Catching Catfish With Balloons

[Music] hey y'all justin with kite catfish i'm out on the water early this morning trying to take advantage of a morning bite if we get one and so far out here this morning it looks like it's a very active day i've got shad buffing everywhere i've got herons all down through here and where i'm fishing at today here is a backwater creek this area of the creek here you can see it's a pretty narrow creek right now coming across a brush pile right here but i'm 11 feet deep and i've got some baits trolling off the back of the kayak here you may be able to see them you may not because of the low light but they're under balloons i've got a skipjack head and a skipjack section back here and i've got them set you know two to three foot down under those balloons there and so my plan is i'm kind of out here toward that i started at the entrance of this creek and i'm going to work my way to the very back of it and see if we've got some fish up on the shallows feeding this morning i've got my throat net with me so if the cut bait's not getting it done what i can do at some point back here is just throw the cast net get me some live shad and run the same setup with some live baits under there but i wanted to just try to hit the shallows this morning we had a lot of rain here the last couple days our waters dirtied up a little bit here and it's hopefully i mean right now we've got some clout or some fog out here this morning so i'm hoping some fish are going to be up here in the shallows i hope i'm not wasting my time you know but nevertheless i've got them two baits back there and um i'm going all the way to the back of this creek here it's a pretty good distance back here this isn't a very uh wide creek it's not a very deep creek but it's got some length to it and so i'm going to troll the length of it here with these pieces of cut bait and again if i'm not getting it done with that we'll get us some live bait but hopefully we're gonna get some big cats today get that look at that man whoa man oh man these are pulling hard buddy whoa man he about ripped the dang rod out of the rod holder oh oh man that's the first bite y'all come on try not to get these two lines tangled here he spun the whole kayak around man that thing was pulling hard wasn't he you know i'm right now i'm eight feet deep my bait's down i mentioned two to three foot under the water i think he got another line over here it's all right we'll we'll work it out boy he hit that thing hard that's a decent blow the way that rod hit i thought he was going to be a lot bigger but that's a good size blue right there i'll take that any day of the week my man that's awesome he's all up in that line i don't care we'll fix it that's worth it but y'all right here you probably can't see through the fog i'm gonna make sure he don't get my motor here too look at that thing so anyway i'm excited about this fish but i will try to tell you that the fog here it's it's lifting here it's moved the wind's blowing in on me but this creek rounds the bend right here and right here beside me right here in front of me is a point that comes out this fish my balloons is kind of coming up on this point that's where this fish hit on a little point here within this creek this point's usually got some bait on it in previous times i've been in here i've seen some bass fisherman do good here now we got a cat on here too this one ate a headpiece of that skipjack and i'm gonna have to redo my lines here because boy he's he's wrapped himself around that other one but i don't care that's worth it right there man all these fun size and bigger fish don't come along too much in the month of june for me because of the spawn and all so when i get them like this man this time of year i'm happy about it okay let's bring this oh goodness gracious boy how about lost him again now let's try that again yo thing boy he ain't ready to calm down is he heck far this thing ended up he's got two hooks here i gotta work with because he got my other line but that's all right this thing i mean he crushed it man i seen my i see my rod start to go and i flip the camera on the next thing i throw my tips going backwards knocked my graph here about off the kayak all right let me get this stuff untangled from him here get all this sorted out okay there he is y'all that's a nice blue cat man that's a nice blue cat especially for the spawn this time of year i don't i don't get a lot like this but i do keep putting my hours in keep putting my time in because these fish they're catchable there's always some that ain't on the nest and i knew today with all this rain our water level coming up a little bit i got into this creek and and seen all the shad and the bird activity the herons are everywhere in here i was like they got to be some fish in here and we done got this one out here don't we oh that's awesome all right let me let him go get out of here buddy i'm gonna get these lines done here we're gonna try to do it again so i mentioned y'all fishing under balloons today i really thought i started out here at the entrance of this creek which is 15 18 feet deep and so my baits are just two three foot under these balloons which is a lot higher than what you normally see me fish