7 Keys To Catch A MONSTER CATFISH (Huge Flathead!)

all right people catfish dave here in this video i catch one of the biggest flatheads i've ever caught in my life i was on a road trip uh down to guntersville reservoir alabama i'm gonna explain the seven keys to catching a monster catfish key number one is experience i've got that i've been fishing for big catfish over 30 years key number two the type of gear you are using you need a rod that will handle big fish i am using these mad cats uh i prefer conventional reels or bait caster style you can do it with an open face i recommend if you are using monofilament line to use at least 30 pound main line with at least 50 pound mono leader i use 80. the reason for the much heavier leader is the abrasion resistance this is the part of the line that's closest to nasty structure on the bottom this is the part of the line that can get rubbed with teeth this needs to be thick or it can get cut if you're using braid i would recommend at least 65 pound braid with a mono leader the same way i do at least 50 to 80 pound mono leader you got to have large hooks to go over a large tooth patch and that's basically it i've caught catfish that's had as many as six hooks stuck in their mouth where they broke people off using the wrong kind of gear you know but either way gear is important the third key to catching a monster is the time of year you fish big fish are most often caught during key times a year which is spring and fall they can be caught year-round i catch them year-round but you're most likely to catch the biggest numbers of large catfish during the spring and fall key number four is the type of bait you use the waters you are fishing we'll depend on that type of bait in the tennessee river skipjack is our number one bait shad can come in second shad is more preferred sometimes in the colder months of winter things like bluegill live baits and stuff they work okay but cut baits seems to be the best bait in the tennessee river area up north different places of the country maybe flatheads prefer live baits not here all my biggest flatheads have come on fresh cut bait i've used live baits for years gotten a lot of flatheads on them but my biggest in the tennessee river have come on fresh skipjack or shad here again experience will tell you what type of bait to use in your body of water key number five is knowing where to look here again experience will tell you where to look that can depend greatly on the time of year you are fishing what pattern the fish are in is it winter is it pre-spawn post spawn is it high water conditions is it slack water conditions water temperatures play big roles in what fish are doing and where they're at sometimes fish are where the bait's at sometimes they're not uh here again experience will tell you where to look if i'm looking at a navy onyx app on a road trip i'm going to look for channels cuts difference in depths uh steep walls all this creates stuff fish can get against uh holes can be drops can be current breaks big rocks uh logs log jams anything that can create structure a hiding place a current break knowing where to look experience will tell you that i can take a road trip just look at my navy onyx app and get a good idea of where i want to fish key number six is time on the water the more time you spend the more likely you are to come across a big fish you could go out one day the fish have lock jaw you could go out in the morning but there's not a morning bite going on depending on the time of year it could be an afternoon bite it could be an after dark bite so if you're spending lots of time on the water you're finding out when those key bite times are you may take a road trip somewhere and only go down there for a day those fish for whatever reason may have lock jaw but if you go down there for three days if you go down there for five days that fish is most likely not going to have lockjaw for that long a time so you might start off with one or two days bad fishing and before you leave you get good fishing so time on the water is very important key number seven and this is probably the most important key and that is the body of water you are fishing at one time my areas were great here i know guys that went out in boats uh and caught 20 fish over 40 pounds in one night back in the 1980s you will never see that anywhere in fort loudoun or watts bar it hasn't been that way in years and years uh 2015 2016 were the last really good years since then it has taken a decline over fishing uh commercial fishing for whatever reason this happens all across the country they wiped out the bluefin tuna in the ocean you can wipe them out in a small reservoir so the body of water you are fishing is extremely important i catch bigger fish on my road trips going to a strange body of water that i've never been than i do at home so uh i've never been to northern alabama on any outing and not caught at least a 40 pounder second time at nickel jack 82 pounder i'm not going to see trips like that in my local waters if i spend enough time on the water i will eventually get a monster but here again you're most likely to get a monster going to a better body of water certain areas of the country are producing big fish so your best to go where that's happening my advice if you don't have the experience and you're really interested in catching a big fish is to get a guide in a quality body of water spend the time on that water and do yourself in the guide a favor and book that guide during the best times of the year which would be spring and fall if you're interested in getting a guide in the gunnersville area i recommend a guy named j.r hall he's got a guide service called black sheep catfishing