How to Catch Catfish When They Are NOT on the Bottom - Why Do Catfish Suspend Off the Bottom

all right guys rolling down the road heading to the leg i got my hat on it is pretty chilly outside today add to that that it's cloudy uh it's gonna be a cold day on the lake so uh i'm gonna do some drifting for some catfish i got onto a bite uh yesterday that was pretty interesting and i caught some fish suspended so we're gonna do some suspended fishing for catfish basically these baits are going to be up off the bottom not on the bottom like we typically fish for them and we're going to see if we can put some in the boat and show you guys how to do it [Music] hi boys and girls it is a chili december day we're about i think we're one day before the new year so i'm doing some fishing got me some chicken my favorite and uh what i'm gonna do today is do some suspended fishing and what i mean by that is these baits are gonna be up off the bottom i've got his here set up carolina rig nice basic simple setup and put a piece of chicken on it this is just a it's a five volt hooker's terminal tackle circle hook what i'm gonna do is we'll do a couple different things one i'm gonna put some straight underneath the boat and that's what this is going to be it's going to be straight down underneath the boat i'm just going to let this line go down we're in about 30 feet of water right here let this thing go down hit the bottom you'll know when to spool when it's on the bottom poof it's on bottom let me get that to about the angle of my tip now i'm going to crank it three times one two three it's going to raise the bait up off the bottom put it in a rod holder it is going to be ready to fish it's ready to catch a fish simple as that i want to do is take one of these other rods over here when these catch the fever rods again a carolina rig i get another piece of chicken same kind of deal same setup just a sinker carolina rig line sinker swivel leader hook i'll put a piece of chicken on it i think it's pretty good i'll do the same thing i'm gonna do it on this um die i'll drop it on this side i'm doing on either one gonna let it hit the bottom again watch it go down watch it sink watch it sink going down going going post on the bottom again three cranks off the bottom one two three the difference on this one is i'll put a planer board on it get it out away from the boat so opening up the spread here what i got probably easier to put the planer board out first so i don't get into this other line but we can make it work i'm just going to move this line out of the way while this one swims out or actually you can put it right on the inside of it let it work its way back that way that's really all there is to it we'll get these in the water uh get them fishing i'm gonna put all these out and i'm gonna put out four rods on each side um are four rods total that are on typical sand t rigs so eight rods it's gonna be interesting we'll see how these play out here boom there it goes there it goes there it goes i think we got one on the planer board guys uh the suspended bait on the planer just noticed the planer started not swimming anymore and uh get that drag tightened up i lift it up on the rod get this moved out of the way and sure enough i felt a head shake so suspended bait on a planer looks like it's in at least one other line we may have a mess where it's over with but we got one and guess what it's on the chicken so see if i can work this sucker over to this side of the boat here we go like i said this one the board's a drop down i'll pull this board off of here i think i can keep it hooked up like i said guys i don't advise you to do this with planter boards you're better off just popping them loose and dropping it down because you can't lose fish doing this if you don't keep tension on the line we're able to do it there nice blue nice blue come out sucker got a little mud on the belly you might have ate that hook hey say hey hey simmer down some of that i missed you again man captain failure here today guys suck right down got it there we go i took a little surgery on that one we got that hook out of there it was laid in the bottom of his mouth good looking fish suspended back well folks that was nice uh right off the bat to get one uh on one of the suspended baits like i said i was out here fishing yesterday and just happened to put a down line suspended underneath the boat and i caught fish on it caught a lot of fish on it considering only had one line with chicken down i think i caught 5 out of 12 fish on that suspended bait so i wanted to try today trying it with a planer board to increase the spread and uh yeah we'll see what happens i'm going to pull down through here kind of the same area um and just going slow man water is down to 49.2 degrees it's cold it's a cold day water temperatures ain't going to get any higher sadly maybe toward the weekend but i think we're getting into that 40 degree range and generally when that happens it's when these fish are really you start seeing them towards the river channels and uh some of the deeper water so they've got those options of having deeper water so we're going to pull through here see if we can stick another one got us anita right here guys this one comes on the perch side of the boat even though i may have to land him on the chicken salad let's see what's he's going to be all across this drip stock here let him just go to that side i think that's going to be the wiser decision we can bring him this way work him to that side doesn't feel super huge so he hit it like a freight train now i'll tell you that again this one was on a perch bait one of the bigger baits i think that was the big old filet strip it looked like a fish might be able to get him back