Fly Fishing for Catfish

[UncleShorty]

Due to the pandemic I've had to cancel planned trout fishing trips to CO, NM, AR & PA this year. (First time I won't have fished in PA, where I grew up, since I retired in '13...)

Here in Spring, TX there is a park about 5 miles from the house. The lake is stocked w/ catfish.

It's outside. It's big enough that social distancing should not be an issue. We aren't under a stay at home order this month and masks are required. So I feel like it's relatively safe.

I'd like to try to get out for a few hours this week. It'll have to be at dawn, if that makes any difference, because of "80 by 8:00". It was 105 F at noon today. The heat index was close to 115 F. Mad dogs & Englishmen...

I don't know what flies to fling, other than maybe Wooly Buggers.

Do any of you folks angle for catfish? If so, what do you use? I've got boxes and boxes of trout flies, all sub-surface stuff, but I've got enough varied materials to tie just about any fly.

Any advice earns you a tip of Uncle Shorty's lucky fishin' hat. Thanks.

 

[chucke]

what i have founs while fishing in the gulf and backwaters is that i can catch catfish on clousers fished on or near the boyyom. Good luck and stay safe.

 

[UncleShorty]

Thanks Chucke. I've got a bunch of clousers tied up in various colors. Looks like it's a "go" for Thursday...

 

[McSneek]

My catches of channel catfish have always come on dark woolly buggers. Have taken them on a white wulff during the white fly hatch on the Susquehanna.

 

[UncleShorty]

McSneek, that's what I was thinkin' Thanks.

Woolys and Clousers seem like the hot setup.

Just for giggles I'm also thinking of trying some black nose dace bucktails...

 

[RLeep2]

You might consider trying a big ( like 3XL #4 or #6) black fur leech. Most of the catfish (not really that many) I've caught on a fly rod have come on the leech slowly crawled across the bottom. A good simple pattern is a black chenille body with a black zonker strip pulled over top. Make the tail 1 to 1 1/2 times shank length and anchor the front end just behind the eye. You can add a couple turns of black saddle at the eye, but I've always found that the forward end of the zonker strip makes a sort of collar of its own. Put a black conehead up front or put about 20 turns of .020 or even .030 lead on the body. You want it on the bottom and then just crawl it along.

It's also a very good largemouth fly if you can keep the weeds and gunk off it long enough for a bass to find it.

 

[Dave_W]

Agree with the choice of WB or a leech.

Channel cats can be pretty aggressive and will eat a big, but slow moving fly if they're in the mood.

I caught a bullhead yesterday on a San Juan Worm (wasn't trying to do this).

 

[wgmiller]

They'll gladly whack a Clouser. Caught this guy and some of his friends a few weeks ago on the Susky...

 

[herbalwizard]

When the Pope came to Philly a few years back, my wife and I decided to visit friends in Katy, TX. Caught a bunch of channel cats fishing the drainage canals/ponds in our friends development. They called it "the bayou" and had seen very few people fishing there. Anyway WB's and clousers worked for me. Many takes on the drop and if there wasn't one, just slow, short strips on the bottom.

 

[UncleShorty]

I get it, herbalw.

Most fishin' in the Houston area is on lakes by boat. You don't see many bank fishers on the bayous, (streams), or the drainages.

A lot of that is because the banks are all private property and don't need to be posted to get you a trespassing fine. That and the sewage treatment plants located outside every subdivision dump into those bayous.

I'm an engineer so I understand that the outflows are clean, but many folks think they'd be fishin' in a septic tank...

In the spring the white bass run and that's about the most popular time to angle the bayous.

The Katy prairie is located on a major waterfowl flyway. There's excellent duck and goose hunting there in the winter, but it's expensive.

Thanks for the feedback.

 

[tomgamber]

My kid, ( yeah, that one over there) caught a catfish just like that today at the local put and take near Greensburg. Black Wooley-bugger of course.