normally i want my baits two or three feet off the bottom not two or three feet on the surface but as i get on back into this creek here you know say eight foot and shallower when my baits are sitting two three foot under the surface that's perfect that's right where i want them to be you know for an active fish to come up and get it because these fish that are in this creek if they're up on this the shallows here they're actively feeding and they're going to come up higher to to snatch a bait and dragging through this creek isn't really an option just there's a lot of brush and debris in here just you know naturally that's falling in the water and then on top of that we got a lot of brush piles that crappie fishermen have put out so you try dragging through here you're going to stay snagged up all day long it's going to be a miserable experience but putting baits under balloons pulling them behind you 0.3 to 0.5 miles an hour you can put your baits in front of some fish and not be snagged and hung up you are going to have situations like this if you're in a kayak though where the fish is going to spin you and get all up in your lines which is what has happened to me here so i got to get this mess sorted out and quit flapping my guns so i can get me some more all right guys so here's my balloon so all i did overhand knot around my line that way it's tight enough that it's gonna you know support my bait there but but this thing it can it can slide up and down the line it's not in a fixed position and i've just got my regular leader zone here 10 aunt mustad hooks i'm going to take a chunk of skipjack and put on this one and i'm just going to toss it out here in a second when i get this other one undone come on i got the head bait back from that fish there so i'm gonna toss it out you can see it's still in pretty good shape overall all right i'm gonna re-hook this bait now that tangle looked worse than it was but it's fine so again overhand knot with the small balloon here you know baseball size enough to float this bait got i don't know two and a half three foot there of uh distance between the balloon and the float and again you can slide this up and down as needed if you want to adjust your depth for you know whatever area you're in very simple and uh i'm going to cast them back out and start my path back down through here and hopefully if that if anything else is like that fish today we in for a good time right here here we go here we go i can't remember i think i put the head piece on this side again i think i switched it to the other side when we got rid of that last fish this one here ain't going to measure up to that last one well that's another bite he's coming right at me man oh he just popped free just popped free that's okay here's a little one anyway that's how i like doing them little ones you get them like that i just soon get to fight and let them pop free without me having to get hold of them and try to wrestle them in usually the bigger ones will calm down for you better than the smaller ones will so my bait there still in good shape give it a toss get it back out there continue on my troll i'm just making my way back into this creek that you can't see yet because it's still foggy quite honestly i hope this fog stays like this for as long as possible because that's going to help my bite back here in the shallows got something going on right here my balloon's under i'm going to crank down on him yep he's on there he's on there i look back and my balloon was under the water i don't think this is going to end up being very i'm going to get myself spa he's running me around he's big enough to turn me he's not going to be as big as the one who landed maybe as big as the one i oh no that's that's a little bigger than the one we lost he fooled me i guess it was just because he was coming at me there i didn't realize he was as big as he was that one hit the the bait and i saw my rod move and then you know i looked back and my balloon was under but he really didn't uh he really didn't shoot off you know i guess he felt the resistance and went the other way that's a that's a quality fish that's a quality fish right there y'all i'm happy with that okay we got him in oh man that's awesome look at that buddy that's another fun-sized blue up here i'm five feet deep right now right here where i'm at right here in the shallows man this is awesome all right let me let him go i'm gonna put another bait on there oh splashing me on the way up let me get another piece of skipjack um that was one of the midsections there because we've got the head on the other side so i'm gonna i'm keeping myself moving forward here since that fish didn't get me wrapped up in the other line and it's still going here behind me i'm gonna pull out another bait and we'll toss it out and just keep making my way back in this creek i'm planning on going all the way back in here to kind of the two foot depths this this creek it kind of again you can't see because the dang fog but the fog is helping my bite so i'm happy to have it but this creek is shallow but it kind of opens up back here gets a little wider but you've got you know a big stretch here of four or five foot depth and it tapers you know to two three foot