Stay put for prime catfish action
Drift fishing, or “dragging,” has become the exclusive fishing technique for many catfish anglers. And while highly effective, it’s not an all-inclusive, catfish-catching strategy.
Fishing from an anchored position is an under-utilized, and not fully understood, technique. Fishing while anchored can be effective year-round, but it’s a prime cold-weather tactic from November through February and excels when targeting big blue catfish.
Jeff Manning from Gastonia, NC is a catfish tournament angler with multiple wins and Angler of the Year hardware from catfish tournament trails in the Carolinas. He’s earned the tournament-fishing moniker of “Anchorman” for good reason.
“Some fishermen have the mistaken idea it’s a lazy method of catfishing because they think it’s a random method of fishing,” Manning said.
“It’s actually the opposite. It’s not random in any sense and involves a highly refined strategy,” Manning said. “I primarily anchor-fish but only drop anchors when and where I believe a lot of catfish are congregated.
“When I set up on the right target, I often don’t get all my rods out before the tips are buried three-eyes deep into the water by an aggressive blue catfish.”
Manning said the key to finding the right spot to anchor is about catfish and chow.
He employs electronics to find forage and catfish clustered together. Forage may vary among individual lakes in the Carolinas, but threadfin and gizzard shad, blueback herring and white perch are all attractive to catfish.
“During much of the warm part of the year, forage is scattered throughout the lake and maybe 100 percent of the forage may be scattered over 80 percent of the lake,” he said. “During late fall and winter, I think 80 percent of the forage may be packed into 10 percent of the lake. That 10 percent is the crucial area to fish and is one reason why anchoring can be so productive. Lots of fish in a small area.”
Find forage first
“When I find forage, I then look for the electronic signatures of big catfish,” he said. “I search for multiple fish in a specific area such as a channel ledge, saddle or hump. It requires diligence to search. But when I mark multiple big catfish, I’ll start fishing.”
Manning said his setup is precise and as he graphs an area, he mentally marks where catfish are located, such as at the base of a ledge on top of a hump or at any specific location. He’ll anchor so his boat is positioned to allow him to target those specific places.
“That’s a reason a good anchor setup is crucial because I literally cast some of my rigs to specific stumps or logs that have big fish marked beside them,” he said. “I cast baits to the base of a drop, right where it bottoms out. Even in deep water, that’s where the forage will be funneled and the biggest catfish will be waiting.”
“This is exciting because when I cast a bait right in front of a big blue catfish, instinct takes over and they often inhale it on a dead run,” Manning said. “When this occurs, it often stimulates other big blues to become aggressive and the action can literally get out of hand, in that we have more fish hooked than hands to hold rods.”
Target specific areas
Another anchor-first catfisherman is Spencer Hodges from Winterville, NC. A professional guide and tournament fisherman, he loves to anchor down for big catfish.
Hodges (336-469-0177, Purrfect Kitty Guide Service) fishes multiple lakes and rivers and is a professional guide on the James River in Virginia and the Santee Cooper lakes in South Carolina.
His favorite targets have the common connection of including underwater topographic changes. Points, humps, ledges and channel junctions are among preferred places.
Hodges said he’ll study the topographic maps on his graph to pinpoint potential hotspots before he gets on the water.
“I fish specific feeding-area targets. But I will identify travel routes that catfish utilize to migrate to those areas,” he said. “It may be a long point in a feeder creek, or a ditch coursing through a flat. A creek running from deeper water leading to a shallow flat where a mussel bed or other forage exists is a favored target.”
Hodges said he’s hunting actively feeding catfish so the presence of forage is essential.
“I’m going to anchor where I expect catfish to eat,” he said. “The depth may be deep, shallow or somewhere in between. Feeding fish are moving, so an anchored setup with multiple rigs fan cast around the boat is ideal.
Hodges said he’ll identify where to set up along a travel route. Another likely spot is what he refers to as a “pinch point,” effectively a narrow portion of the travel route, or funnel.
“Big catfish travel along identifiable routes such as creeks and ledges,” he said. “When I find a pinch point along that travel route I can set up with confidence that catfish will have to swim close to my baits as they funnel to the feeding area,” he said.
Focus on the hot spots
“I track where bites come from and if I catch multiple fish from the same area, I’ll put more rigs on that specific target,” he said. “Catfish may congregate in a relatively small area when feeding.”
“And I believe I do catch more big fish from anchored setups than drifting,” he said. “These same fish-finding and anchoring principles apply to fishing rivers for big catfish too. Deep holes and current are prime factors when fishing moving water.”
Proper anchoring is crucial to success. Hodges and Manning both employ the two-anchor method. They securely anchor off the bow and stern, into the wind, to hold the boat steady.
“I want the boat stable so I can fish specific areas where I’ve marked fish,” Hodges said. “I like to fish in windy conditions and the boat may sway a little. But a good two-anchor setup allows me to fish effectively.”
Hodges said the fishing action may occur in flurries and it’s not unusual to have multiple fish hooked at one time, often followed by a lull. If the lull becomes lengthy, he’ll pull anchors and set up again.
“I may only need to move a short distance to find more feeding fish and we’re back in business,” he said. “Productive anchor fishing requires effort. I may pull anchor and set up on another target a dozen or more times in a day, based on fishing action.”
Fishing from an anchored position is only part of the overall catfish-catching strategy for both Manning and Hodges. They’re excellent drift fishermen and they drift when that’s the best tactic. But their favored method for big blue catfish is anchoring. And they employ a fine-tuned strategy to locate the right spot to anchor down. And at the end of the day these pros know they’ll usually catch more, and bigger, catfish by anchoring.
Bait and rigs are crucial
Manning said bait is crucial to success and he’ll do his due diligence and use small and large chunks of bait. But he’s convinced that big baits consistently produce bigger catfish.
“I’ve caught big blues on small strips of perch or shad,” he said. “But I don’t believe that if a big blue catfish swims by my live, eight-inch white perch that it thinks ‘Naw, I’m gonna eat light today.’ A catfish doesn’t have human thought processes. They simply find forage and eat it.”
Both Manning and Hodges rely heavily on baits found in the waters they’re fishing. White perch and gizzard shad are prime baits for both anglers during the winter. Other baits work well depending on the lake being fished.
Both anglers prefer 7- to 8-foot rods and baitcasting reels loaded with line appropriate to the size of fish targeted, usually in the 50-pound test range. They use 2- to 3-ounce sinkers depending on depth fished, and prefer 8/0 to10/0 hooks at the terminal end of a 2- to 3-foot leader.
Be the first to comment