live bait. Most anglers have caught a catfish on an artificial lure but were taken by surprise when it happened. Live bait is the way to go. If not live, then use freshly dead bait. So you’ll need to collect or buy bait shortly before your fishing trip. Keeping bait alive in a kayak is a challenge. So the next best thing is to put live bait in a Ziploc bag and store it on ice in a small cooler.

Know the species. Blue catfish are known to prefer fresh dead bait over live bait. Flathead catfish are known to prefer live bait over dead. But both species will make exceptions. Channel catfish tend to eat anything with a strong odor that they can hone in on with their superior olfactory facilities.

Anchoring or drifting. While using multiple rods, the two primary choices for presenting live, fresh dead or stinkbaits is by anchoring in a likely spot and letting the fish come to you or drifting with the wind and covering more water with baits slow-trolling behind the boat.

Circle hooks are good options for catfish

Slow-paddling is also an option if the wind is not cooperative or not blowing in the desired direction. If anchoring, set your boat up with an anchoring system that will let you move the anchor point to the desired position or allow anchor points on each end of the kayak.

Circle hooks. All species of catfish are notorious for swallowing baits. Sometimes they may have swallowed a bait for several minutes before you know you even have a bite. You usually catch the fish. But the chances of hooking mortality go way up unless using circle hooks to decrease the chances of gut hooking.

Depthfinders. Not a necessity, but knowing the depth of water you are fishing is a big asset when fishing open water. Marking catfish on a graph is a plus, but not as important as marking bait in the area you are fishing.

Line and tackle size. One of the most-common mistakes when catfishing is line that’s too light. Even small catfish have rough teeth that will abrade and cut light line. They also have a habit of rolling and wrapping up in your line, which can sever lighter lines. A good rule of thumb is 20-pound mono. Many veteran anglers prefer braid. Catfish are rarely line shy. So opt for the heavier line and match that line with at least medium or medium heavy tackle unless you know you’re only likely to catch 1- to 3-pound channel cats.

The Santee catfish rig

Larger catfish, particularly trophy-sized blues that are popular with a lot of anglers, are a lot more nomadic than most anglers give them credit for. They have been compared to cattle, just wandering along travel corridors, grazing as they go.

The best way to target roaming catfish is by trolling or drifting. Again, most anglers would not associate trolling — a tactic normally reserved for striped bass inland and large saltwater fish in the ocean — with catfishing. But it can and does produce numbers of big catfish.

The secret to trolling for catfish is to have the bait, typically a fresh dead or cut bait, move slowly along the bottom to resemble food that bottom-dwellers typically come across. To keep the bait low in the water column, the trolling rig will have to drag along the bottom. 

Trolling over heavy cover is a recipe for break-offs. To combat this, catfish anglers on South Carolina’s Santee Cooper lakes designed a special rig employing a slinky weight and crappie float to keep the weight on the bottom and the hook out of cover. 

Building the rig

“I make my own weights using utility cord,” said guide Spencer Edmonds. “I use anywhere from 16 to 23 pellets of No. 3 buckshot, stuff that down in the cord and melt the end of the cord to hold it tight. “The deeper the water, the heavier the weight you need. Down on the lower lake, when I’m in that fixed wood, I like 23 or 24 pieces of lead, but on the upper lake, I normally use 18 to 20. I’m also using a snap barrel swivel so I can change if I’m fishing up and down a lot, all I’ve got to do is snap off one weight and snap on a different one to match the water depth.”

After the weight, Edmonds pegs a 2-inch crappie float on a 3- to 4-foot leader between the hook and the swivel. Point the peg away from the weight so it won’t hang. The added buoyancy of the float rides the hook and bait up off the bottom where it won’t snag.

About Phillip Gentry 815 Articles
Phillip Gentry of Waterloo, S.C., is an avid outdoorsman and said if it swims, flies, hops or crawls, he's usually not too far behind.

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply