When Lights Are Low

 When asked about my favorite month for catfishing, I'm not sure I could really offer a concrete answer. As quickly as flathead season goes by, I've caught fish from May to October. That's nearly half the year! Looking at peak fishing times, there's just so many variables to consider - weather, water temperatures, river flow, etc. But, when it comes to the time of day, for me the choice is easy. I love those twilight hours that occur around sunrise and sunset! More often than not, I try to get launched so that I can anchor up on that first spot as close to sunrise or sunset as possible.  

 

In my Making the Day Successful entry, I quoted Tim Scott talking about how catfish go through different periods of activity throughout the day. There's absolutely something to this, how many times have you been fishing and you're out maybe 4-5 hours...but most of the activity occurred within a 60-90 minute window? It's precisely because of experiences like this that old axiom that luck is "being in the right place, with the right bait at the right time" holds true. It's certainly been well documented that catfish activity increases during the low light hours. In the next sections, we'll look at some of the possible reasons for this.


How many times have you been for a drive at sunset or around dusk and seen deer out wandering around along the road or in a cornfield? There's something about those twilight hours, a lot of different animal and fish species seem to be more active. For sight-feeding fish, there's a flurry of activity where they are feeding while they can still see their prey. I also think it's entirely possible that the activity of other species during those twilight hours presents an opportunity that catfish are taking advantage of. Catfish species are very adept at feeding in low light conditions giving them the upper hand in low light situations. For an ambush predator like the flathead catfish, the lower light is an opportunity to roam for food undetected. In low light hours, the flathead has a distinct advantage because it locates prey using other senses like detecting vibration using their lateral line. Channel catfish are going to locate prey using scent as well, which also works day or night.  

Is the night time the right time? Whether you're Ray Charles, or a catfisherman, absolutely!
So, there's a spot that I like to fish fish and a couple times I'm sitting there and at some house along the river the guy is out in his backyard with Ray Charles and other soul music classics just blasting away on the stereo. I don't know who this guy is, but his taste in music is impeccable! Back to the topic, I went with a different focus here because there's been so much written about catfishing at night. And catfishing at night absolutely works, don't get me wrong. For me, if I'm going night fishing which is what I do most of the time, I just try to get out for some of of that twilight action. That way you cover both periods of activity.



Fishing in the morning, I like to get out as early as possible. If you can get the boat launched before sunrise, you'll often have the entire river to yourself. Just to enjoy the calm and peaceful experience of watching rods in the early morning light with some hot coffee is a reward in itself. And when things are going right, hooking up with a few catfish along the way. 

 

Undoubtedly, I've had some great times fishing during daylight hours. Even mid-day, when the water is deep enough to mitigate light penetration, you can get flathead action. And channel cats, well they feed anytime of day. Fishing with more daylight actually offers a number of advantages - navigation is easier, knot tying for sure, you can see where you are casting better, trying to find things in the boat is easier...early or late in the catfish season, there may be some advantages as well. 














Considering all the factors, maybe the best measure of all this is success. Overall, I've just been more successful fishing in lower light situations and have taken bigger fish at night than during the daytime, at least the places I'm fishing. It's also nice when you can get away from that daytime traffic and enjoy the river "after-hours" when it's quieter out there. Which also happens to be a great time to catfish. And for taking pictures. Don't you just love it when a plan comes together?!?