Drift Fishing for Channels

I’ve been doing a lot of reading on drift fishing for catfish. This seems to be a pretty common blue and channel cat tactic on some of the southern reservoirs. It looks like a simple tactic that can cover a lot of water and is a good way to find early prespawn fish during the early coldwater spring period. I’m looking at trying it on some of the flats off the main channel of the St Croix south of Stillwater and Hudson. A lot of this water is like fishing a southern reservoir; not that much current with long flats that have a good forage base in shad and other rough fish.
Anybody have any experience with drift fishing for cats?

Myself and a few others I know drift fish for channel cats on Lake Koshkonong, part of the rock river in Jefferson and Rock Counties, Wisconsin. This lake is a “very wide portion” of the rock river system and is an average of 4 to 5 feet depending on water levels. Many have different techniques but I have used cut chubs strung on a treble hook with a 1/5 oz slip sinker. 10 pound mono since there is not much in the mud of the lake and you can handle most cats in the river (unless you tangle with some big flathead). And some simple old spinning combo rigs. I call them “Wal-mart specials” since they cost about 25 bucks. The key of this lake working with the wind. Being so shallow it gets riled up fast. Been out there when I shouldn’t have in rollers but had a blast with a buddy pulling in 5 to 8 lb channels.

The best part for me is to cast as far as I could then let out another 20 to 40 yard of line to get the line away from the boat. Not to mention a nice fight from that distance.

I guess your lake is significantly different so I would recommend working with the wind (since you are drifting and you need to cover water to find fish), find the shad, and with any luck all this would be on a break of some kind.
We drag the bottom but if I were you don’t be afraid to hang one from the boat above the bottom or below the shad school. Sometime they will suspend just below the shad and fatten up.

Sounds like you could have a ball.

Good luck

Derek

By the way I am surprice Briank and crew haven’t jumped on this one.

Somebody asking about catfishing and Brian not already here? I guess the rumor must be true about him being a closet bass fisherman. (Sorry Brian, couldn’t resist even though I have yet to meet ya)

I’ve been doing a lot of reading and most of the information follows a standard type approach. This is a drift rig I found from an article in another forum. They use about a 1 oz slinky sinker to help prevent sinker snags and they run about a 24″ leader with a small cappie bobber about a foot up from a 2/0 hook. The bobber floats the cut bait up off the bottom during a slow drift and helps prevent hangups. They also use drift socks to control their drift speeds with a slower is better type approach to drifting. This is the approach I plan on trying this spring.

Sounds like a good idea. I never tried the cork like that before but may give it a try. Ya gotta let us know how that works out.

Derek

Derek, Steve knows how I’ve drift fished…I though I would give others a chance to yap….once!

I’ve had limited luck using my electric trolling motor and “drifting” with a three way rig. Basicly the same as Steve’s photo above, but without the float.

Not too many snags on the flats where I’ve been fishing. But keeping the bait off the bottom might help. It’s going to be interesting to see how it works.

Once I detect a bite, I try to stop the boat and wait til I can tell shes got the bait good. I didn’t get anything over 7 lbs fall.

I’m heading down to Truman Lake (reservoir) in a couple weeks and plan on doing quite a bit of drift fishing. I have never targeted cats specificly while drifting, but have caught enough while targeting walleyes in the early months in years past.

We do extremely well here on channels very early in the spring shore fishing with very small bait presentations (1 1/2 fatheads on #4 hook). Larger bait presentations dont produce in the cold water. Most of the fish are finicky, while a few will hammer the bait. We use walleye or bass gear in the spring and watch the tip like a hawk.

I have noticed one thing on very early channel cats. We have to cast right into the school or you dont catch anything. These fish will not go wandering looking for a bait. Once you locate the school its not a problem to have steady to fast action for a long period of time.. until the school moves. The fish will move from daytime to night time.. which is about 100 yards where I fish most.

I dont see why a person couldnt be successful with light gear fishing for channels as long as the boat isnt drifting too fast. I would guess it might be more effective to anchor outside of the school once you located them and cast back into them once you have them pinpointed. Its not uncommon that we will catch 50 channels in an afternoon casting in the same area in spring. This leads me to believe the majority of the fish in an area are all schooled up in one school.

Is it spring yet? The channels started in very early March last year. I really look forward to seeing you guys on the open water.. early spring channels, shore fishing, lawn chairs, bbq, NO ICE OR AUGER NEEDED.

In-fisherman has drifting for cats on one of their videos/dvds with Al and Steve Hoffman. Very simple way they showed yet very effective from what I saw.

Hadn’t checked this forum for a couple days and like wow a bunch of new talkin going on. Way to go. You guys keep talkin so I keep learnin. THANKS.
Thanks, Bill