Channel catfish don't mind the summer heat

Cattin-Around-1-Lead-featured — Most fish become lethargic in the heat of summer, but channel catfish will remain more active than most other freshwater species. (Photo by Phillip Gentry)

The heat doesn’t stop channel catfish from biting

Freshwater fishing in August can present anglers with challenges when water temperatures often climb to their highest levels. When they reach their summer highs in Carolina reservoirs, fish, including channel catfish, become lethargic.

Above all it’s senses, channel catfish use their sense of smell to find food, which keeps them more active even in warmer water. (Photo by Phillip Gentry)

However, on a scale of one to 10, channel catfish will still consistently rate a solid seven or even eight when it comes to their willingness to bite, possibly because of their incomparable sense of smell. It’s hard to keep these tasty and scrappy fish out of the kitchen if you offer them something tasty that also has an appetizing aroma.

While smell is important, a few other factors influence catching channel catfish in summer. If you’re having trouble getting on the fish, you might want to give one of these tactics a try.

Hit The Rivers

A great option to fishing lakes and ponds is to head to the flowing water in rivers.

“I can’t think of too many rivers that don’t have channel cats in them,” said fishing guide Mike Gault. “If it’s big enough to put a john boat or a kayak in, it’s probably worth fishing.”

Gault’s advice is to find an area on a river or creek where another, smaller tributary dumps in, and then look for structure immediately downstream, including shoals, rocks or downed logs.

“A lot of times, we’ll get a little afternoon thunderstorm around 4 o’clock, and it’ll be gone in an hour or two,” said Gault (864-426-0709). “Fishing from then until dark can be off the chain, because you got a little extra water coming in, but not enough to mess the river up.”

One of Gault’s favorite baits for river catfish is a little piece of cut bream or whatever baitfish he can find, especially if it came from that river.

While channel catfish are not picky eaters, having a variety of baits to choose from will help you catch more fish. (Photo by Phillip Gentry)

Vary The Menu

Channel catfish are known for eating everything from hot dogs to marshmallows to homemade concoctions of soap, blood and fish guts. According to Bobby Dixon, owner of Fish On Bait N Tackle on South Carolina’s Lake Greenwood, having a variety of baits on hand is often a great way to figure out what’s working best on a given day.

“We carry five different kinds of worms, including Louisiana pinks, Canadian night crawlers, and catalpa worms,” Dixon said. “On top of that, there’s a big variety of natural baits like crickets, shiners, black salties and cut herring.”

To top it off, Dixon said, are commercially produced stinkbaits and pre-packaged blood, shad and shrimp baits.

“Channel catfishing is all about getting the right scent in the water,” he said. “My advice is to keep changing baits, and especially keeping a fresh bait on, so it’s putting out that smell. If it has soaked for 15 or 20 minutes with no bites, it’s time to change it out or change to another bait and see what they want.”

Slow-trolling a live night crawler and under a float across shallow flats lets you cover more water and hone in on areas that might be holding more catfish.

Float Trolling

Trolling baits on the bottom for catfish has netted a lot of good fish through the years for anglers who are familiar with rigs that use no-snag weights to drift along the bottom. Big catfish can’t resist a piece of cut bait that’s tumbling just off the bottom. Veteran angler Hank Lyles said the opposite is also true: he catches channel cats without his bait ever touching the bottom.

“I hit on the idea of trolling a whole night crawler under a cork a couple of years ago,” he said. “You’d be surprised at how many big catfish will lay up in 3 or 4 feet of water during the summer — and I mean during the middle of the day.”

To combat spooking shallow fish, Lyles pulls a pegged crappie float weighted with a split-shot. He can set the depth about a foot off the bottom and slow-troll stretches of sandy or clay banks, where the frequent wave wash from boat traffic continually erodes the bank. He uses Nos. 1 or 2 hooks under the rig.

The wave action is enough to call catfish into the extreme shallows, and the edge of a mud line makes for a great trolling run.

“Fish the side (that) the wind or the waves are washing on,” he said. “That mixes up the water, churns up the bottom and gets the food chain started. Catfish will always come to that side to see what there is to eat.”

Get Your Stink On

Using stinkbaits, aka dips baits, is not a new tactic, but it seems to hit a peak in popularity during the summer, owing in part to success stories quickly broadcast across the internet and social media.

Stinkbaits, aka dip baits, are designed to release scent in the water and draw catfish to your location. (Photo by Phillip Gentry)

“On many Carolina lakes, when you use stinkbait, you’re going to catch a boatload of pound to 3-pound channel catfish,” said guide Chris Simpson, “but wherever you go, dip bait is the way to fish in the summer. Channel cats are on the prowl, and it’s real easy for them to smell this stuff better than just about any other type of bait.”

Simpson said the best way to target channel cats with dip baits is to find an open-water area where deep water meets shallow. If the wind, waves, or current are pushing from shallow to deep, place the baits accordingly to call in the cats.

To get the stinkbait — which like peanut butter is designed to be very sticky — on the hook, it has to adhere to something. One of the simplest and easiest items is a small piece of swim noodle, the kind kids play with at the swimming pool.

“Basically, I just anchor on humps and points, usually shallow water, from 5 to 20 feet,” Simpson said. “The purpose of the noodle is just to hold the stinkbait, the dip bait. I rig a thumb-size piece of noodle on a Carolina rig, then drop the noodle in the bait bucket and spread it on with a spoon. That way, you don’t have to touch the bait and get it all over you.”

Pay Attention

Several visual clues can tip you off to the presence or likelihood of channel catfish in an area.

The first is an area where birds are nesting or roosting. Mud swallows or barn swallows frequently nest under bridges that cross reservoirs. You can identify their nests as gourd-shaped vessels made of mud that are attached to the underside of a bridge. Typically, where there is one swallow nest, there will be several.

Swallows attract fish, particularly channel catfish, by defecating over the water, as well as having their young fall out of the nests. Another bird to keep an eye out for is a cormorant. Cormorants will roost in trees on overhanging branches and also defecate into the water.

During the summer when water temperatures reach their peak, mussels often die in shallow water due to the lack of oxygen. It’s common to see shells floating — with or without the soft insides of the mussel attached to the shell.

The most common places to witness this phenomenon are long, sandy points or shallow flats.