What's Luck Got to Do With It???

Do you believe in lucky poles, magic baits, or lucky hats? If so, this one might hit a little close to home!  Ask a good fisherman and they will often tell you that you make your own luck. In other words, luck is the result of preparation, planning, location, and timing. 

First let's deal with a few common superstitions:

Magic baits

 

Read about catfishing and you'll frequently see people that favor one bait over others. If there was ONE magic bait, would there be a thousand different prepared baits on the market for channel catfisherman? I don't think so! Not to mention how everyone has their own favored natural baits. Cats are attracted to specific baits based on scent/taste, vibration, etc; and cats can become conditioned to accept baits often fished in an area. However, most of the best catfishermen I know believe bait placement is a more important factor than bait selection.    

 Lucky pole

Okay, there might be a bit truth to this one; if you're more comfortable and have a better feel with a certain rod, it might work better for you. On a regular basis, I do see certain rods being hit a lot. Maybe it's because I like the rod so they're the first baits out. Whatever the reason, I can't totally rule this one out. 

The big ones come when there's no camera in the boat!

With the advent of cell phone cameras, there's really no excuse any more on this one. However, for years I've been a believer in always having a camera in the boat and still live by that rule. So this one has been a non-issue for me for years. Sometimes the camera strap accidentally gets in the picture or the flash goes off at the wrong time.

 

Lucky hats

Come on, let's get serious now. How does the fish know what hat you've got on? I have a confession to make on this one...I have two catfishing hats and I ALWAYS have one of them one. When I recently misplaced my favorite fishing hat, my old Procats hat, you would think I lost my wallet with all my credits cards. Actually, wallets and credit cards can be replaced. Fortunately, the missing hat turned up and all is right with my world again!

Hit came when I wasn't watching!

This one perplexes me. It does seem to happen a lot where a rod goes down and I'm tying a knot, checking my phone, snapping a few pictures, taking a whizz, whatever. But how do the fish know?!? Maybe I'm just tinkering around with stuff a lot some nights. Again, I can't rule this one out because sometimes I've joked around saying I'll start rigging another pole to get some action going and it's happened. Crazy.

Okay, enough about superstitions.

I do feel that as fishermen become more experienced, they naturally become less superstitious (hopefully). I do think it's somehow an integral part catfishing lore to talk about superstitions and good luck/bad luck. I also think the best catfisherman don't spend a lot of time worrying about luck and superstition. Other factors are much more relevant.  

Confidence 

Confidence is highly underrated. He who hesitates may miss the hook-up... a habit of successful fishermen is to remain focused when things get exciting. Become overexcited when the big fish finally hits your less likely to land the big fish. Human error inevitably raises its ugly head! When you keep your cool, stay focused, and confidently wait for the right time and set that hook assuredly and confidently - without hesitation - you increase your chances of landing that fish.   

Discipline 

Most of the best fishermen I've talked to about fishing for catfish, especially big catfish, reiterate the same message - you have to be prepared to NOT catch fish, in order to catch fish. This means knowing you will go out and spend some time when the fish either aren't home, or aren't cooperative. You may need to wait very patiently several minutes or more for the right time to set that hook, after the initial signal you received. Most importantly, discipline is sticking with your plan and not switching to worms or cheese bait because the flathead bite is slow fishing with bluegills. Or breaking out the oars to get to the next spot when you had engine trouble but still want to fish. You have to stick with the plan, because you don't know when that big cat is going for a take-down. If you switch to cheese bait because the flathead bite was slow, you'll never find out.

Discipline is having your gear organized and knowing where all the important stuff is in the boat at night. And having the right gear and tools in your catfish bag every time out. For those of us with a short attention span, waiting for that next hit definitely requires concentration and focus. Staying focused when the bite is slow can be a real challenge some nights and the ability to maintain concentration is often the difference between getting that next catfish in the boat and getting skunked. 

Experience

Experience really is the best teacher. The best way to learn it to be out on the water. Successful fisherman may talk about luck, but it's more likely they are successful because they've taken the time to search out prime fishing spots and learned how to present their offerings in the right place at the right time to catch fish. Most importantly, time on the water leads to success. Night after night every summer the better catfishermen are out there searching for the next big cat. One thing that's guaranteed - you won't catch fish sitting at home.

