Catfish Tackle

During the summer, I like to cat fish at night.  A simple lazy type of fishing that sees long periods of  inactivity punctuated with moments excitement or frustration. (I'm looking at you Mr. Snapping Turtle)

The way I like to set my rig up for cat fishing is pretty simple.

1. 30 pound Power Pro Braided Line
2. 1/2 ounce bell sinker on the main line
3. 9 inch steel leader tied to the braid allowing the sinker to slide freely
4. Gamakatsu circle hook size 6 
5.  Big chunk of beef liver on the hook (preferably liver that has been sitting in the sun all day) 

This rig keeps the bait close to the bottom, but allows it to move around in the current and leaves it accessible to the catfish.

I've had better success with fresh liver rather than frozen and thawed. I will usually attach a glow braclet to my rod for easier viewing. (See previous post)


I put together a cat fish bag, so I can head out the door any time the opportunity arrises. Here's what I carry cat fishing.

• Uglystik 6'6"
• Inexpensive reel
• Camp chair
• Bug Spray (do not forget this, or you will be miserable)
• Baby wipes for cleaning hands after the raw liver
• Flashlight
• Headlamp
• Tackle for my rigs (on an average night I might lose one or two)
• Raw Liver
• Pliers for hook removal
• Glove for cat fish handling
• Rod holder
• Bag for garbage

Night Fishing

One of my favourite times to fish is at night.  It’s cooler, quieter and with out the other distractions you can really concentrate on the feel of the fishing. It is very relaxing.


As my friend Derek points out “why buy a sensitive rod if you’re just going to put it on a rod holder and watch it?” To some extent he’s right, I do like putting the rod aside and watching it. At night that becomes difficult. Once night while fishing out at Port Bruce a regular there and I struck up a conversation. He showed me a way of illuminated the rod tip cheaply for night fishing. You take a dollar store kids glow bracelet and use black electrical tape to secure it to the top side of your rod.  It give you illumination on the top 8” of the rod without interfering with the line. It does decrease tip sensitivity, but with you’re perching or catfishing at night, it really doesn’t matter much.

Glow stick on rod tip

You can usually get them in packs of 6 - 10 for a dollar and they last 4-5 hours each. I stocked up last when a store had them on sale. An additional bonus, is they are fun for kids to use on their rods too.

The Elusive Lure

So, the 2010 Spring Fishing and Boat Show was big for me. Dave Mercer took the stage and sold me quite a few things. One of the items he sold me on was the Storm Kickin' Stick lure.

Here's the idea behind the SKS: reel it in briskly, it acts like a decent swimbait. Stop reeling suddenly and push your rod forward, creating slack line, and the lure 'kicks' around 180 degrees. Now that's exciting! You see, despite being an adept predator, fish are inately lazy. They don't want to chase some five inch minnow ten meters just to score a meal. Instead, they wait for something to float down the current, and snag it enroute--a technique important to fly fishing.

With the Kickin' Stick, we get to falsely appeal to their predatory instinct. We have a fleeting fish that suddenly stops, thus triggering a bite. I've seen Dave run crank bait through his demonstration fishing tank and the fish chase it, but don't bite. With the kicking action, the lazy fish might bite on.

And best of all: it works! I was up in Huntsville last year with my shiny new five inch Perch Kickin' Stick and running it as above (brisk reel... stop. brisk reel... stop. brisk reel... stop). And I was getting results. Of the three guys in the boat, I caught three fish, another caught one and the last got shut out. The Kickin' Stick works, and despite Dave's suggestion that we don't rely on a favorite lure, the Kickin' Stick is by far my favorite lure.

Now, that brings me to two things: 1) my current stock of this elusive lure, and 2) the availability of this elusive lure. You see, in advance of the Huntsville trip last year I decided to snag a couple SKS's. So I called around to my local shops and received bereft responses of unavailability, and generally a lack of knowledge of this effective lure. Undetered, I google'd around for a tackle shop enroute to Huntsville and called them. He said his Storm dealer was due in a couple days, and he'd see what he could do for me. Turned out, he could get a Perch color and a Blue Shad. I took two of each (one of each for me, one of each for my brother-in-law).

That led to the above fishing trip, and the successful first run. I even caught a six inch Largemouth Bass on it! Six inches! That's only one inch longer than the lure itself! Now that's an aggressive fish.

Today, the SKS is still hard-to-find. Ebay has maybe half-a-dozen vendors with it--and even then generally not in the perch colouring, which is my preference as the Blue Shad didn't yield the same results. Bass Pro Shops lists all the colors except Perch, as does Cabella's.

Some hope lies with a small tackle shop nestled in the back of a convenience store over by the local library, hopefully I can get a few there before the spring.

Made even more imperative, is the fact that during the Huntsville trip, I lost my Perch SKS, but that, my friend, is a story for another time, one that includes a great customer service tale.

Spring Fishing and Boat Show

I had a great time today at the Spring Fishing and Boat Show with Derek.  We saw lots of cool stuff and the Dave Mercer talk was entertaining as always. He was mentioning research and practice as the two most important aspects of becoming a better angler. It was refreshing to hear that over, buy this new expensive piece of equipment. Good job Dave.

I spent a fair bit of time talking to some carp fishermen. They were showing me some of the specialized equipment serious carp fishermen use. The only thing I can say is "I thought bass guys were crazy"  They were showing me 15 meter rods that you don't cast. Sure beats my bread on a hook and an Ugly Stik.

I only bought a couple of things since my budget was blown last weekend on Charlene. I picked up a LiveTarget Yellow Perch in the 1' dive model. I'm looking forward to trying it out.