to this side let's see here chilly day right around 40 degrees oh he's into that other line him up here there he comes there he comes i think he's going to take a couple of lines here it's going to be a mess this is going to be a mess we've got a planer board and another line wow so it was about lassoed dang got a lot of mud on them dropping one way to get the half the tangle done anyway come here sucka you slimy devil that mud oh blue a monster but another one uh that one was on a santee rig let me get all this stuff untangled at that mess look at that mess one of the bigger rigs it's gonna be a good time to reset say one of the bigger baits not a super huge bait but sizeable at least in presentation it looks big so a lot of sin anytime you take one of these fillets it opens up a whole lot of meat a whole lot of scent it doesn't just have to be blood people kind of think you got to have blood the whole time it's not like we're dealing with a shark here uh these uh fish are keying in on a lot of the proteins and stuff in fish and chicken so nice looking bait to work get it back out there see if we can get on another fish all right bam there's another one uh that one on the sand t rig and that one on a piece of perch uh nice little fish hit it good hit it hard thought he was bigger than he was um i've just got a variety of stuff out guys i've got eight rods out total four of them with perch four of them chicken and trying some stuff here uh just to see what's going to work i mean like i said with the suspended baits the cnt rigs planar bores i'm switching one over to a bobber here in a second to put it out behind the boat so just trying some different things the bite yesterday was good totally different day today though we've got uh colder temperatures it's completely overcast yesterday was bright and sunny so uh bites a little bit slow but all you can do is fish and we're covering water nice and slow see if we can stick one guys i think we got one eating the chicken bait yep he's on there bang pick that picked up not sure where this one went to some stuff out of the way here this one took a weird hit it uh it kind of i've seen the rod move but it's not like it folded up it looks like he's at four to top this was a santee rig this was on the bottom this is fish number two on chicken and fish number two on the santee rig we've only had one on a suspended bait so far trying to work him in between all this stuff here i actually switched out one of the planers to one of the uh patriot cat cat bobbers i'll try that i got it floated way back there this one is probably going to get into that planer board line if it doesn't i'll be shocked but happy yep that's in it bottom line is we're hooked up we'll deal with the problem chilly day hands are called i've been uh dealing with some lines here and stuff and chili chili chilly day luckily the wind's not super bad so that makes it a little more tolerable this is a good eater fish again not a monster another one that has swallowed a bait actually didn't swallow these just hooked in the bottom of the mouth got it it's a great thing about these pliers there's the fish by the way get him release you can get down there into the bottom of the throat and i say bottom of the floats their mouth you can see where it's in the bottom and you just basically push forward with this and then flip it up and it comes out so go down and release another one on chicken my hands are freezing and we're still fishing well pal there's another one on a santee rig chicken this time so chicken is uh jumped back into the lead here a little bit it's uh not on fire as far as the bite goes uh it's a little bit slower than it was yesterday uh so it kind of is what it is you know if you can pull a fish out of here one one and a half fish an hour uh in the winter time it's a pretty good day so as i you know tell i've said before i'll say it again for the new folks if you're in a boat fishing you got to slow down you got to really keep the boat slow i'm cruising along at about .4 right now uh that seems to make a difference most of the movement i've got right now is current uh they're moving water through the system so even here on the lower end of the reservoir that i'm fishing i've got water moving me so there's a big part of the water of the boat movement coming from that but slowing it down and i'm downsizing baits i had that one big bait get hit um i've got another big bait out there on that another rod but the other two fish came on smaller uh cuts of bait so that's another thing if you want to put fish in a boat try downsizing that usually seems to help folks i think i got a very small fish on this rod very small if he stays on i can't even tell it was bopping and jerking and huckle bucking and i think if it's a fish channel cap we'll see but some chicken chicken chicken winner winner chicken dinner so we got here not as many suspended today i thought with having a couple of more suspended baits out i would pop a couple more in the boat but it's not happened my goodness this may be a new record for small one holy cow look at that sucker wow that skill catching big fish is easy take skill to catch a little one gonna be a quick release he does count there's not a lot of pride in catching that one but he does count that bait back out there that's uh that's a little one he had a bad day the good thing is he's not going in the skillet so i guess his day wasn't too bad but that's four three on chicken well folks it's getting on later up in the day here we only got about probably i don't know 45 minutes of light left getting chilly too starting to get to that cold soak point where you are just soaking with cold it's chilly but hey you got to fish when you can okay it's gonna be cold