Hi!
What are your favourite catfish lures? I know, that your catfish is a bit different, but maybe we use similar lures.
The best for European catfish are not big crankbaits like

• Salmo Boxer
• Manns Baby
• Rapala DT
• Storm wiggle Wart / Sub Wart
• And a LEGEND - old lure fem 1970s - Shakespeare Big S
• Rapala Shad Rap
  

What about your expierience?

Interesting. I have never intinally fished for catfish using crankbaits but the biggest catfish I have evr caught was a 50lb yellowcat caught on a rattle trap. I have caught several on crankbaits over the years and even caught one downrigging Sat. on a sassy shad.

Most here use either live or cut bait, and some use manufactured punch bait or dip baits. And still others will use worms, chicken liver and many other things like hotdogs and such.I do not know of any that use lures for catfish.

Wow! It's very intresting. In Poland people use the same lures (liver, worms, live and dead fishes, etc.), but there is a second group that uses ONLY spinning lures. Big jigs, crankbaits. I think you should try!

I've caught some nice flatties on the trinity using crankbaits while the water was flowing. There are some boys up north that troll with D22's and they catch some really big cats

I use a shrimp net at night and drag real close to the bottom.

I'm reporting you!!!!!

The channel and blue cats that are common in Texas do not tend of to hit artificial lures. Most of the lakes, rivers, and ponds are not clear enough to make such lures effective. I have caught a flathead on a tailspinner lure called a humdinger.

Fresh cut gizzard or whole threadfin shad on a santee cooper rig is the best for blue catfish while punch bait is a good choice for channel catfish.

Fresh shad is my favorite catfish lure..

The Bardwell lake record flatty is 58lbs. Caught on a Bill Dance Deep Divr Lure.

My father n law caught an 18 lb blue on a striper jig about 3 years ago

I catch a lot of channels on roster tails lures

i make my own p-nut butter cheese bait. thats probably the reason for my rat-n-da-boat problem.

yeh that would explain a lot of your problem they love peanutbutter

but the channels LOVE it too.

Mine too! Usually with a crappie float about 3" from the hook.

I an see some ragularity here. Lot of big catfishes were caught with spinning or trolling.
Here is one example - atfih caught in Vistula (Wisła) river near Oświęcim (Close to me) on tiny crankbait while fishing for ide

Catfish 1

This one was caught by Marek Szymanski - one of the best polish anglers. of course spinning with strom wiggle wart

Catfish 2

Flatheads love a jigging spoon in winter. I've caught quite a few channels and flatheads on crankbaits also. never thought of actually targeting cats with a crankbait. Very Interesting!

Jerek,
Welcome to TFF...
Thanks for sharing.
Question, do you have any pictures of the rigs used in Poland?
Maybe ya'll should come visit us here in Texas!!!
Ron

Hi Ron!
I don't fish for catfish with natural baits, but i found some photos here:
catfish rigs
catfish rig 2

To find more type in google: "zestaw na suma", "zestaw sumowy"

I make also photos of my catfish crankbaits and i put them on new site on my blog.


My catfish lures

I would love to come to Texas!! But I have to earn money for this first hope some day it will by possible.

But if you come to Poland it will be pleasure for me to show you my spots!

ive caught some nice cats on plastic worms - while bass fishing-
They seem to really like the garlic ring worm made by lake fork baits becasue i have caught several on that one!

First, welcome to the forum!

DAMFISHERMAN (Dustin) will probably chim in on this one. He knows all about the fishing over there. Got some very cool MONSTER euro bobbers he's been wanting to use over here!

Slab

Maybe it could help if you put your lure into some fish oil before fishing ?

Or just use a pre oiled shad

Jarek,
Thanks and again welcome to TFF.

Catch alot of channels on the little 3 in gulp minnow. I bought them for bass but i've yet to catch anything but catfish on them. I think I've got about 12 or 15 so far since this summer onthose things

Thanks for the welcome!
In Europe the best are strong vibrating lures, which make a lot of noise in the water. I can see this as a big difference between American and European catfish.

would have to agree with bluewave mike----seen several nice cats caught on slabs

Hi!
Look at my last catfishes caught with artifial lures (crankbaits)
My big catch

Ive caught several blues and channels on rooster tails and rattle traps. None of them were intentional, but they were caught none the less.

matt

I was fishing on Calavares last year at this time, down rigged for Reds and caught a nice 3# blue.

Dude those are some crazy looking catfish

European Catfish - Silurus glanis
WIKI

Very cool site, Jarek. Was that 75 pounder caught on a lure? I've been trying to pattern big opelousas with artificials here in N TX. Seems like a great challenge. Makes me wish I was heading to Europe this summer, but we got some great big cats right here close to home.

The bigger one was caught on jaxon ferox (on the top of photo), smaller one on Hunter Spitit (on the bottom of photo) In both cases i used Owner ST-36 trebles
The best place for catfish in Europe is Rio Ebro - Spain

Hi!
I have written something about my catfish spinning strategies. If you are intersted in visit my link below and feel free to ask!
Spinning for catfish

Hi guys!

Recently I've been fishing for catfish again with some success







How about you? Some improvement in catfishing with spinning rod?

Nice cats!

I fish with tungsten beaded woolly buggers and catch a lot of Channel cats. Weighted crawfish patterns work, too. The only blue cat I�ve caught has been on the crawfish. Water visibility varies but is usually about a half a meter.

AMP Flies

Ah, you're fishing for wels catfish. Now the thread makes sense.

In my opinion, the only catfish we have that is similar to the wels in it's hunting/aggressive behavior is the flathead. Those can be caught on artificial lures pretty consistently. Blues and channels are sometimes caught on lures, but mostly they're caught with natural baits.

All the flatheads I've caught on lures were done while fishing for sandbass & stripers, so I would say that big sassy shad type lures might be worth trying for wels.

PS - nice fish in the photos!!

Thought I had me a Lake Record for a minute.

Have caught 1 Yellow while crappie fishing. Never had much luck with artificial's and Cats

Jarek, them some nice Cats!

Thanks! So as I see your lures seem not to make a lo of noise in the water. We fish in very dirty water too and we use very loud crankbaits with rattles.
This year I finally started to use live bait or catfish. In Poland we use a big (12in - 16in) live fish. Sometimes bigger. Usually carp, tench or bream in lakes and for me chub in the river. We had also some nice cats - 50in - 65in
but I like spinning much more!