and i'm going all the way back here as far as i can get in it before i turn around all right let's cut us a skip jack here i got these last night they're good and fresh stuck them on ice in my cooler let's go trim this fin up here get that dorsal fin you know some people do that some don't it's necessary yeah that fin don't serve a purpose on the hook so i feel like you know if it cost you one fish over the course of your lifetime well that's one too many just simple to cut it off so there's that bait i'm gonna fix my balloon back here he's reeled it up here to my rod tip that's the nice thing about these balloons you know they just slide up and down real easily on your line so you can adjust them to whatever depth you know whatever depth that you want your bait running at i don't have any weight here any sinker on my baits because the weight of the bait itself is enough to get it down and i'm moving so slowly and you know 0.3.5 again that these baits are going to sink on their own and so they're going to get down there's a little bit of drag a little bit of resistance as the bait pulls along so it's not going to be if i've got that set at say two and a half feet that bait's not going to be two and a half feet in the surface it's gonna be more like one and a half to two foot but you still you know again as i make my way along here if my bait's running one and a half two feet deep and i'm in three foot of water perfect you know anyway enough of me gabbing i gotta get this out here got something happening here my balloon's under my balloon's under yeah there he goes oh you can see look at my line out there if you can see it it was heading to the right i saw my rod tip just kind of get hit and i looked back and i couldn't find my balloon i was like it must be under the surface he's just running with it yeah this one here well i don't want to say he ain't big till i get him up here and get a look at him so last one fooled me yeah this one here is going to be uh this right here is nice having this electric mode of the minn kota here on this old town kayak being able to get myself going back in the direction i need to go when these fish spin me that's helpful this one here is going to be uh yeah we'll call him a larger dink a smaller fun size in that in between in between area there all righty let's bring us an end just for a second here long enough to get him unhooked and he's going right back in this ain't gonna be front camera worthy there he is y'all see if i can get him in the sun that's coming up there i'm happy to have him it's a it's a lot of fun doing this they get another bait on here and then we'll see if we can get us some more there's our next bait a chunk of skippy give it a toss back there and distance on my lines i've got probably between my cast and what i'm letting out 30 to 50 yards behind me right here oh boy he's a pulling he's a pulling too man well that's another one there it's let me make it the motor here so i'll get him in that other line i want to keep that other bait going in case there's more with him yeah i'll tell you folks i can't talk and work the motor and reel the fish off the same time but it's a blast good i kept him out of that other line that way we can keep that other bait up there in position this one here i don't think he's oh he's going to be another dinked uh yeah it's a it's a smaller one here it's a dink another one though only midsection so i may i'm gonna make my way on the back of this creek and then i'll reel that in and we'll switch that head out if it don't get hit anymore but it seems like here these last two or three fish have all hit the midsection so there he is okay he's got a little blood there on his lip he'll be fine i just pierced his lip there gave him something to remember me by go get big buddy we'll do it again someday cut another sliver of this skip jacket tail piece there i'm gonna feed the turtles with it ain't got no need for it i got plenty of plenty of skips so no need to no need to use the tails i like the heads and the mid sections the best all right let's cast us another one out perfect set that there i'm gonna keep making my way along y'all you know again i'm operating under the balloons here today but ideally i could be putting out planer boards and just use the planer boards in place of the balloons it would do the same thing it would it would support my baits but then they would move my baits out a little further there off to the side of the kayak now is that important yeah maybe it is maybe it ain't i mean i am running the electric motor in the shallows here so you know if i go right over the top of the fish it could spook them but generally electric motors very quiet compared to say a bass motor coming down through here and running the outboard over them and in addition to that you know i'm moving down through here i'm creating a scent trail as i pull my baits along so fish that are you know maybe over here along the shorelines they're coming out looking for bait they lock into my scent they can come find my baits and they may have been nowhere near my motor you know so i don't think it's obviously not affecting anything today having these baits kind of running uh off the back of the kayak here but you know again planer