for several months and i'm either gonna whine about it and sit at home and not fish or i'm gonna get out and fish and i'm blessed to live in a place where the water don't freeze so we can get the bed out here and fish but man i made a move over to the river channel to try that area suspended rods four baits suspended four on the bottom i have not had a bite of fish been dragging this for about an hour came up out of the river channel i'm up onto the ledge i'm not marking a lot of fish it's the same area i came through yesterday and caught fish so it's uh kind of disheartening that uh there's really not a lot in here um it's like these things have moved overnight i'm gonna keep dragging for a little bit i'm gonna see what happens but i'm not feeling super duper optimistic but the one thing that can always happen out here in the winter time is you get a pocket of these fish where they're feeding and biting and man boom it can be on fire and it can change quickly it's really what happened with me on my last trip i fished for two or three hours without catching a fish and then finally got into an area where there were some biting fish so things can turn around quickly you just got to keep you know you got to keep covering water you got to keep moving around changing places and if they're hungry and there's some dumb ones you may just find them so that's what i'm hoping for but otherwise just happy to be here all right girls and boys we got one going on perch when the bigger baits yes i'm cheating 37 battery-powered heated gloves i did some videos on these things last year and uh i dug them out today let's give them a shot keep my hands nice and warm i actually have the vest on too it's a battery powered heated vest i don't have it turned on it's not quite cold enough for me to have to do that uh but i did put it on in case it got windy so yeah if you don't like the cold check them out 37 it's the name of it actually i think in sweden or denmark or somewhere over in europe but make some pretty cool stuff get this sucker landed he's all herky jerky head shaking got there there we go get you around the drift sock would be nice but i bet you're not going to do that are you how do i bring him across the top of it [Music] get him across the top of the drift sock yes yes yes made it get my gloves off a little light there where the battery's running you guys have noticed these are all like cookie cutter sized fish man they are all very similar in size except for that little bitty one pretty blues they're feeding they're feeding this one not on the bottom are not all suspended the suspended stuff isn't working as good uh today i'm gonna make a move here in a minute let me drift this a little bit further though just to see it's gonna try closer to the river channel there's the bait on this one that's that same piece of purge i put it back out there got a bigger float uh i'm gonna put it back out i may keep drifting this for a little ways just to see but i'm gonna go back toward the river channel we're on a flat as i hit the camera adjacent to the river channel so i'm gonna work my way back over there here in a minute uh i'm keep pulling through here i mean i'm catching fish at a steady pace it's not on fire but it's steady so it's hard to it's hard to walk away from biting fish so i'm gonna keep pulling this until it ends uh until the bite ends and then make a move now a little side note on suspending baits there's a couple ways you can do it obviously doing it underneath a bobber or a cork a slip float is the easiest way especially if you're bank fishing uh that's the ideal way to get them floated up off the bottom you float them up off the bottom with a sandy rig it's just floating them as high it's not as easy and the other way is straight off the side of the boat or straight off of a pier if you're fishing off of the pier uh it's just any way to get it into the middle of the water column what i mean by the water column is that area from the bottom to the top that's the water column putting it somewhere there in the middle sometimes fish are there sometimes that's where they're feeding at a lot of times that's driven by bait there's bait holding in certain water deaths because of maybe plankton water temperature you know ph who knows what the reason is but that's why the fish are there sometimes they're feeding so that's the advantages to doing it i was hoping it was going to be better than it is today we did get one uh then i've got you know four other rods out suspended so it's not exactly on fire like it has been so but i don't think the bite is either and that's just the way it goes in winter time you can have good days you can have bad days but when you get a weather change like we've got today all bets are off on what's going to happen uh especially when you compare it to what happened yesterday in totally different conditions well folks if you made it this far thank you for watching here are a couple more videos that i think you're gonna like i'd watch that one and then that one no no do do that one first and then that one just watch them both they're both good

Channel: Dieter Melhorn Fishing

Views: 10,239

Keywords: How to Catch Catfish Off the Bottom, How to Catch Catfish When They Are NOT on the Bottom, when catfish suspend up off of the bottom, Suspend up off of the bottom, Why Do Catfish Suspend Off the Bottom, when catfish suspend, Catching Suspended Catfish, suspended catfish, suspending catfish, suspended fishing for catfish, suspended bait for catfish, how to catch catfish, catfishing suspended, suspended catfishing, Drifting for Winter Catfish, downlines for catfish, catfish

Id: ROZtXfusgL0

Length: 22min 19sec (1339 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 10 2021