Post by cgladue on Oct 21, 2016 12:54:02 GMT -5
Hello everybody,
I am fairly new to catfishing. Caught bullheads many nights last summer in Connecticut with the occasional channel mixed in. My biggest was a fat 16 inchers and I thought it was a monster.
I've recently switched my residence to western new york state. I like to fish every day after work, but now that the sun is setting around 6 there's no daylight left when I get out of the office so I've resorted to chasing cats. A quick google search told me of a nice place to try my luck and I headed down to the river last saturday night.
I used no more than 2 rods, with the drag extremely loose (basically no drag), 1/2 sliding sinker, swivel, leader, and a size 2 (not 2/0, just 2) J hook with a night crawler on it. Sat on the bank for about 5 hours and managed to catch 3 channels, 23", 23" and 21".
So as you can imagine I was very excited. Those are some big fish to a guy who mostly fishes bass and trout, and I was hooked. I came back the next night and caught 6 fish, same technique, ranging from 16-21", but still nice fish in my book.
Basically I was sitting near my rods and waiting to hear the drag slip, and then id pick up my rod, tighten the drag and try to set the hook. In those first two night I only missed 3 or so fish.
I came back two days later and in 6 hours I only caught 2 fish, both smallish. I had atleast 6 missed fish though, which was frustrating. So frustrating, in fact, that I decided I would try circle hooks. I bought some size 6/0 gammy circle hooks and some chicken livers and headed back to the spot.
I tied an egg loop knot on all hooks, which seemed to keep the livers on the hooks. I had well over 10 takes, some of them left the drag on my rods screaming, but I missed every single fish. I know there were some giants that night, and it was insanely frustrating to miss them all. I tried letting the fish take the hook for a while, setting the hook despite it not being advised for circles, and even picking up the rod (with extremely loose drag) and gradually tightening the drag to apply some pressure while the fish was running to put the hook into the side of its mouth. Nothing worked.
All I can think of is that perhaps these hooks only set if I have a tight drag from the get go, but then I'd be scared of my rods being pulled into the river. Additionally, my non fishing friend asked why I tried to make a change from the works and tiny j hooks at all. "If it aint broke dont fix it", but my personality has always been "if it's good, make it better".
Any tips would be extremely helpful. I will continue to pursue these fish atleast twice per week and I'd love to improve my technique and miss less fish. Thank you very much in advance.
-Colin
I am fairly new to catfishing. Caught bullheads many nights last summer in Connecticut with the occasional channel mixed in. My biggest was a fat 16 inchers and I thought it was a monster.
I've recently switched my residence to western new york state. I like to fish every day after work, but now that the sun is setting around 6 there's no daylight left when I get out of the office so I've resorted to chasing cats. A quick google search told me of a nice place to try my luck and I headed down to the river last saturday night.
I used no more than 2 rods, with the drag extremely loose (basically no drag), 1/2 sliding sinker, swivel, leader, and a size 2 (not 2/0, just 2) J hook with a night crawler on it. Sat on the bank for about 5 hours and managed to catch 3 channels, 23", 23" and 21".
So as you can imagine I was very excited. Those are some big fish to a guy who mostly fishes bass and trout, and I was hooked. I came back the next night and caught 6 fish, same technique, ranging from 16-21", but still nice fish in my book.
Basically I was sitting near my rods and waiting to hear the drag slip, and then id pick up my rod, tighten the drag and try to set the hook. In those first two night I only missed 3 or so fish.
I came back two days later and in 6 hours I only caught 2 fish, both smallish. I had atleast 6 missed fish though, which was frustrating. So frustrating, in fact, that I decided I would try circle hooks. I bought some size 6/0 gammy circle hooks and some chicken livers and headed back to the spot.
I tied an egg loop knot on all hooks, which seemed to keep the livers on the hooks. I had well over 10 takes, some of them left the drag on my rods screaming, but I missed every single fish. I know there were some giants that night, and it was insanely frustrating to miss them all. I tried letting the fish take the hook for a while, setting the hook despite it not being advised for circles, and even picking up the rod (with extremely loose drag) and gradually tightening the drag to apply some pressure while the fish was running to put the hook into the side of its mouth. Nothing worked.
All I can think of is that perhaps these hooks only set if I have a tight drag from the get go, but then I'd be scared of my rods being pulled into the river. Additionally, my non fishing friend asked why I tried to make a change from the works and tiny j hooks at all. "If it aint broke dont fix it", but my personality has always been "if it's good, make it better".
Any tips would be extremely helpful. I will continue to pursue these fish atleast twice per week and I'd love to improve my technique and miss less fish. Thank you very much in advance.
-Colin