    Blazing a new trail

Another habit of successful fisherman is exploring new spots each time out, instead of only visiting their favorite "honey holes" over and over. The fishermen who aren't out there exploring new territory won't learning nearly as much about the body of water they're fishing as the guys who consistently search out and fish new spots (another confession, I don't do nearly enough of this myself). We've all been told over and over not to just keep going to the same spot you've caught fish before. As Denny Halgren says, "A spot has to prove itself to you over time." So while it is good to have a catalogue of "top shelf" spots in your mind, don't be afraid to explore and learn about new places. Even if you've found the best catfish habitat ever, just remember there was that first time you anchored there not knowing what would happen...   

So the next time you're feeling superstitious because you can't find your lucky hat, just forget about it. Luck is being in the right place, at the right time, with the right bait. That's all it is. 

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?!?

A Six Pack of Flatheads

Anyone who has spent a good deal of time catfishing or targeting big fish in general knows that it's all about peaks and valleys. You have good nights and then there are not so good nights. Let's face it - not so good nights happen a lot more than we would like. That's just the way it goes sometimes, targeting big fish.

Every once in a while, you have one of those magical nights. If you've fished long enough, you've probably experienced one of these trips when things just fall into place. You make an errant cast, it results in the best fish of the night. Every bite is aggressive and results in a hook-up. You try a new spot and it pays off on the first cast. It's trips like this that make it all worth it...unforgettable nights that keep you coming back for more!

There is no substitute for time on the water. You devoted time to finding the best spots, catching the best baits, locating the biggest fish...you're waiting for an eventual payoff (hopefully). That payoff is fighting and landing a new "personal best". Catching your first flathead of the year (FFOTY) before everyone else. Multiple fish nights. Bragging rights. I was lucky enough to experience just such a night recently.

Before I sold my other boat, I was feeling pretty confident having made several trips in a row with a flathead in the boat. It was a good streak. I even caught a personal best flathead within about a week of boating a 36" sand shark in the Florida keys. I was thinking "I got this fishing thing almost figured out!" Not so much, as demonstrated by a few fishless outings last summer. Much more than channel catfishing, successfully targeting flathead catfish requires attention to detail. Catching the best baits. Scouting the river in the spring to find the best spots to fish come summertime. As others have said many times, you  really have to be willing to catch no fish when you're targeting big fish. 

The week leading up to that Friday night, I wasn't even planning to fish. I had just gotten back from vacation and we had a busy weekend planned. Then I started thinking about just catching a few baits to visit an old bank fishing spot. That day I decided to go "all in" and catch enough baits for a few hours of fishing some favorite spots by boat instead. Spots that had proven themselves over time. Confidence is such a key commodity when it comes to catfishing. You may have located flatheads at many places along the river, but there's always those special spots you have an extra degree of confidence in. Producing fish year after year, that's how a spot proves its worth over time. My game plan was to fish a few of these places and hopefully get multiple flatheads in the boat for the first time this season.

It was such a beautiful night when I launched the boat around 8:20 p.m. There was just enough breeze to keep the mosquitoes away, at least early on. My strategy was to fish a couple spots early then finish up late where I caught my personal best flathead a few years back. On the way up the river, I noticed it was almost dusk already. And no one was anchored in a favorite spot. I made a snap decision to just anchor up and see what happens. I could always come back later on.

I cast a few baits out. A couple
bluegills and one large creek chub. The creek chub was the third bait out. I get everything situated in the boat and start drinking some water and tying up another rig. Then I get a big THUNK on the creek chub rod. It starts to load up slowly and deliberately. Before I know it, I'm reeling down to set the hook on a flathead catfish. And the fight is on. Several times, I'm making progress and the fish surges nearly ripping the rod out of my hands. Serious stuff. Flathead, for sure. Eventually, I tire the fish enough to reach down and get a solid grip to hoist it in the boat. Holy cow. WOOT!!!

