Catfishing; How Long To Let It Set?

[jimithyashford]

So I've been told that Catfishing is not like other kinds of fishing. You can't just keep moving around and hunting for the fish, you have to get your bait in the water and let it sit, let the scent disperse, and wait for the Catfish to come to you.

I have no idea how long I'm supposed to wait. I think about the longest I've sat with a stinky bait in the water is maybe 2 hours before getting bored and reeling in. How long do you usually let it sit before you conclude you just aren't in the right spot and move on?

[Riverwhy]

Twenty minutes is plenty of time to wait.

Just my opinion.

[Bird Watcher]

30 mins. on land, 15 mins in a boat.

[Wayne SW/MO]

I wouldn't go much over an hour if I had other promising spots. Obviously there is no set in stone time. You can always come back to a spot if you're use scent to see if anything was late in arriving.

[Tim Smith]

Catfish are what God made trotlines for.

Set it at sunset, check it at midnight and dawn.

Then go fish for bass or crappie or something that involves some actual fishing in the meantime.

[Wayne SW/MO]

Sometimes it is nice to let the fish come to you Tim, but it can also be fun to be there when they arrive.

[Al Agnew]

The sense of smell (or taste...they actually taste the water) of catfish is amazing. I got a good idea of it when I fished a few times with an expert catfisherman on the Mississippi River. We'd come up to a wing dam, put on a big nightcrawler, and cast it out along the upstream face of the dam, and give it no more than a minute. Then we'd go out to the end of the wing dam, and repeat, then go to the downstream side, and do the same thing. He said that if you didn't get a bite within that minute, you could sit there for a long time without a bite, that if the catfish (blues and channels along those wingdams) were there and willing to bite they'd find it within that minute. That's in swift, muddy water where you wouldn't think a fish would be able to find anything unless it was less than five feet upstream. He said that, if you didn't get a bite within that minute, he didn't know whether the fish were just not biting, or whether they simply weren't there, but that when he first started learning the river, he'd spend hours on one wing dam, and sometimes after long while he'd start catching fish, but he found that if he kept moving and hitting different wingdams, he'd end up catching a lot more fish.

When I was a kid I did quite a bit of fishing for catfish in a smallish Ozark stream, and we'd camp out on a single pool all night. There would be long stretches of time when we'd catch nothing but bullheads, but usually not long after dark and not long before daylight, we'd catch a few channels and maybe a flathead or two.

So, you could approach it either way. Either park in one spot and wait for the fish in the area to become active (if they ARE in the area), or keep moving and searching for active fish. I'm not a patient angler, so I know I'd keep moving and not giving any one spot more than few minutes.

[fishinwrench]

It's a tough call. The times when you aren't getting frequent bites are usually when I catch the bigger ones.

I'll stay in a known good "area" but I won't soak bait in one "spot" for long.

It really REALLY helps if you get a chance to survey the bottom beforehand during low/clear times (like now). So remember the areas that look awesome but are too shallow now, and fish them the next time the water is up.

[Feathers and Fins]

These are boat rules I use.

1. Lakes 20 minute

2. Rivers 10 minutes

These are from shore

1. Lakes 30 minutes

2. Rivers 20 minutes

If a catfish is near that is plenty of time for them to find the bait in each setting, typically you should have a bite within the first 5 to 10 minutes. One of the best catfishermen around would surprise most but it is Bill Dance and he has written many articles in the past on it. Search them out and listen or read and learn that man has forgot more about catfishing than most people will ever think of.

[bfishn]

How long do you usually let it sit before you conclude you just aren't in the right spot and move on?

Until I get bored.