By Phil Junker

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For my first wedding anniversary – the Paper Anniversary – I ran out and bought my wife flowers and a gift and spent a pretty good amount hoping to impress her.

She took a trip over to the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife offices.She was happy about my gift. I was near tears at the thoughtfulness of hers.

I got a poster of all of Kentucky’s fish species. The Fishing and Boating Guide. The Kentucky Afield Magazine. A list of Kentucky smallmouth streams. Maps of Kentucky lakes and streams. And on and on.

If there’s one thing Kentucky Fish and Wildlife folks do as well as anything, it’s publishing great information.
My wife, a former state employee, knew that and introduced me to it. And I was reminded of it a few weeks ago when “Kentucky’s Boating and Fishing Access Sites” was made available to the public.

It’s the second edition of the book, and runs some 52 pages. And like the first edition published in the late 1990s, it’s chock full of information. It details about 900 lake, river and stream access points.
Do you have a small boat but you’d like to fish for smallmouth on Kentucky Lake’s Sugar Bay? This book shows you how to get there and avoid the main lake. Want to know where to put in to fish below the Kentucky River dam in Boonesboro, Ky.? It’s in there.

You get the idea. Best of all? It’s free.

Fish and Wildlife folks started passing the book out at outdoor shows beginning in January. They also will give you a copy when you visit the Salato Wildlife Education Center or department headquarters in Frankfort.

The department published 50,000 copies and plans to print more according to demand. The effort is financed by the federal Sport Fish Restoration Fund and the sale of fishing licenses. You can also call 1-800-858-1549 or e-mail info.center@ky.gov to request a copy.

Or, maybe you have a spouse or girlfriend or boyfriend as thoughtful as mine, and you’ll find it wrapped in birthday paper or tucked into your desk drawer. And every time the Department of Fish and Wildlife puts out another great publication, you’ll be reminded of someone you love.

—Chris Poore

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Excerpted with permission from Catfishing in the South (Outdoor Tennessee Series), written by  Jeff Samsel.

Staring at fluorescent rod tips, made to glow by a black-light beam, two anglers sit waiting for things that go bump in the night. They talk about everything and nothing as they anticipate one of the glow-in-the-dark tips surging suddenly toward the water’s dark surface. They’re fishing after hours because they have found that the night bite is better once summer sets in.

All of the South’s popular catfish species are at least somewhat nocturnal, with flatheads being more tuned into the nightime hours than their cousins. Through the summer, even more so than the rest of the year, most cats feed more actively through the night than during the day.

In addition to the better bite that tends to occur beneath starry skies, the setting of the sun sends the daily barrage of pleasure boaters home, which makes catfishing far more enjoyable. As importantly, summer nights feel far more pleasant than summer days throughout the South. Even when dog-day cats will bite, the mid-afternoon sun sometimes can be almost enbearable on the open water.

In many ways, night-fishing for catfish is not much different from daytime fishing. Big blues still like chunks of cut bait, flatheads still prefer live fish, and channels are still quick to sample various stinky offerings. The same rods and reels meet the task in various waterways, as do the same basic types of rigs.

From a fishing-approach standpoint, the biggest difference between day-fishing and night-fishing is that the cats tend to move up out of the deep holes to feed on nearby flats after hours. They still relate to the same kinds of holes. They just cruise the edges of the holes instead of holding down in the deep water. Often cats will start the night fairly deep, and then work their way shallower as the hours pass.

From a practical standpoint, the biggest differences between fishing during the day or through the night have to do with the simple fact that the world is dark at night. Strategies sometimes need to be altered not because the fish behave differently but because of limitations related to access and presentations.

Through the day, for example, fishermen often move quite frequently until they locate actively feeding cats. If the fish don’t bite, it’s rarely a big deal to move to another hole or at least to reposition the boat within a hole and spread baits over different depths or around different types of cover.

After hours, moving often becomes impractical. At times, it’s impossible. On many rivers, changing locations after dark would be treacherous. In other instances, getting down the river might not present a problem, but setting up properly in a new spot would be next to impossible without the benefit of having daylight to see current lines and clumps of cover and other features that affect setups.

Even on lakes and reservoirs, where it’s often fairly easy to move from one location to another, finding new spots and setting up to fish them can be difficult at night unless and angler is already quite familiar with specific areas.

