Channel catfish are a great target for young anglers

Fishing is supposed to be fun.

Taking my children fishing for the last 10 years or so has taught me valuable lessons on patience and given me some much-needed perspective on the true value of a day on the water.

There was a time when I was obsessed with every detail of every single fishing trip. Bait selection was fretted over and matched precisely to the right length and power rod. Every knot tied meticulously. Tide charts and water conditions studied ad nauseum and sleep lost worrying about the exact point, reef, shoreline I would fish first.

Buy live bait? Not a chance. I was out there to angle for fish and fool them with topwaters and expertly cast spinnerbaits, precisely pitched soft plastics. If those fish weren’t interested in artificials, it was my job to make them eat.

Turns out, kids don’t really care about any of that. They just want to see the cork get pulled under the water and the line go tight. They want to reel something in that pulls back and take a cool picture with it, including fish like gar, gafftop catfish, carp and other “ugly” fish that make most anglers turn up their nose.

Good thing is, Mississippi is full of fish eager to pull down a cork during the spring and early summer.

Channel cats

Channel catfish are at the top of that list for me and my two kids. From my home, there are a host of lakes and rivers less than a 90-minute drive away that offer a chance to catch dozens of good eating-size channel catfish during the spring and early summer.

The key to finding them is to look for the same habitats and food sources that attract bass from late April through early June.

Rip-rap and hard shorelines, cypress knees and stumps, sunken tree tops and logs and docks in 3-8 feet of water are all good places to look for cats.

Shad, seemingly by the millions, congregate along hard structures and shorelines to spawn in the late spring and everything that eats them gathers in those same areas as well to pig out. The shad spawn coincides with catfish moving into the shallows as well to spawn around the rip rap, logs, cypress tree roots and other hard structures.

Rigging rods to catch shallow, spawning catfish couldn’t be easier. Just about any medium power spinning or baitcasting rod with 10-pound or heavier line that can cast 20 feet will work. Carolina rigs and drop shot rigs are effective, but with kids in the boat a weighted cork about 20-30 inches or so above a hook and some split shot weights are even better.

The setup

I like to complicate things a little and add a small barrel swivel with a foot-long section of 30-pound monofilament between the cork and hook. Catfish, even the smaller 1-3 pounders my kids and I target, like to roll and spin when hooked. The swivel prevents the line twists that can eventually lead to frustrating knots and tangles. The heavier line also resists the abrasion from the rough-grit sandpaper-like catfish teeth that will wear through lighter monofilament and braided line after a few fish.

Long-shanked, heavier wire hooks are best. I prefer a size 6 or 4 bronze Carlisle hook because they give plenty of area to grab with needle nose pliers when unhooking fish and can be bent back into shape if the fish mangles the hook. Catfish will destroy cricket and gold Aberdeen shiner hooks with ease.

Circle hooks work too but leave them in the tackle box when fishing with kids. Setting the hook will pull a circle hook out of a fish’s mouth before it finds the fleshy part. There is little chance of convincing a kid fishing with a cork not to jerk the rod when the fish takes that float under. Best to stick with a long-shank J or offset hook.

Worms for bait

Finding the right bait is the simplest part. Dig up a flower garden or compost pile and fill a bucket with earthworms or just buy worms at pretty much any fishing tackle store. Shiners, cut shad, bream and even small pieces of chicken meat and gizzards will work too, but no need to bother with any of that. Opportunistic catfish gorging on shad can’t resist a chunk of worm suspended under a cork any more than most of us can walk past a box of Girl Scout Cookies without grabbing a couple.

I’ve yet to meet a fisherman who doesn’t like to watch a cork slide under the water or invite over some friends and family for delicious fried catfish. Keep it simple at least once this spring. Grab a handful of orange Styrofoam corks, a bucket of worms, your best fishing buddy and the kids and go have a great time.

The post “Channel catfish are a great target for young anglers” first appeared on LouisianaSportsman.com.