Catfish angling for Channel catfish is easy and fun. They are North America’s most numerous catfish species. They are among the three most common fish stocked in lakes and ponds along with bass and sunfish and can be found in every river and stream. They will eat just about anything and put up a great fight when hooked.
Channel catfish closely resemble blue catfish. Both have deeply forked tails. However, channels have a rounded anal fin with 24-29 rays and scattered black spots along their back and sides. They have a small, narrow head. The back is blue-gray with light blue to silvery-gray sides and a white belly. Larger channels lose the black spots and also take on a blue-black coloration on the back which shades to white on the belly. Males also become very dark during spawning season and develop a thickened pad on their head.
Channel catfish have a top-end size of approximately 40-50 pounds. The world record is 58 pounds, caught in the Santee-Cooper Reservoir, South Carolina, in 1964. Realistically, a channel catfish over 20 pounds is a spectacular specimen, and most catfish anglers view a 10 pound fish as a very admirable catch. Furthermore the average size channel catfish an angler could expect to find in most waterways would be between 2 and 4 pounds.
Channel catfish can be caught on a variety of natural and prepared baits. Catfish have even been known to take Ivory Soap as bait. Channel catfish possess very keen senses of smell and taste. At the pits of their nostrils are very sensitive odor sensing organs. In addition channel catfish have taste buds distributed over the surface of their entire body. These taste buds are especially concentrated on the channel catfish’s 4 pairs of barbels (whiskers) surrounding the mouth. This combination of exceptional senses of taste and smell allows the channel catfish to find food in dark, stained, or muddy water with relative ease.
Channel catfish can be caught at almost any time of day but the best times are from dusk to dawn. Because of there keen sense of smell they have no trouble finding their prey or your bait. I prefer to use cut baits because I have found that you are much more likely to catch the big one using them.
Cut bait is fish cut into chunks. Channel catfish just love cut baits. When you use cut baits the fluids from the bait seep into the water leaving a very enticing trail for the catfish. I am more concerned with the size of the catfish I catch than the size of the catch so I use a 4/0 hook with a good size piece of cut bait. If I am getting a lot of tugs at my bait but no bites I will gradually reduce the size of the hook and the bait. If I were going for a bigger catch of catfish I would start with a 1/0 hook and increase the size as my stringer filled up.
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