boards you know again i could space my baits out a little more and maybe add a third rod going directly off the back of the kayak and then have the two planers off the side i just think it may be a little a little much when you get a big fish and it spins you and and get you going backwards and whatnot so nevertheless man i'm having a good time i've i've kind of committed this year to fishing the shallows a little more uh my regular viewers there you watch my memorial day weekend videos i spent the whole weekend anchored down in a creek i was using those shallow water anchor sticks which i absolutely hate probably no i got hit i got hit it didn't go down but i was saying uh i was using those shallow water anchor sticks hate them things and you know you when you anchor down in a creek and you got your baits cast out obviously you got active fish working through they're going to find your baits and i had some good days out there i got some nice fish doing that but you also get turtled to death and channel catted to death and this right here you know i'm still going to get nipped by turtles and whatnot but i'm moving you know my base just aren't just sitting there for them to just get up on and just chew them to pieces you know so hopefully it's hopefully it's going to deter that a little bit this right here you know i'm not going to talk like i'm some kind of expert on doing it because i don't you watch my videos regularly you know i don't spend a lot of time in the shallows but this year i'm just kind of again just kind of committed to it so doing it more trying to get better at it and see how productive it can be but again uh you know that right here right here we got one pulling there buddy we got one pulling there that's on the head i was gonna say deep water structures my comfort zone that's kind of that's kind of my home base you know but just shallow water fishing it can be fun when the bites own i think that's gonna be a little better one right there i'm four feet of water here this in here is gonna be a little better y'all it feels like he's going to be anyway but you know i was mentioning the planer boards how come i could run a third rod this right here you see how i'm getting spun around with this fish just because the kayak's so lightweight i think if i added a third rod i'd be i'd be cussing at some point in the day i'd lose some religion out there with the third rod trying to pull baits in the kayak and that's a that's a fun sizer on that headpiece i'm probably going to go ahead and switch that headpiece out i think about reeling it in and doing that anyway and that'll be a good time to switch that out and put on a fresh piece well y'all here's this one he's not gonna be quite front camera worthy if i put him in the front camera he's gonna have a shadow on him because of the lighting so we'll go with him right there he's got the length of a fun-sizer but real skinny probably spawned out you know we in june here a lot of our fish are on the nest right now this is this is spawning month here in east tennessee at least we're on the areas i fish anyway you know that head right there overall is still in really good shape but i've got so much bait out here today and i'm gonna go ahead and just switch it out we'll put on a fresh piece here got all that scent all that blood in it there and i'm just going to give them fins a little snip just because get this thing on and get that cast back out and have us some more fun i'm having a good time out here today y'all i don't know if you can tell on camera i know i get kind of sidetracked when i'm trying to reel in a fish keep the kayak straight and look at that and try to talk while i cast and birds nest myself good golly another blooper reel moment here but i know it takes away from the video a little bit when i'm trying to do so many things at once and can't hardly focus on talking to the camera but i'm having a dang good time whether you can tell on camera or not even if i am getting a bird's nest or getting my kayak spun around all right problem solved got both baits out we fishing again all right guys i have made the turn and now i'm working my way back out of this creek so you know the first couple hours of my trip it took me that long to get from the entrance of this creek just slowly making my way back but it was productive and paid off but now the sun is up the fog has burned off and so i'm curious to see now how the bite is on the way back out of here and see if it slows down at all if these fish are still here again the water color i don't know if you can see here with the with the lighting and the camera and all but it's it's pretty muddy just from the rain that we've had the last couple days so i'm hoping even though the sun's getting on up there and the fog's going that maybe our watercolor will hold these fish back in here i mean it's it's probably up i would say between one to two feet higher than normal and there's a lot more shad at least a lot more noticeable shad in here today i mean when i first got out here this morning shad was getting busted up along the shoreline i assume bass or or stripers or who knows what was after him i mean it was a really active morning that rod got hit something bumped me right there but uh