Whether on rivers or lakes, often the key to nighttime success is thorough daytime scouting. Again, depending on the practicality of after-hours travel, anglers might scout hard to find the single premium spot and learn everything they can about it or try to pic out a handful of potentially productive catfish holes that could be explored over the course of a night.

Beyond identifying holes they expect to have catfish in them, anglers scouting for a night of fishing must give serious consideration to probable setups and potential problems. They have to consider how they might shift their position if the cats would not cooperate and figure out how they would find that position without the benefit of shoreline landmarks.

Whether they plan to move a few times during the night or pick a spot and stay put, most fishermen like to wrap up their scouting before the sun gets too low so they can be in position and have their baits in place by sunset.

The final hour or so of daylight, whether technically considered nighttime or not, often serves up very good catfishing. Plus, by fishing a while before it is fully dark, anglers can see whether their setup creates any problems that they did not anticipate.

Anglers who drift for cats are the exceptions to the daytime scouting/nighttime fishing pattern. Day or night, they never stop moving. They pick large open areas where they can drift for an hour or more without running into anything. Following common catfish behavior, drifters generally begin around dark by fishing the deepest waters they expect to encounter cats in and then work shallower through the night.

Because drifters move to general areas they want to fish and then let the breeze carry them, starting anew several times in a night doesn’t present the same practical difficulties as it does for still-fishermen, who often must set up in precise positions. In fact, with modern electronic units, many of which include GPS technology, some drifters are just about as well acclimated at night as they are during the day.

Once they start fishing, neither drifters nor anglers who set up on spots alter their approach significantly after hours, except for fishing shallower, overall, and possibly staying in spots longer. There are some differences in gear requirements, however. Again, most differences relate to the simple fact that it is harder to see at night.

Assuming they have a good idea of where they can and cannot cast, the most important things for anglers to see are their hands when they do things like tying knots and baiting hooks. For various reasons, most anglers don’t like to illuminate the whole boat. Some believe that doing so can spook fish, especially if the cats are shallow, and staring into lights limits anglers’ abilities to watch rod tips or see other stuff around them. Also, lights tend to attract insects on southern nights.

Most fishermen prefer localized light sources, and probably no type of light suits catfishing better than a little head lamp, like a cave explorer would use. Such a light points wherever a fisherman looks, with no hands required. Some headlamps are even waterproof and float.

Beyond seeing to do things in the boat, anglers sometimes need to keep a close eye on their lines or rod tips. That’s not a big concern for fishermen targeting jumbo blues or flatheads. They simply wait for clickers to start screaming or for rods to start rattling in holders. In fact, big-cat specialists who trust the fish to hook themselves commonly stretch out in the bottom of the boat and let the bite serve as an alarm clock.

Not all catfish bite quite so abruptly, however, so many anglers use white rods, which are easier to see at night than darker ones. Others use rods that have fluorescent tips and spool up with fluorescent line. They run all their lines out of one side of the boat and use a side-mounted blacklight lamp to make their rod tips and lines glow.

Equipment related, nighttime anglers ought not to forget a windbreaker or sweatshirt — even in the middle of the summer in the South. Also, with or without lights shining in the boat all night, bug spray is indispensable on some nights. Related to lights, proper nighttime navigation lights should be left running through the night for the sake of legality and safety.

As for the best time of the night to fish, the catfishing jury remains fairly evenly divided. Some would point toward the wee-est of wee hours as being the best of the best. Others contend that dusk and dawn bring the better fishing rather than the middle of the night. Still others would contend that the best time varies by night , based on the phase of the moon, among other factors.

Regarding the moon, anglers are again divided on the best nights to fish. Days immediately prior to and after the full moon would probably get the most votes, but many anglers would go the opposite directions and point toward the new moon. Whenever the catfish bite best, fishing certainly is easier on nights when the moon shines brightly.

Of course, the best night to go catfishing, as far as I am concerned, is any nigt a buddy and I can break away and can afford to forsake a night’s sleep.

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Armed with stout conventional tackle and baited up with one-pound gizzard shad, Bruce Midkiff obviously had big cats in mind. An Ohio River cat fanatic who has since passed away, Midkiff found exactly what he was looking for that day in 1999. Fishing alone, he managed to land a 104-pound blue catfish, which stands as the state-record blue for Kentucky and Indiana.

Midkiff lived in Owensboro, so he did the bulk of his catfishing in the nearby Cannelton and Newberg lock-and-dam tailwaters and the Cannelton pool of the river. That said, great catfishing spots are spread along the entire Kentucky portion of the Ohio River, which extends more than 700 miles and forms the state’s entire northern border Most blue catfish are caught down- stream of Cincinnati, with the highest densities through the lower reaches of the river. Channels and flatheads abound throughout the river.

