Catfish Fly Fishing

[esox niger]

just curious if anyone around the st. louis region targets catfish on the fly and whats a good day versus and poor day in terms of numbers. Ive been kayak fishing a small still undisclosed lake conected to a large creek just before it reaches the missouri...connected to the missouri for all intents and purposes. my first 40hrs catfishing at various locations yeilded a daily high of 5 cats...last thursday i got 27 plus catfish plus at least one monster that broke me off when it b-lined into the brush and numerous other bites and misses, 2/3 of the fish were 17-20 inches..it was for me an epic day. ive been back twice catching around 7 and then 15 fish. weather / water hight (rising falling steady)/ and wind realy seem to affect the location and concentration of the fish. for the most part a weighted white rabitt strip fly fished close to brush or in shallows can bring a strike in less than a second after the fly hits the water...or usualy they hit withing 0-5 strips. ive tried deep but have been having great luck with a floating line and 1/40th ounce lead eyes. Im realy starting to enjoy catfish...suddenly they are as beautiful as trout,... well almost. it strikes me that catfish are like northern pike in that they are agressive minnow eaters that like cover, be it brush or deep water, and will nail your 2-4 inch minnow fly hard. And they can realy fight. even the little ones have me thinking ive got a big one with my 8weight. plus you know there are monsters out there.....i think im hooked on catfish. if anyone around St. louis is fishing for these guys it would be great to figure out who you are and maybe we can stay in touch about whats going on with the fishing.

[jjtroutbum]

So when did you say the fish fry was?

[drew03cmc]

I am going to learn the ropes of catfishing on the fly rod. I have, in my opinion, the world's foremost authority on the subject giving advice and pointers. He has posted on here as flyfisheranonymous.

[fishinwrench]

Now is the time to get'em on the fly if you can find them in the right kind of places. Sounds like Esox has located a concentration in a shallow backwater flat. Enjoy it and get'em while you can, cuz they'll be gone, or spread out considerably in a few weeks I bet.

Channel cat up to 5-6 lbs. run up the Lake Ozark tribs in tight schools during the early Fall (Sept.-Oct.) and you can sight fish for them (with clouser type flys) if conditions and timing are right. It's fun if you hit it right....but darn hard to predict.

[jOrOb]

Wrench is 100%. Those cats are up spawning and won't be available much longer. Boy are they ever fun though! I caught my first one on a fly rod last year while catching small bream for juglines.

Good day Brother!!

[esox niger]

well Im sorry to disapoint everyone by not havig a picture of todays catch. at least im disapointed! by the time i got back to my car and got the camera it was too dark for a photo so i held the fish up to my rod and it was about 5 inches shy of the first guide im measured that out to be 28 inches. booyah! i saw about 3 or 4 more the same size and hooked into another one maybe bigger for a couple of seconds till the fly pulled out!!! dont be saying there going to disapear dudes!

i bet this backwater holds cats all summer long....last summer i had a fish come after my fly that made a wake witha 3-4 nch front wave, if you like minnows why not cruise the backwater, and im under the impression that we are early in the spawning season cats dont even hit peak activity till 75-80degree water temp, though i havent looked at what it is lately im guessing 70degrees max. you may be right but im not convinced. or better, im in denial. shoot, im in jepordy of loosing my lame job by taking days off to go fishing, all i need is more pressure to be out hunting fish. well im a little amped up. next time i bet i remember my camera. I appreciate the replys everyone. ps #2 hook ,white rabbit strip tail (2-3 inches) with hook point up through the stip clouser style, 1/40th oz lead eyes and yellow or silver estez body/head has been the big producer. pretty sure the fish are alerted by the smack/plunk when the fly hits the water 90% hit within 4 strips of the fly...no sink time needed.

[fishinwrench]

Man that sounds like a blast.....if I could find a spot with fly eating cats in my neck of the woods I'd be all over it.

You're gonna mess around and hang a big ol' flathead eventually. If it's connected to the river there's gotta be one in there.

Snap a pic of that strip fly if you get a chance, I'd like to steal....I mean SEE it.

It will be interesting to see if you can stay on them all Summer without having to resort to bait.... keep up the reports if you can.

[esox niger]

here are the flies. i mainly fish white and silver grey magnums havent realy tried much else and they seem to work plenty well so i stick with that.

i threw in a pic of a purple one with silver body, i dont fish purple much so i cant say how that fly works but with a white tail and silver body thats the shiznit, just imagine the purple is white...im starting to realy like the silver chenile body flies but yellow has been killer as well and theres one with white estez which im sure would work good too. I have heard two tone is a good idea....i actually came up with they fly from a guy who posted big flathead pics, he said he was getting them on white curly tail grubs with a flouresent green jighead...to i translated that to a fly and this is what ive got. my only note ,not that it matters, is the strip can be tied over the body zonker style or simply as a tail. mostly i fish tails with estez body. putting the hook through the tail seems to help a little with it getting fouled up and i try to use the estez as far back over the tied down strip as i can, that seems to help a little too. for what its worth the flys been good on whitebass and largemouth as well. gettin some porker bass lately too in that lake, not as consistant as the catfish though. i think ive got to go fish again, this time im taking my camera!!!

[fishinwrench]

Looks good. Thanks for posting the pics.

[ksbass]

What is the water clarity in the lake you're catching the cats in? Over here in eastern ks the lake and inlet I've been canoeing is very muddy (vis about 6") but the bait fisherman are tearing up the c-cats on minnows and shad and flats on bluegill. We've been targeting carp on top and doing well. I did catch a nice cat on a dark leech but wasn't after them. I might give it a try though with the white buggers. I found some great log jams that almost smell of cats. In my childhood we would have hit the jams with stinkbait and done well. Thanks a bunch for the post. You certainly have a good thing going!

Troy