anyway it's been a really active morning so far and i'm hoping it continues but i'm curious to see as i make my way out what happens on our on this pass here oh right here right here oh that one's hooked up oh man get my rod up right holder buddy man that's so much fun a lot of people don't like trolling you know they say it's easy no sport in it i love trolling whether it be for bass or skipjack or whatever but when you can hook into some bigger fish like catfish doing it boy it's a good time i'm way out of this creek now still here toward the back of it hooked up again there we go it's another i will call him a larger dink he's he's got the length of a fun sizer just super skinny you know probably from the spawn this fish will fill back out here in another month or two getting our bait back out there too that one's getting cast back out that's in good shape there it is look how skinny that fish is you tell me that fish ain't been on the on the spawn yeah here fix my balloon back here these balloons you know again i've just got them overhanded not to my line so when the fish hits the resistance will slide your balloon on up but then once you get the fish land and you get ready to set your baits back out you can set it to wherever you want it again and i've just got it you know two and a half three foot there all right just like that we're fishing again here we go again this one's on the other one now this is on the midsection that other one hit just i ain't been moving again maybe a couple minutes i think this one's gonna be another small though yeah it is this may be the smallest one of the morning right here again though i'm back here well i'm four foot it's not normally this date right here and it's just because our water level's up that we've got this much back here right now this is just a small one here just a small blue kitty this one has thrown the bait off so we're gonna put a fresh piece on there he is get out of here you old thing we're looking for big brother right here y'all i just got the other one cast back out this one's going down i'm on some fish right here they they there's a school of them that's worked through this area of the creek because that's three fish just boom boom boom just a few minutes apart i mean i just got that of the bait cast back out then you know here i was kind of worried about the bite slacking off now the sun's up and fog's burnt off but so far so good that's a little bit bigger than the last one but still a really skinny really skinny fish there it is another skinny dink that was a good time slide that back down let's take a look at this bait here i think it's still in pretty good shape but you know what i'm going to do i'm going to get myself spun back around here first that bait i mean you can see normally i'd go ahead and get another fish on that but i just cut this other skip jack to replace the bait from that last fish so i've got this head just sitting here look at that meaty goodness oh let's put it on look at all that see that blood right there it's dripping down in the water and see how it kind of disperses and so what i'm trolling along here i'm creating a scent trail for these fish so you know even if i'm not going right by them as they move in and around this creek they'll be able to lock in on that scent trail and come find my bait and again all these fish if they're back here in the shallows if they're in three four foot of water they're eating they're hungry all right we'll get that one back out and i think we'll be set again a little action here i don't see my balloon he's swimming he's going with it there's my balloon out there just come up i'll see my rod move and then look back and the balloon's gone it's like bobber fishing well he's wound up out there ain't he you can see though y'all i made a great deal of progress i got my speed i'm just keeping it between point three and point five and just you know working real slow basically the same speed i'd be dragging baits at we're just suspending them here under a float this thing i'm pulling in dead weight right here he's going to save his energy till he gets up here at the side of the kayak and then he's going to thrash around like a maniac okay he's just letting me pull him in now here any second he's going to take off y'all this fish here he must just be tired because he didn't hardly fight me on the way in didn't start thrashing around here at the surface he must just be wore out today listening talking to him he said i'm tired he said i've been back here chasing shad and i just i'm wore out well go home go rest and bait here is in excellent shape so one thing about today i've not really had problems with the turtles you know if my bait was cast out on bottom just sitting there they would be destroying these things but trolling along under a balloon you know they can they can nip at it and stuff but they gotta work to sit there and eat it so get cast back out so far so good with the sun being up y'all still getting bit right here right here here we go again man man it has been action packed out here today in the shallows i think i've caught more fish doing this than what i did anchor down there over memorial day weekend where i was just wrecking them oh i'll definitely be doing