MyFishFinder Tips and Techniques > Float Fishing

does anyone float fish for cats?

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Trophy Hunter639:
Hey sure thing JW! :) Man that is a beautifull musky must have been a rush  8)

Jigwiggler:

--- Quote from: Trophy Hunter639 on Jul 09, 2004, 11:20 PM ---Hey sure thing JW! :) Man that is a beautifull musky must have been a rush  8)

--- End quote ---

Thanks TH!

Hey I got out for an hour last night.  The river I fish came up several feet yesterday and was flowing a lot of moss and other crap.  Decided to head out anyway and found a few fish feeding on top.  Not sure what they were, I opted for the old stand by worms.  The hardest part for me was detecting strikes drifting in the fairly strong current, as something cleaned my hook twice and I never felt a thing. :-\  I'll give it another shot as soon as the river settles down.

I think this could be a very productive presentation for cats.  I've caught them on top before pitching small pieces of cut bait to fish sucking on top.

Mackdaddy21:
I've caught a couple cats on lighted floats drifted through the swifter sections of pools. Nightcrawlers seemed to work better than chicken liver. I am even thinking of trying to catch cats bouncing worms on the bottom like I do for Trout in the upper sections of our rivers.
Generally cats are bottom oriented, but they are predators and will grab whatever they can. Drifting a float through a hole, or even up higher might work well when they are feeding on baitfish that aren't bottom oriented. I
have even heard and seen bass anglers catching cats on poppers as well on the surface. Goes to show you cats can be anywhere and do anything. About 90% of the time or more they are on the bottom, but don't always fish by the book.

Tyler

slipperybob:
Don't get stuck on the misconception that catfish are just bottom feeders.  In fact they're just like any predatory fish, chasing a food source in the water column appropriate.  That being said, I've sometimes will be the only person to catch a catfish on a float rig while everyone comes up empty on bottom set rigs.  There have also been times where the guy tossing a spoon caught more catfish than any of use with our bottom set rigs.  It can also be extremely fun hooking into a cat with an inline spinner or crank bait. 

Don't forget to have a float rig for cats on your next outing.  Let the fish tell you what they want.

panfishman13:
cats follow the food. sure they spend a lot of time on or near bottom, but i ran into a situation last winter when i was catching bluegill suspended 10' down over 20 fow. suddenly the bluegill bite cut short and i caught a dozen 1 lb. channel cats. even in winter, they'll swim way away from bottom looking for food.

i have yet to be successful with a float rig for cats, but that's simply for my lack of knowledge and practice. most likely, i'm using the tactic in the wrong location. i know where to find them if they're sitting on bottom, waiting to ambush prey from piles of brush and such, but i don't know where to look when they're suspended.

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