I get out some measuring tape and the fish is nearly 38" long, about 37x22. Definitely a new personal best. I got a few pictures and cracked open a celebratory brew to toast my achievement...with the knowledge that any pressure I was feeling was gone. By any measure, the evening will be a success.

My line was a little tore up, so I retied my hook and re-baited. The I cast out in the same general area. Then I rigged up a fourth rod. And cast another bait out to the side. And waited. It didn't take too long and I had another rod loading up under the weight of a flathead catfish making off with his prize. And another. And another. At some point along the way, a nice fish broke me off in a snag. It happens. That's catfiishing for you.

I'm boating a nice small flathead, don't remember which one. As I'm taking a few pictures, another
road starts to load up. I put the fish down and get ready and set the hook into a meaty 32" flathead catfish. The fight is on and I eventually bring it into the boat and start taking some more pictures. Another first - flathead double! My best night ever was four fish and I still have more baits left...and I'm still on my first anchor. So I cast another bait. Surely, I can make it to five.

Eventually, another rod goes down and I boat my fifth flathead. I've only been fishing maybe two hours at this point. And I STILL have a few baits left. I throw another fresh bait out and at this point I'm fishing baits spread around this spot just waiting for one more to go down. And one bait seems extra nervous bouncing the rod repeatedly every minute or so. I'm sure it's going to go. I check my other baits and might have reeled one in that was snagged up. And I'm waiting...

And then it happens. Not the rod I predicted, but 
another one off to the side takes a hit. And starts going down. And I reel down on a small flathead and hooked up with number six. And it's hung up. I holster the rod, as I did with another fish earlier in the night that came free and was eventually boated, waiting for the fish to come free. After a few minutes with no luck, I check. I can feel the fish is still on there, so I let out all the anchor rope. I use the rod to pull myself over to where the fish is hung up and I find it wrapped up in some other angler's line. Like a roast wrapped by the butcher. Someone's braided line that had gotten tied up in the snag I was casting to. Of course. (I'm not the only one fishing here). I get the fish in the boat for a few last pictures and another short video. SIX.

At that point, I decided it was a good time to head home, having sufficiently raised the bar for myself in the future. In terms of numbers, my "six pack of flatheads" with two over thirty inches seems like a hard night to beat. There is still room to improve on that personal best though, as I'm still looking for my first thirty-pounder. Maybe even twenty-five. Who am I kidding? I might NEVER have another six flathead trip. But this one night, out on the Fox river...

(note: the blood all over my shirt isn't from the fish...it's from my chewed up fingers. As always, I catch and release all flathead catfish.)

Misadventures in Catfishing, part two

Misadventures in Catfishing, part two

All too often, my outdoor escapades seem to involve some sort of calamity. The embodiment of Murphy's Law in action. Bad weather. Lost car keys. Record cold temperatures during summer holiday weekend camping trips. Tackle boxes left behind. Capsized canoes. Damaged motors. In retrospect, it's often when things that went wrong that made those times more memorable. Misadventures in catfishing.

 

The legend of Old Blue

According to some old papers, $119 was all we paid for the brand new Appleby aluminum boat our family purchased in 1971. It was a turquoise colored lightweight jon boat that was easy to row and moved along quite nicely when powered with a trolling motor. My sister and I would ride in the back of the pickup truck when we drove out to the local Sportsmen's club lake a few times every summer. Over the years, we covered every inch of that place and had a lot of fun catching small bass and other species. We sure got a lot of enjoyment and good times out of that modest investment.

One of my earliest boating memories was falling out of the boat one time. I was probably about six years old, upon falling in I began thrashing about wildly in the water. My Dad, unflappable, just hollers "Stand Up!!!"
(I was only in about 18" of water.) Another unusual occurrence was when a big bass, apparently jumping at the drain plug of the back of the boat, ended up in the boat. Every time an angler talks about how the fish "were practically jumping into the boat", I'm reminded of that day one actually did!

