Outdoors

By STEVE KNIGHT
Outdoor Writer

To say catfish are popular would be an understatement on the same line as saying it gets warm in Texas in the summer.

Whether it is on the dinner table or on the end of a fishing line, Texans like their catfish.

For the table, catfish can be fancied up, but why, when perfection has already been achieved by frying them in corn meal. With some simple sides like fries, cole slaw and slices of white bread and onion, this version of a Texas surf plate is hard to beat.

When it comes to fishing, only the largemouth bass and crappie (another dinner favorite) rank higher with fishermen than the catfish. Part of the reason might be that there are other ways to fish for them beyond the traditional rod and reel. Fishing juglines or throwlines in which a line is attached to a free-floating jug or foam float has long been popular in East Texas and is finding a growing interest elsewhere. Also anglers can take the most passive approach to fishing, trotlining, where they put their bait on lines and later to check it.

Lore has it that the bottom feeders will bite almost anything, including a bare, shinny hook. Using something like liver, shrimp, chicken, cheese or stinkbait tends to work better.

East Texas lakes should be ideal for catfish, but that isn’t always the case.

“If you have a clear reservoir, an abundant largemouth bass population can really limit catfish production because the young are easy prey,” said Craig Bond, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department regional fisheries biologist from Tyler. “They are highly vulnerable because they are slow swimmers.”

Bonds said another limiting factor can be the lack of spawning habitat. He explained that catfish are “cavity spawners” and require undercut banks, big root wads or rocks to spawn in.

Even where spawning conditions are right, not all lakes are equal when it comes to meeting the food requirements of catfish because that varies from channels to blues to flatheads.

“A good blue catfish lake has an abundance of shad. Once they obtain a certain size they are eating fish as an adult. That is one reason they are so abundant and fast growing,” Bonds said.

In contrast, channel catfish remain omnivorous on a diet heavy on macroinvertebrates.

“Channel catfish don’t strictly eat fish. Fish are less important to them. They need a highly productive system with macroinvertebrates, all kinds of things that live in the sediment zone like worms, crayfish, small snails and mussels, even the large larval stage of aquatic insects,” Bonds said.

Flatheads are also fish eaters, but unlike the others they don’t go far in search of food. Flatheads are more likely to lay in ambush for a passing fish. In contrast, blues are more mobile, especially in conjunction with spawning activity.

“Oklahoma conducted telemetry studies on reservoirs. One was on Texoma and they had blues that spent a lot of time in the reservoir, but in May or June they would go way up the Red River or a feeder creek. Sometimes they went so far they couldn’t find them,” Bonds said.

The biologist said channel cats are also mobile, and that catfish in general do better in lakes that a built on a river system or have tributaries with a steady flow feeding into them.

Even though a blue catfish doesn’t mature until it is 8 to 10 years old compared to a channel cat at 2 to 3, Bonds said that on most East Texas lakes, once the blue become established, it often becomes the dominate species.

“I wish we could teach angling techniques to target blues instead of channel catfish. With channel catfish they usually fish prepared-type baits. If the fishermen would switch to cut shad or fish-type baits they would catch more blues,” Bonds noted.

And just because a lake doesn’t start out as a good catfish lake doesn’t mean it will stay that way. Fishermen found few catfish on Lake Fairfield until 2002, and now it is one of the better channel catfish lakes in the area.

In the case of Cedar Creek, Palestine and Richland Chambers, each was originally considered a better channel catfish lake, but have become better for blues over time.

Best East Texas lakes for channel catfish:

Palestine, Fork, Tawakoni, Cedar Creek, Fairfield, Richland Chambers, Monticello, Martin Creek, Lake O’The Pines, Cypress Springs, Sam Rayburn and Toledo Bend.

Statewide catfish limit:

Texas’ statewide limits for channel and blue catfish – 25 per day (in any combination) with a 12-inch minimum length limit; flatheads – 5 per day with an 18-inch minimum length limit.

Legal methods of fishing for catfish:

The only legal devices for taking catfish in Texas include by rod, trotline, throwlines or juglines. It is also currently legal to take catfish while bow fishing, but that regulation expires Aug. 31.

Illegal methods of fishing for catfish:

Telephones, zappers, generators are three devices using an electrical charge that are popular among illegal fishermen in Texas. Grappling or noodling, a technique in which a fisherman catch a catfish by hand is also illegal in Texas.

CATS STILL POPULAR: Whether fishing for channel catfish, blues or flatheads, East Texas lakes offer good fishing. Biologists recommend targeting blues for more action.
((Courtesy Photo TPWD/Larry Hodge))