some more of this i got a few other creeks i want to hit i've been you know like i said i've been i still ain't really got to look at this thing that's another fun size right there that's a fun sizer four foot of water i'm gonna tire him out a smidge come in here come in here another fun sizer oh crap let me see if that camera's even rolling yeah it's real i remember if i hit the button on it or not and all the all the chaos well it's been a good morning out here y'all man i've been getting a lot of bites there's that one another you know skinny fish but fun size length that's probably a somewhere between 32 34 inch fish probably but doesn't weigh hardly anything because it's skinny just spawned out it's got a smaller mouth there it's a female it's dropped its eggs the males oh quit that the male's guard to nest so the female goes in does her thing and they they back out there on feed again so but this creek man it's been been productive i'm you know mentioned there that i've kind of committed to trying to get better at shallow water fishing just doing it more frequently and you know you've seen some trips this year i've had where i've done pretty well got a video out of it there's been some other times too that just stuff you you just haven't seen uh because i haven't done any good uh there was a day last weekend i went out and i just didn't do worth a crap in the shallows but you know it's a it's again it's something that i'm trying to tinker with and experiment with and just put the time in because my comfort zone is deep water structure and comfort zones are great but it's it's good to get out of them too you know it's good to play around with it and develop some other what have i done here i've got this thing wrapped around our rudder every time i try to talk to the camera something goes wrong it never fails there we go now i'm back in business well let me get another bait on here this one this one threw that midsection off so i'm going to put another one on get it tossed out and again that fish there came in four feet of water so i'm just continuing to make my way i'm gonna go all the way uh to the mouth of this creek out here unless there's some people out there fishing or something i'm not gonna get their way it gets it widens out back here but it gets really narrow uh in certain parts of this creek so you know if there's people on the you know brush piles out there crappie fishing or something i'm not gonna be able to navigate my kayaking these baits behind me through there but my hope is to go all the way back out to the mouth of this thing and just fish my way back out oh right here y'all hooked up again that's got it now i heard a splash back there a second ago and i looked back and there was a wake right between my two baits i wonder if this thing would ever come up this fish here i'm back in this narrow section of the creek here so i got to be careful not to end up letting this thing get me in some brush or something in here i can't still don't know what it is yeah i think it's a blue yeah it's a blue cat that probably wouldn't come up and splashed him and go maybe a carp or something i just heard a big splash and whatever it was it come up right between my two balloons and this thing here is just letting me pull him in dead weight like that other one did probably act a dang maniac fool here in a second yeah yeah i knew it yep waited all that time to start doing that this fish didn't want me having any fun with it this fish here is rude fish if you'd done that on the way up through there as i was reeling you in i'd enjoyed catching you a whole lot more your thing open up that mouth i'm taking my bait back too just because i don't even need it but you ain't getting it because of how you acted get out of here dang the blue cat all right let me get repositioned here and we'll toss that thing back out see if we can get another well guys i made my way out of that creek and i really wish i had some more time today i would love to make another pass in and out of it and see if i could get some more fish because i mean that was a lot of action i got this morning even after the sun come up and burn off the fog but unfortunately i got some stuff i got to do today and i got to get out of here but it was an awesome morning got a really nice blue there to start the morning got a bunch of fish didn't get snagged not one time and didn't have any turtles messing with my baits and tearing him up so that's a pretty awesome day but anyway y'all i got to get out of here go get some stuff done i'll see you next time thanks for watching thank you

Channel: Kayak Catfish

Views: 23,902

Rating: 4.9609756 out of 5

Keywords: kayak catfish, kayak catfishing, catfish, catfishing, how to catch catfish, catfishing tips, kayak catfishing setup, rigging for catfish, bank fishing for catfish, bank fishing, how to catch catfish from the bank, best bait for catfish, tips for catching catfish, catfish rod, flathead catfish, drifting for catfish, trolling for catfish, anchor fishing for catfish, how to anchor a kayak, tips, techniques, night fishing, catfish baits, old town, sportsman autopilot, kayak motor

Id: Pur8K2ev_nI

Length: 39min 21sec (2361 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 17 2021