I'll never forget when my great uncle Oscar and I took Old Blue out for a spin on the "New Hillsboro Lake" (later named Lake Glenn Shoals) one spring around 1980. The lake had only recently filled, I'm not sure if any of the access areas were even fully developed at that time. We put in behind an old tavern and powered the boat with his 10 hp Mercury outboard. Didn't really fish a lot that day, but we ran all over that lake. He let me "drive" most of the day and with his motor on the back of such a light boat, it felt like we were practically flying across the water!   
 
When I was old enough to drive myself, I bought an old (1953) Johnson 5 horse outboard to use several of the nearby lakes in central Illinois. All you had to do was load the boat in the back of the pickup and you were ready to go off for on an adventure. Whether it was fishing for cats at the lakes at Coffeen or Taylorville, bass in Hillsboro, crappies at Lake Shelbyville, or bluegills on crickets at Sangchris lake, my friends and I had a lot of fun in that little boat.

Several years later, my friend Terry and  I hauled Ol' Blue to a bridge crossing the Kaskaskia river. Call it youthful optimism, we weren't even sure there was a place to put a boat in until we got there! We carried the empty boat down to the water and loaded it up with gear. I rowed upstream until we got to a shallow and swift riffle where we either had to get out and drag the boat, or start fishing. We started fishing. Working our way back downstream, we spent most of the time fishing at a deep snag near midstream. We caught a stringer full of nice channel cats that day, then finished up and headed for home. I guess this was one of my last trips with Ol' Blue.

 
When I moved to northern Illinois, the boat eventually came with me. Not having a truck or a trailer, I wasn't really able to take it out. I still had my outboard to use with rented boats and my garage space was limited. For a few years the empty boat hovered above my car, suspended from the ceiling of the garage. We finally waved goodbye to Ol' Blue when it was donated to a charity auction.

 

 

Misadventures on the Mississippi

Savanna, Illinois is a beautiful old town situated on the east bank of the Mississippi river upstream from Clinton, Iowa. Northwest Illinois is fairly rugged country, similar to central and western Wisconsin. Huge limestone bluffs line the east shore of the river here, there's a beautiful state park there with great hiking and camping. I've camped at the park on a few scouting trips over the years. In two early nineties fishing trips to Savanna, we couldn't have had more different experiences.

For both fishing trips my friend Peter and I drove out and rented boats. We camped at the same spot, known as Santa Fe Island, both times as well. The island is a great camping site in the middle of pool 13. Even though you're only a mile or so from the launch and just outside of town, once you're out on the river it's as if you've escaped from civilization. With all the beautiful scenery around, you feel like you've entered God's country, for sure!






The first trip out, we had sunny weather perfect for a quick swim. A respectable stringer of small catfish was caught, cooked, and enjoyed. We were afraid to motor far downstream with my ancient Johnson Sea Horse 5 hp motor, which I had paid a whopping $35 for back in 1982. Still, its proudest moment had not yet come. As we were about to return to the launch, we ended up giving a rescue tow when a couple guys on the river were having boat troubles...
with a much newer engine! The rest of the weekend trip went downhill fast, after some car keys were misplaced.

Okay, fast forward to the same location two years later. Peter and I are sitting in a tavern impatiently looking out the window, waiting for the pouring rain to stop. Pondering whether we should stay, or should we just go. Finally, we became resolute enough and decided to just go launch the boat in the middle of the downpour anyway. We figured the rain must stop eventually, right?!? We get our gear loaded and start the mile long cruise out to the island for camping. As we get to the island to set-up camp, as if on cue, it slows to a light drizzle, the even sun comes out just a taste, and we're treated to a rainbow! We even managed to get a nice fire going (with all that wet wood)...things were looking up! Later, in the solitude of the quiet night, we woke to the sound of splashing along the shore. It was hard to tell in the dark, but we thought it was a river otter just playing around by the boat. Having poured down rain all day, it was so quiet on the river that night.



















During that entire trip, there was almost no one (except the occasional barge) else on the river. We fished several hours the next day, with only a bit of action the trip. I had a larger motor this time and we ran up and down the river pretty good. We got to cover some water and found some promising looking spots. With the cold front, the fish were less cooperative this trip. About all we managed was a small channel catfish and a softshell turtle the entire day. Still, having an island all to ourselves in the middle of the great Mississippi was a real treat! 