guide service you can look them up on facebook they might even be online black sheep catfishing guide service according to blacksheepcatfishing.com 679-7667 family owned and operated black sheep catfishing is here to make an impression we strive to deliver nothing but the best for you and your family there they are i spoke into the little speaker thing in my phone and pulled up black sheep catfishing now let's get to the video ah all right people catfish dave here i'm in about 15 foot of water down here on guntersville reservoir now this wasn't my favorite place to fish according to what i was looking at on navionics fact is i didn't get no sleep last night and i want to fish in the morning so what this is is one of the best things i could find close to the motel i've been getting all the fish i've caught down here deep this is i'm on a ledge here going into there there's a creek coming out right here a lot of structure in this creek like timber and stuff you know this river's been ripping ripping hard here it's barely going reservoir gets nice and wide here i've got just a tiny bit of current uh i think this would be a good spot to pick up some flatheads right at dark but i'll take it blue too you know hey that'll do whatever's gonna chew is what y'all's gonna view there's a really good chance i'm gonna be hung up here real good chance [Music] i'm gonna throw one big head off the deepest part of this ledge i'm fishing the side of a ledge the bottom of the ledge and also a little channel jump right here from the old creek channel and i've seen a lot of stuff to get hung up on the old catfish dave bling blinger egg we're hit we're hit we got hit quick y'all my pants won't stay up so i'm gonna have to incorporate my overalls back into my fishing videos he's digging he's a digging what have we got oh he's pulling a little bit of drag right there pulling a little bit of drag right there they're fighting a lot harder than what they actually are it's the beginning of march and these temperatures are starting to get into the upper 50s they're getting some spunk i don't know what i got i threw onto a bunch of structure right down here he's bulldogging like a flathead but he hit fast like a blue i want to get it to the top of the water so we can so we can see what came along to chew he's bulldogging oh what have we got it it is a flathead boy good great it's a nice flathead too i told you i thought there'd be flatheads here it's a nice one i'm going to wear him out i hope my pants stay on there he is he's a nice one come on up mr flathead oh yeah oh yeah oh yeah oh yeah that's getting it done quick oh god a mighty that's a heavy fish lord have mercy i'm pretty sure he hit that uh big skip jack head a little skip jack hit that's a nice fish if i don't catch another fish the rest of the night that was worth coming to get the bite right there oh god oh god i don't know if y'all can see all that or not good lord i'll tell you what y'all let me get a picture of this that's a fat fish oh all right y'all i left my nightlight to video and so i've got the camera to the back side of this boat so it ain't in the sun i'm gonna pick this fish up i can't believe i left my video light man it's been a busy ramp bass tournament here's this fish it's absolutely huge man oh god huge i'm gonna let it go my butt cracks probably gonna show but we going to let it go man straighten that tail out god almighty ah yes sir big boy he's gone i gotta go get my light doug blast it well y'all didn't see that cause i had the camera off youtube blooper either way we got another blue in the boat and he's got that line all tangled up and wrapped around him too i got a mess here oh yeah he's got me a big mess over here there's fish number two all chewed up from all that line wrapped around him he made a mess it's going to take me a while to untangle all this that's an ornery old fish mill oh shoot oh shoot oh shoot oh shoot drag is peeling out he's peeling drag just palindrome most likely a big blue out to the left side of that channel it's on the lightest rod i got which is this medium action mad cat [Music] and the oldest line i got it needs change it's a nice fish he peeled a lot of drag [Music] he initially peeled probably i don't know man 20 30 feet [Music] that's where i want you yeah it's a nice blue god [Music] we got you [Music] mean old fish [Music] hey paul man they pulled hard all right y'all it's 8 p.m i fumbled around for getting my light and there was a bass tournament coming in as i went back to go get it took me forever to get my light and get back out here i missed a good part of that right at dark bite but either way uh we stayed out a little bit got a couple more blue cats one on camera one off camera it was one of those nights that uh i was really too tired to come out from not getting no sleep but i'm like man you don't get to fish much on quality waters like this you better go spend a little time out here and so i did and caught that really good flathead either way people hope you like the road trips i'm doing i like them i hate fishing the same old spot all the time i can already tell you what's going to happen in fort loudoun or watts bar when you come somewhere like this that old excitement comes back that i used to have either way got some nice fish today this is a video there was fish in the video that makes it a fishing video this is catfish day with another one signing out

Channel: Catfish Dave

Views: 203,563

Keywords: How To Catch Catfish, How To Catch Big Catfish, Fishing For Catfish, Blue Catfish, Flathead Catfish, Catfish Tips, Guntersville Reservoir, Tennessee River

Id: 5e7_shTApWM

Length: 23min 5sec (1385 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 11 2022