Catfish line?

do you catfisherman use braids or mono, and are circle hooks all their cracked up to be.

It really depends Mark. Are you talking channels or flatheads?
It also depends on who you talk with and how and where they fish.

So,

Please answer this:

Channels or Flatheads
What general area of what river

That will get us started!

There are lots of Pro’s/Con’s on Braid vs. Mono. I prefer PowerPro.
Circle hooks definately work well for channels. But you need to have a rod with a slow action tip, so the hook can rotate and do it job. I’d recommend Gamakatsu Octo circle’s or Mustad’s Lightwire Demon
circle hooks, in 2/0, 4/0 or 6/0.

Circles rock Usually I olny use them for channels also but have used them with good results fishing other species also. Even tried them last weekend up on the Chippewa fishing for suckers and they actually worked great. Better than the #4 bait hooks we usually use!

I was going to fish the croix with chunked suckers.

So you’re mainly going for channels I’m guessing. Circle hooks would work great then. But again make sure your rod has a slow tip and not to set the hook. It took me a while not to set the hook and get a rod that work well. Most glass rods will be fine. I recently bought a 8’6″ Salmon/trolling rod just for circle hooks. Now I just leave it in the rod holder till, the fish doubles it over. So far this year I have about a 80% hook up ratio “knock on wood” and have hooked every fish in the mouth.

Later

I agree on circles (although not everyone will).For channels a 7/0 Gamakatsu circle is my preferance. They’re a little larger to hold a big chunk of sucker. Mono is a good choice for channels too as it gives some stretch with the circle hooks…but there are many folk that do well with braided line.

One thing nice about channels as the water warms…they aren’t that fussy.

I use Power-Pro line and just love it! If a cat wraps themselves up in a rock or log-jam I have no worries going head-to-head and winching them out with Power-Pro!

As for circle hooks, I know lots of guys use them, but I have not because one of the things I like best about fishing cats is SETTING THE HOOK into the beasts! Gosh, I love that feeling when you lay into them and they take off like a freight train! My understanding is that you don’t set the hook in the usual fashion when using circle hooks? I don’t think I would like that, but maybe I should try it first and see???

I also use powerpro and like it. If you start using circles be patient and fight the urge to set the hook. It took me a bit to break the habit when catfishing. Once I did WOOHOO I finally seen the Light.
thanks
Larry

Hey Mark – As you can see you will get a wide range of opinions on what type of line to use. Today’s mono and braids are all good lines. In my opinion, the most critical piece of advice is matching your lines to the rod and the conditons where it will be used.

For fishing flatheads:

When fishing heavy cover I use a Shakespeare Ugly Stick Tiger Rod, Medium Heavy rod, rated for 30# – 60# line. I also use a Shakespeare Catera, IM-8 graphite rod, heavy action rated for 20# to 50# line. I recommend using heavy PowerPro or other no stretch type braid (65# or higher) on these rigs. I make sure that the rod is a medium heavy or heavy action rod rated for near the line strength being used and that it can handle the type of abuse from being snagged and tugged from heavy cover. The primary reason for the heavy rod and the strong line is to turn a big, strong fish so that it cannot bury itself in heavy cover.

For Channel Cats or when fishing an area with little cover:

I use Shakespeare Ugly Stick Catfish rods, medium heavy action rated for 15# to 30# line. These are all white rods and are easy to see in the dark. These rods have a nice light action tip which lends itself to fishing circle hooks. I have several setups in both spinning and casting rods – I like fighting a nice channel on spinning gear it is a lot of fun. I run 30# PowerPro on one spinning rod; 20# Trilene Big Cat mono on a casting rod; and have another spinning outfit rigged with 20# Fireline.

One last thing on lines. I recommend always going with HiVis line. Cats are not line shy. I even tie my leaders with HiVis when I have extra line. Most of my fishing is done in the dark and it is much easier to follow your line if it is HiVis. Sometimes it is hard to find HiVis line but I know that Joe’s Sporting Goods carrys a good selection of HiVis PowerPro – I just bought some.