  

 

 

 

Canoe Tripping 

In college, during the late 1980s, my friends and I would visit the local state park on a number of occasions. Fox Ridge State Park was an expansive park with a lot of hiking trails, woods, and included a section of the park along the Embarras river. We often would hike down to swim in the river and sit around the campfire (with a cold beverage or two, of course). Sometimes we would even cook things like steak kabobs over the open fire. Good times. We talked about making a canoe trip to the park from Lake Charleston a few times, but for whatever reason that never happened. A few of us even camped out there the night after graduation, when I lost my keys down by the beach then hiked back down there backtracking my steps right to the spot where they were. Right at dusk.

In my last year of college, which was the spring of 1988, my college friend and I planned a canoe adventure on the nearby Kaskaskia river. Seemed like a great idea to go on a trip like this before graduation. Once we had everything mapped out, we checked out some canoe equipment from the school and took both of our girlfriends along for he canoe camping trip. We all met at my apartment for a hearty breakfast of homemade biscuits and gravy then headed out. Our plan was to put the canoes in the water at Cook's Mills on the Kaskaskia river. We would then paddle for a few hours and camp at the upper end of Lake Shelbyville. Cook up some dinner and maybe relax by the campfire. Well that was the plan...

Deteriorating weather conditions quickly quickly eroded our confidence and spirits. A recent ice storm resulted in more portaging than paddling. Then my wife and I got stuck on a big log in the middle of the river for a while and became separated from the other couple. Great. We paddled, carried, and pushed that canoe down the river in earnest for a couple hours trying to catch up with our companions.

Finally, we rounded a big bend (of which there were many in the river's circuitous route) and there they were. They were talking to a local couple that was bank fishing below the nearby bridge...just upstream from a HUGE woodpile that stretched from bank to bank and was yards deep. In that moment, and I'm sure it wasn't my preference, a group decision was made to get a ride to the car from the local folks and call it a day.

And to think how the trip started out so pleasant and promising. Of course, we did have quite the memorable adventure. And it probably comes as no surprise, but that was the last time I got my wife into a canoe. We did go on some future camping trips, but that's another story!

Good eats

My mom always said "hunger is the best sauce." A deeper understanding came to me on a Rock river canoe trip in July 2001. We had a very pleasant paddle to Castle Rock state park. The scenery was beautiful, but the fishing was slow. I had made a brief scouting mission a few weeks before and managed to land a few fine channel catfish. It was the first time that I had ever fished the stream. However, the river levels had drastically dropped during the week before the trip. I did land one nice catfish on the way to camp, but we decided to release it since it had a few leeches hanging on. Not exactly appetizing. 


After some more canoeing and a few more hours of fishing, by the time we were ready to set-up camp no other fish had been caught. We were famished. And catfish was the meal plan for that night. Guess we had spent too much time fishing the wrong spots, when dropping water levels had drawn the fish into different locations. Sure, we had ample provisions, but we really wanted a nice catfish dinner. Not cold sandwiches.

 Once camp was finally setup, we had a dandy little spot too, we decided to put some baits mid-stream in the side channel right in front of the tent. We baited up with Sonny's catfish bait. In about 45 minutes of fishing, we had 3 nice eater size fish to go with some fried green tomatoes for dinner (which we finally ate around 10 o'clock!). Back in business!!! We could have eaten the fish raw by then, we were so hungry! Was it worth the wait? You bet. Nothing beats a little fresh caught catfish, rolled in corn meal and quickly fried in hot oil. And enjoyed while you're sitting in camp watching the river currents drifting along.

I only have a few photos of this trip because my camera (that was supposed to auto-advance the film) didn't. There should have been pictures of rock formations, bluffs coming straight down to the river, an eagle's nest, all kinds of gorgeous scenery. Misadventures in catfishing strikes again! I've thought about going back there for a float trip with the boat, but except for a few holes, much of this stretch of river is shallow and rocky. The only way access to the canoe campsites is from the river, which makes for a lot of extra gear in the boat. Still, it would make for a great adventure sometime...