Catting Around the River

Wilmington’s Cape Fear offers anglers a shot at trophy blues and flatheads.

Apparent at a glance was the fact that few fishermen had taken off work at the last-minute notice of a fair-weather forecast. There were just two vehicles towing boat trailers parked at the Wilmington’s Dram Tree Park ramp. A classic 16-foot tri-hull had been launched and was in the water with its outboard warming up. The angler aboard was busy stowing gear for a fishing trip.“The catfish have been biting really well,” said Capt. Jason Rosenfeld, a 28-year-old fishing guide from Pender County. “The flatheads and blues have been so hungry we caught 28 catfish a couple of days ago.”

Rosenfeld, a technician at Southeast Pond Stocking in Pender County, lives in nearby Rocky Point. His affinity for mixing water and big fish extends to his second occupation as a fishing guide. He helps anglers catch giant sharks from the surf at Carolina Beach and enormous blue and flathead catfish from the Cape Fear River.

“The biggest flathead catfish I’ve caught so far was a 64-pounder,” Rosenfeld said. “My biggest blue catfish weighed 61 pounds. But I’ve caught lots of catfish that weighed more than 30 pounds. When we have a big-numbers day instead of a big-fish day, it’s usually with the small fish, which we catch near Wilmington.

“We typically catch the bigger catfish away from (Wilmington) at Island Creek, Harrison Creek, Long Creek and all the other creeks on both the Cape Fear and Northeast Cape Fear rivers.”

Rosenfeld motored upriver to one of his favorite creeks and anchored just upstream from the outside bank of a sharp bend. He reached into his livewell and pulled out a squirming eel. Grabbing it with his shirtsleeve so it wouldn’t slip from his grasp, he first sliced off the eel’s tail, then cut the rest of the eel into 4-inch long sections.

“If you leave the eel’s tail attached, the eel will twist up the line,” he said. “An eel makes a good bait, because catfish love eating eels and it stays on the hook for a long time. You can usually catch several catfish with one eel bait.”

Rosenfeld gets his bait two ways: County Line Bait and Tackle, next to the public boat ramp in Castle Hayne, sells live eels, but he also catches them around the Wilmington waterfront with small pieces of shrimp on small gold hooks.

“Anywhere there are rocks, there are some eels,” he said. “It only takes a few eels for a day’s fishing. I use light baitcasting rods for catching eels and put them out at the same time I’m doing some catfishing. Sometimes a big blue cat will eat the shrimp. When that happens, you don’t have much of a chance of landing him with a little wire eel hook.”

Rosenfeld’s tri-hull is perfect for catfishing because it’s roomy, comfortable and stable enough for one or two fisherman and the guide. He uses rod holders with quick-release features, clamping the onto a homemade bracket that was once half-inch galvanized pipe.

“I fish five or six rods at the same time,” he said. “That’s enough to cover a lot of water without getting the lines tangled when you hook a big catfish. I use 7½-foot, medium-heavy action catfish rods and Abu Garcia 6500 reels spooled with 30-pound monofilament. I don’t use the high-visibility lines because they seem to make my catch go down. You wouldn’t think a catfish could see the line, but I can only tell you, that’s been my observation.”

Most catfish anglers pursue their quarry at night, but Rosenfeld has had some excellent fishing during the daylight hours.

“At night, the fish move out of the deep holes and onto the shallower flats and bars,” he said, “but in the daytime, they are concentrated down in those deep holes. If you fish with eels in 15 to 40 feet of water, sooner or later, you’re going to catch a big one.”

Rosenfeld casts his baits, sets his rods in the holders, then lets the eels and circle hooks do the work. He watches the rods for the telltale twitch that telegraphs a catfish tasting the bait.

“Sometimes even the big ones will only toy with it, tasting the bait and dropping it several times,” he said. “It’s almost like they’re teasing you. It can go on like that for a long time, make you jumpy and wanting to grab the rod too soon to set the hook. But you have to wait until the catfish gets the bait in his mouth and starts moving off with it — you have to wait until he’s swimming off with the bait. Then, the circle hook hangs in the corner of his mouth as you are lifting the rod and the line tightens. When he knows he’s hooked, you have a fight on your hands.

“Nothing in the river fights like a big flathead catfish. He’s just this huge monster, fighting you every inch of the way to the boat. They’re beautiful, with orange fins and yellow bodies. But they’re so big and powerful, they’re scary.”

Another fishermen who specializes in landing big cats from the Cape Fear River is Brian Newberger. He fishes from a pontoon boat and usually spends the entire night when he fishes.

“Sometimes I fish more than 20 rods,” Newberger said. “Most tournaments allow eight rods per boat. But I don’t fish many tournaments these days. I just fish for fun.”

While the uninitiated might wonder why anyone would need so many rods, an expert like Newberger knows it takes lots of baits to catch blue and flathead catfish. No one can doubt Newberger’s multiple-rod rationale, because he caught the state record flathead in 2005 — a 78-pound whopper.

“I’ve hooked larger fish but could not get them in the boat,” he said. “I thought I had another state record in 2007, but that fish (was) just shy of the old record once I got it to the scales.”

Newberger uses the last light of the afternoon to scout his fishing territory. He uses two depthfinders — one on the bow and one at the console — to find deep holes and drop-offs as well as baitfish schools on which big catfish might dine as darkness falls.

“They move into deep holes during the day, then come up into the shallower flats to feed at night,” Brian said. “I don’t like to move around much after dark because it takes so much time to bring in all of the lines. Still, I might move once or twice if the fish aren’t biting.

Newberger prefers cut bait for blue cats and live bait for flathead catfish. He uses live and cut bream — which must be caught on hook-and-line to be used as bait — live and cut shad, and live or cut eels. Like Rosenfeld, he cuts the tip of the tail from a live eel before using it as bait so it won’t twist the line.

Both anglers use large circle hooks and flat river sinkers on their bottom rigs. But Newberger also uses a trolley rig — a surf sinker like pier fishermen use on king mackerel rigs — to anchor a line to the bank and slide a live bait away from the boat. The bait swims near the surface in the current between the bank and the boat.

“That’s the best way to catch a monster flathead,” Newberger said. “Most of the time, big ones are going to crush that live bream on the trolley rig.”

On a good night, Newberger catches two or three dozen catfish of 20 to 30 pounds and up. Sometimes though, he has his hands full with a single big fish.

“I keep the big ones alive in an aerated livewell so I can weigh them,” he said. “After that, I always let them go. I released the state-record flathead. She’s still in the river and has grown a lot bigger. Maybe someone will catch her again.”