Large lock-and-dam structures break up the Ohio River, creating a string of 20 tailwaters and pools. The best catfishing overall occurs in the tailwaters and through the upper portions of the pools, where currents are generally the strongest. Cats put up in the immediate tailwaters, using current breaks of various sorts, and in deep river holes within the first several miles downstream of each dam.

Anglers fishing the tailwaters often fish vertically with three-way rigs, using enough weight to bounce their rigs along the bottom in the sometimes-strong currents. They commonly fish “gaps,” where turbines are off between others that are on, keeping the motor running to hold the boat in place and putting their lines straight down. Flathead anglers sometimes set up in slack areas, especially over deep waters beside rock or concrete structure associated with the locks and dams.

Downstream of the immediate tailwaters, most catfish specialists key on outside bends in the main river, where deep holes are well defined and easy to locate. Rockpiles and creek mouths also hold a lot of cats. By day, anglers fish the deepest parts of river holes, putting baits right on the bottom. For night fishing, most anglers set up on the holes’ upper-end slopes or even on flats immediately upstream of them.

For blue catfish, which are the most abundant large fish in the river, serious catfishermen almost all favor big chunks of cut bait- fish, with skipjack, gizzard shad and threadfin shad all being popular choices. Some anglers will fish whole baitfish; most will cut strips that are an inch or two wide.

As Midkiff was doing when he hooked up with the state-record blue, some anglers also will put at least one large live baitfish down, knowing that blues and flatheads will both take Eve shad or herring. Anglers who specifically break strength with a small diameter, which is beneficial in strong currents.

Because of the immense sizes that Ohio River catfish can grow to and the amount of current that often flows in the upper ends of pools, big-cat anglers use seriously stout gear. Most use fairly large conventional reels, stout fiberglass or E-glass rods, and a heavy line. A lot of fisherman favor 50- to 100-pound-test braided line. With braid, they get a very high break strength with a small diameter, which is beneficial in strong currents.

Except in the rockiest parts of tailwaters, where three-way rigs work best, most anglers use basic Carolina rigs with anywhere from an ounce of lead or 6 or 7 ounces, depending on the depths they are fishing and the amount of current that is flowing. They lay lines downstream, usually staggering cast lengths to cover more area, put the rods in holders and wait for the rods to surge down.

Hook sizes used for trophy cats range from 4/0 to about 10/0, with the larger- sized hooks usually being circle hooks. Circle hooks have gotten quite popular in recent years because anglers don’t need to know when to set the hook or how hard to yank They just leave reels engaged and the fish hook themselves. As importantly circle hooks usually hook cats in the corner of the mouth, which is extra significant as catch-and-release catfishing continues to gain popularity.

Of course, for every giant catfish in the Ohio River, there are loads of smaller blues and channel catfish, and they use a lot of the same types of areas. Therefore, anglers who want to go after big cats without forsaking likely action can put out a line or two rigged with a big chunk of bait and bait others with much smaller pieces of cut bait, chick- en fivers or commercial dip baits.

Whatever they bait up with, however, anglers must remain ready for anything. Any rod that rod goes down on the Ohio River could be bowing to the tug of a 5- pound catfish or a 50-pounder.

The Ohio River Fishing Guide, published by the Ohio River Fisheries Management Team and available through Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources offices, provides good information on access to all parts of the Ohio River. For more information, log onto www.kyafield.com.

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“We’re trying to figure out how many blue catfish are being caught, the size of the fish being caught, how many are being kept and what the anglers are using to catch them,” said Fisheries Biologist Chris Hickey, a researcher who is heading the project for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources.

Fish tagging began July 8. Each catfish will receive a bright yellow tag placed on its back. Tagged fish will range in size from 10 inches to 30 inches or more.

Each tag will contain the department’s toll-free telephone number, 1-800-858-1549, and research numbers. Anglers should retain tags when they clean their catch, then call the telephone number with information about their fish. Anglers who do not keep their tagged catfish should clip the tag and call in the numbers. The tagging study will continue for at least a year.

Taylorsville Lake is a 3,050-acre reservoir located in Spencer, Anderson and Nelson counties. It has received stockings of blue catfish since 2002.

—Kentucky Department for Fish & Wildlife Resources

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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 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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