Fall Catfishing?

[Giuga10]

I took my brother out today for some Bass fishing and ended up skunked. He was pretty bummed so I promised him I would take him Catfishing at a local stormwater retention pond tomorrow.

I was wondering if I made a mistake promising him that.

I know the fishing has slowed down since the summer and was wondering if Catfish take a break when it gets cold.

Pretty much what I'm asking is are they biting in this cold weather?

Thanks,
Giuga10

[Jeremy Ray Green]

you just gotta keeping moving

Try different techniques...

You Witnessed how long it took for us to produce a catfish last weekend.
I Think It was the presentation of the drop shot minnow on one line, with a floating worm on another line directly above that produced that one catfish....

It Is what it is, unless you find out what works for you, it Will always be a mystery...

Keep Fishing Swan Lake....
you'll get on it....

~Jeremy.

[zippyFX]

I've been told that you can fish for catfish as long as the water temp is about 50 degrees.

I tried once this fall in Ottawa and got skunked.

[MuskieBait]

There are several reasons why fall time shore fishing is less productive in the shallows.

1) Temperature change is more significant in the shallows. The water can be cool from evening to morning hours, but rises from mid-morning to late afternoon. This fluctuation in temperature can be quite significant. Any rainfall can also significantly cool the shallows. Fish prefers more stable temperatures, so as the weather cools and become unstable with more rainfall, fish moves for deeper water.

2) With decreasing daylight, weeds begin to die as early as mid-September. This not only remove fish habitat in the shallows, but it also depletes the oxygen level in the shallows as the weeds rot (bacteria consumes the oxygen). This pushes fish to areas where there is sufficient levels of oxygen, either other areas with green weeds, or to deeper water where oxygen level is higher and more stable.

3) With the approach of winter, fish knows that shallow areas will soon be frozen. Various fish species will move out to deeper water for that reason as well.

Notice the point here...deeper water!

This is even true for icefishing. Early in the season during first ice, you can often find fish on "shallow" flats and weedlines where there are healthy green weeds. During mid-ice season, snow cover over the ice kills a lot of the remaining vegetation in shallow water and fish will push deeper. Once late-ice approach and spring is around the corner, fish will once again move toward the shallows again. This is very evident for anyone who has fished Lake Simcoe in the winter. Perch schools are often in 6-8 FOW on first ice, then move deeper and deeper as deep as 70 FOW (I've even caught some in over 100FOW) during mid-Feb, then these fish will once again move shallower in mid-March to stage for the spring spawn. This is true for pike, walleye, and surprisingly even for whitefish (sightfishing for whitefish in less than 20 FOW is super rad!!!

Try casting to deeper water where it is close to shallow habitat where fish can move up onto the flats occassionally, but retreat to deep water when weather and temperature changes.

Also...you want to target catfish...try night time. When Michael and I took the trip a couple of weeks ago, fishing for catfish was very slow during the day. Once it got dark, it was like a switch that went off and the kitties came out to play.

[MichaelAngelo]

I agree, night time seems to be the catfish ticket. I've yet to find a fish-able population of big catfish close by... that would be really nice!!!

We both know that worm on the bottom in any of the dirty ponds (Mount Joy... Milne... LOL) will produce nonstop bullheads in the summer. Just proof that fishing changes with the seasons

[MikeH]

Keating channel has a catfish population of decent size, but they are also the Fugliest looking fish you have EVER seen....!

[MichaelAngelo]

(11-11-2012 09:55 AM)MikeH Wrote:  Keating channel has a catfish population of decent size, but they are also the Fugliest looking fish you have EVER seen....!

The waters I cringe at every time I make my way downtown on the DVP . Yuck!

[MikeH]

(11-16-2012 09:19 AM)MichaelAngelo Wrote:  

(11-11-2012 09:55 AM)MikeH Wrote:  Keating channel has a catfish population of decent size, but they are also the Fugliest looking fish you have EVER seen....!

The waters I cringe at every time I make my way downtown on the DVP . Yuck!

LOL...thats the one! When February comes thats the place you can catch big Carp, due to the water being so much warmer than the harbour.