Spring catfishing is great but many anglers struggle to catch spring blue catfish after a cold front so lets break down some tips to help you catch more catfish.
When it comes to spring catfishing it’s one of the best times to catch catfish and one of my favorites times to fish for all species. There’s lots of spring catfishing action and tips to cover as fishing patterns and techniques can change so much through the season.
North Texas weather has been crazy this year. The spring catfish bite has been like a yo-yo with changing water temperatures. This means it’s a great time to cover more spring catfishing tips as well as some shallow water blue cat action footage while on the water covering everything from what happens after a cold front, how to chose locations to fish for catfish, spring catfish bait tips, catfish rigs and more!
In the other video on early spring catfish there were some huge numbers of spring blue catfish in shallow water fishing during a cold front. The weather warmed up right after that front, and then several days of really warm weather followed. Water temperatures started to rise and the spring catfish fishing was red hot! Then another major cold front hit again and things changed.
Spring Catfishing Changes
After being forced off the water for a couple of days due to high winds I made it back out with guide clients . We got in a good blue catfish bite really fast caching a good number of fish in both shallow and deep water. The fish weren’t really in a consistent or typical spring pattern it was more of a transition pattern. This means catching blue catfish in a variety of depths but the bigger issue is often just a really “odd” bite which is unusual for a spring catfish pattern this time in the season.
After dropping clients off some scouting was in order to figure out the catfish pattern for the next day and why the fish were biting so weird.
I filmed, had some good action and I found (and caught) a good number of fish really quickly. The blue catfish were still randomly scattered around in a variety of depths though.
Spring Catfishing: Bait, Gear, and Rigs
Answers to recent questions about how I rigged, gear I was using and more in these spring catfishing videos are below. There’s info in the links below but you can also check out the Ultimate Guide To Catfishing Gear for more info.
Bait: Fresh caught threadfin shad and gizzard shad caught fresh that morning with a Fitec Super Spreader Cast Net. Shad is one of the best catfish baits you can use for spring catfishing (or any time for that matter). Read more here on shad or check out “Catching Shad” The Ultimate Guide.
Rigs: Whisker Seeker Tackle XL Rattlers and Baby Chubs (a version of the Santee Rig) combined with the Versa Rattle Rig Rattles.
Hooks: WST Triple Threat in size 6/0
Rods: Whisker Seeker Tackle Full Metal Jacket Chad Ferguson Signature Series Rod in MH Power. Read more about them here or check out the Ultimate Guide To Catfish Rods here.
Reels: Abu Garcia 6500 pro Rocket Black Edition spooled with WST Orange Monofilament. Check out the Ultimate Guide To Catfish Reels.
Check Out The Spring Catfishing Video
