Going vertical for ledge cats

August 1, 2008 by admin

By Steve Vantreese

Lighten up and get down, but don’t expect to chill out.

Kuttawa, Ky., fishing guide Malcolm Lane isn’t offering philosophy of grooving when he advocates going lighter. He means tackle and line. And down means contact with the bottom. Any chilling, meanwhile, seems unlikely when it comes to one of his favorite endeavors — mid-sumer catfish pursuit on the big waters of Lake Barkley and Kentucky Lake.

Lane, who operates on the big western Kentucky waters as Hook, Line and Sinker guide service, is a 40-year pro fish finagler who more and more nowadays looks to the whiskered species for amusing visiting anglers. On the giant, canal-linked reservoirs, the headliners traditionally have been black bass and crappie, with a special summer consideration for the swarms of white bass that are popular with masses of locals and visitors alike.

Catfish have been coming on, however. Their numbers seem to be higher, perhaps in part because of less commercial fishing pressure in present times, and their quality and size certainly is high.

“The catfish population is real good,” Lane said. “And with less pressure on them, the sizes of fish you see only gets better.”

The no-brainer attraction of catfish is that these species — primarily abundant channel cats and larger blue catfish — can provide a volume of action and probably the most arm-straining resistance per fish of anything that an angler might pursue on the lakes.

“I’m in the entertainment business first,” Lane said. “My people have a big time fishing for catfish, and that’s what it’s all about.”

And sizzling summer is prime for main lake structure fishing for cats. “Hot is good,” Lane said. The heat is what runs the fish out of the shallows and concentrates them out on the ledges where I can find them good from about the first of summer into September.”

Lane targets catfish on the lakes, more often Barkley, but sometimes Kentucky, along the main river channel — the inundated Cumberland River on Barkley and the old Tennessee River channel on Kentucky — where tributary streams enter the larger river. Those locations, and there are lots of them, provide the necessary elements.

“The number one consideration is structure, a change in the bottom countour from one depth to another,” he said. “Number two is current, especially on Barkley.

The presence of current, it seems, is the “on” switch for much catfish feeding as it is for other predatory species that are drawn to those main lake shelves. Foremost, current apparently pushes baitfish in the form of threadfin and/or young gizzard shad onto the structures. And the moving water activates the predators to, well, be predators.

“The creek mouths give me several options,” Lane said. “When the current is blowing super hard, the fish, especially blues, will get down into the creek and get a little break in the current that’s coming from one side so they don’t have to work so hard.”

When current is present but milder, many times fish will gather in schools along the points formed by the ridges on either side of the tributary creek where it merges with the river.

“On Barkley, it’s common to come off the deeper river channel onto plateaus that are 20 to 22 feet deep,” Lane said. “Catfish like those areas in the summertime.”

Lane has a personal preference for channel catfish, although they tend to average smaller than their blue cousins. He notes, however, that some channels to 15 pounds and larger are taken by his clients, so he doesn’t feel he’s compromising anything by seeking them.

“The main thing I do is target the species according to the current,” Lane said. “The channel cat likes current, so I’ll look for them in some of the places that are more exposed to current when it’s running good. But if there’s a slack current, then I’ll go more for blues, because because the blue doesn’t want to expend as much energy. The channels are bigtime swimmers and will move around in the current, but the blues are more homebodies.”

Lane adjusts his offerings according to species, but his general technique and most of his tackle is aimed at both.

“I like a little lighter tackle and lighter line than some people do, and I think I catch more catfish because of it,” Lane said. “I use basically bass weight casting gear and 10- to 15-pound line — 10-pound most of the time.

“I believe I get more bites on the lighter line, I can fish with less sinker weight, and I can feel the fish better.”

Lane likes modest-sized No. 1 baitholder hooks with offset points for targeting channel cats and for combined channels and blues. To specifically cater to blue catfish, he opts for No. 1/0 or 2/0 Kahle hooks with a wider gap to handle larger bait.

Lane’s basic rig is to tie a one-ounce bass casting type sinker to the end of the line, then form a dropper loop by tying a section of line in a simple overhand knot about a foot or a little more above the sinker. The dropper loop, four or five inches of doubled line, is threaded through the eye of the hook, then around the hook to secure it with what amounts to a lark’s head knot.

“I fish for catfish like we used to rig minnows for crappie,” Lane said. “I bump bottom with the sinker — up, down, up, down, keeping regular contact. That keeps the bait close to the bottom without dragging it. The catfish tend to go to the bottom when they’re feeding. I want to see fish on the depth finder that are on bottom and not suspended.”

The all-purpose catfish bait as far as Lane is concerned is a combo treat.

His first choice is a live leech hooked into the mouth and out the belly, exposing the hook point. This is further embellished with a piece of frozen, peeled shirmp meat impaled on teh hook, the point again pushed through and exposed.

“I like the leech for taste and the shrimp for smell,” Lane said. “I think both of them together work better than either one alone.

“There used to be no leech fishing going on around here, but several years ago I had some clients down from Wisconsin, and they brought their own leeches for bait — and they kicked my butt on the lake. Since then, there’s been a few bait shops that have been handling leeches, and I use them all the time.”

When blue catfish are the specific goal, however, Lane gets fishy.

“Blues like yellowtails (threadfin shad) better,” he said. “They may be bigger fish, and they can take a bigger bait. I’ll put a whole frozen yellowtail on one of the Kahle hooks for blues.”

There’s not too much science in handling the tackle in Lane’s catfishing approach. Bumping the sinker along bottom, the bait riding a few inches higher, it’s quick-draw action when the hit on the bait is felt.

“When you feel the hit, set the hook. He’s got it in his mouth as soon as you feel it,” Lane said.

When the hook-set comes while fish lips still are applied to the baited hook, it’s action time. On bass weight tackle and comparable light line, it can be a pretty good handful, especially if the slippery one on the other end of the line is a channel cat that nudges into double-digit weights, or especially if it’s a blue catfish that will crack the 20-pound barrier, which is no rare feat.

“I like that touchy-feeling thing you get with catfish on the lighter tackle and lighter line,” Lane said. “I don’t feel like I lose anything by going lighter, though, because most of the places along these creek mouth structures are pretty clean bottom and, even where there’s cover, when you first set the hook on a fish, you wrestle him up off the bottom pretty quick. Then you can take your time becuase he’s in open water and not in danger of tangling your line.

Even on a big fish, as long as you take your time and don’t try to rush him, you can get him on lighter line — and have more fun while you’re catching him.”

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