I also needed some new line. I decided to go with the PowerPro Super 8 Slick in the 20lb Timber Brown.  The Thames is usually stained, so I decided on the new colour.  PowerPro has has always been good to me, so I gave the Slick 8 an shot over the Sufix 832.  I'm still tempted to get a spool of the 832 and give it a head-to-head comparison this summer.

All in all a great day reflecting on fishing and have been giving considerable thought as to the research and practice component to my hobby. Thanks to Derek for the drive down. I know he'll have an interesting post about the show.

In Anticipation of Spring

My wife and I have an agreement, from mid-April until October I can generally fish as much as I want. I usually get out 2-3 times per week and a little more in the high summer periods.  Last year I got out probably 50-60 times in June, July and August. The flip side of that is I don't fish from Thanksgiving until Easter. This is an agreement I can certainly live with and has provided me lots of opportunities to fish.

At the end of the fishing season for me, I put away my gear and get busy with other things.  My Scouting is really busy in the fall, Christmas is coming and I don't miss fishing that much.  January is just downtime from all of the busy-ness. Once February rolls around, fishing starts creeping back into my brain.  The Spring fishing shows appear on my radar and the warm winter is getting me thinking of spring. My idle time drifts to fishing endeavors, I bought a new rod last weekend, this weekend I am going to the Spring Fishing and Boat Show. I need to take my reel in to have the bail repaired. I'll be sorting my tackle soon in anticipation of early spring carp.

The closer it gets to spring the more my thoughts and energies are on fishing. I still have to tear down the reels and re-oil them, clean all of the rods, take inventory of the tackle and see what I need for the upcoming season. All of the reels need new line as well. I need to figure out how I want to transport the rods in my new truck. There are a tonne of little things to get prepared. I guess that's one of the things I like about fishing so much, it can be a simple or as complex as you care to make it.

There is only a month and a half until April and 127 days until bass season.

The Russian Allure, Part 3 of 3

... continued from Part 2.

The months swam on, occasionally I'd pull the Russian out to admire it's polished, shimmering skin. Cold to the touch, it still made me feel warm with excitement. Dreams of massive fish attracted by its water turbulence floated through my brain.

Mark and I both tentatively committed to christening the lure on bass opener, only to mutually be too busy that given weekend. Instead, I combed the river banks casting uninspiring lure after uninspiring lure, looking for a spot, the right spot, to cast the Russian. The manner within which she was begotten leaving me gun shy and worried: should I cast her in? What if I lose her? A chance I can't take.

A few catches, remedial by expectations, nothing compared to what the Russian will one day bring me if I bide my time well, and bide I did. At last, I cast out with spinners, crank baits, jigs and sink worms. Nothing's biting that day, but more importantly: nothings getting snagged. I look out across the stream that day and feel it: today's the day the Russian pays it's due.

I tie a new knot, assuring the best security. I add a leader; lest a vicious pike take my beloved away from me. I breathe... this is big... really big. I draw more oxygen to make sure I'm stable, the excitement nearly overwhelming me.

I cast it clean and fair, seven ounces of glimmering silver going where I intended. The splash subtle, barely disturbing. That's good, it won't spook my prize. I reel in briskly, assuring maximum water turbulence. I envision the Silver October bleeping with sonar while it's on the move. My line concludes, no catch on that run... that's OK, I savour this experience. I savour the loss of my lure's virginity.

I recast with less exuberance. No catch. Even Dave Mercer requires at least a few casts to catch his fish, so I keep plodding on, knowing my superior tackle will net me my beauty.

Cast. Cast. Cast. Cast. Cast. Cast. Cast. Cast.

I pull the lure close to me for inspection. I blow on it; do the propellers still work? Yes, they immediately spin. I stop blowing, they continue spinning, slowing only under the light resistance of the breeze. The lure is functioning just fine. I cast in a different direction.


Cast. Cast. Cast. Cast. Cast. Cast. Cast. Cast.


I finish the last reel in, what the...? I decide to watch the action, to see how attractive it might be. I cast out to a clearer area, I reel in fast and it b-lines for me, causing minimal presence in the water. I swear I've seen more action from dollar store spinners. Maybe I'm doing it wrong. I cast slower. Faster. Super fast. Super slow. I watch the action, nothing; almost imperceptible to me.

I put it away that day, shut out and deflated.

Here is where my love of movies and quotes urges me to paraphrase one of my favourite films:

I wish I could tell you that the Russian fought the good fight, and the fish let it win. I wish I could tell you that - but fishing is no fairy-tale world. It never let fish bite it, but I was stolid. Things went on like that for awhile - fishing life consists of routine, and then more routine. Every so often, you wind up catching some fresh fish. The Russian kept me trying - sometimes I was able to feel a nibble, sometimes not. And that's how it went for us - that was our routine. I do believe those first outings were the worst for me, and I also believe that if things had gone differently, this lure would have got the best of fish.


Lapsing out of my movie paraphrase, let me be clear: this lure has no action, and has not caught me a single fish. I've rigged up insane pike rigs making crank bait chase the Russian like it's bitch, to no avail!

Today, the Russian sits in my tackle box, slightly rusty (I guess I neglected the WD40 maintenance that the manual suggested) and disused. Do I miss it? I miss the allure of it... I miss the dream of it. I've moved on, though, and found a great lure that gave me success. More on that some other time.

Spring Fishing and Boat Show

This Saturday I'm going to the Spring Fishing and Boat Show at the International Centre in Mississauga. I'm stoked about seeing some new lures and checking out the speakers.  I can't fish yet, but this is a consolation prize.  Trying to decide whether to see Dave Mercer or the International Fly Fishing Film Festival both should be entertaining. I'm in the market for some fishing line and was thinking about picking up some Sufix 832. It looks impressive and I've read mostly good reviews about it.