Aug 22, 2010 By Herald Standard Staff 7 min read

Fishing activity has slowed on most fronts, but the one species that seems to feed regardless how hot it is is the catfish. Until a fishing/golfing vacation in 2006, I hadn’t going fishing in years with the intent of just catching catfish.

That week, one of the days we spent fishing on Lake Marion in South Carolina was for blue cats. We caught a few “small ones” by the local standards (10-pounders), but they made every cat I ever caught around here look small.

We see some cats that size, but down south they start talking “big cats” when they weigh at least 50, 70 or 100 pounds.

While most anglers around here considered catfish trash fish for years, fishing for catfish — especially flathead catfish — has attracted a new following.

While talking to some fishermen near Point Marion last week, they said that they were catching a few channel cats, but the flatheads were being caught mostly while fishing from the Greene County side of the river.

There may be some truth to that, but there are still areas along the Fayette County side of the river that yield some lunker flatheads.

The Cheat River is a good place to try for flatheads.

I’ve seen them schooling there on several occasions, although I couldn’t entice them to take old-fashioned catfish stinkbait.

While no local anglers have reported catching any monster flatheads recently, I’m sure they are taking some.

The one thing I’ve learned about catching flatheads is to go big with the bait.

The guys who go after the big ones use whole panfish, and once they die, they cut them in half and use the head.

They are big fish and seem to prefer a big meal.

Don’t get me wrong; some smaller ones are enticed by smaller baits.

In my fishing notes, I located a notation on a catch by Ray Johnson Jr. of Point Marion on July 14, 2006 in the Cheat River near Point Marion.

He was fishing near the outflow area of the dam when he hooked into a 40-pound flathead about 9:45 in the morning.

That same year Fayette County Waterway’s Conservation Officer Scott Opfer also caught a large flathead, but his story was more bizarre.

He and a friend were fishing from the concrete pier at the Cheat outflow.

He was jigging a nightcrawler and hooked onto a fish. While he was bringing it in, all of a sudden the fight got more intense.

After a battle that lasted several minutes he pulled in a 22-inch flathead catfish. That is when the story got really interesting. To his amazement the flathead had an 18-inch drum fish wedged halfway down its throat.

The catfish ended up being caught only because it could not spit out the drum, which was Opfer’s original catch and still had his hook and nightcrawler in its mouth.

That pretty much tells you that bigger is definitely not a drawback when fishing for flatheads.

Pennsylvania’s flatheads do not attain the size of their cousins elsewhere, and the Fish and Boat Commission concedes that few will weigh much over 40 pounds.

The record is a 48-pound, 6-ounce cat taken in Berks County in 2007.

Many really serious catfish anglers prefer to fish the Ohio River, where the flatheads tend to be somewhat larger than the local ones, mainly because that fishery is better established.

In fact, our flathead populations probably came about because of migrations from the Ohio River.

They are not popular everywhere, and anglers are encouraged to keep every one they catch in the Susquehanna and Schuylkill rivers.

As the days continued to really warm up, fishermen gave up fishing, especially during the day.

Fish retreat to the cooler water during the day and choose to feed more from a couple hours before dusk to a couple hours after daylight.

But that is not the case when it comes to fishing for catfish. Catfish turn on as the water warms. They like to lounge around and eat.

If you are a sun lover, try fishing for cats in the afternoon. However, when fishing in the heat of the day, check the Solunar Tables first to see what time of day fish should be most active.

Catfish cruise the bottoms of lakes, ponds, rivers and streams in search of a meal and are particularly active after dark when they leave the safety of their holes.

Flatheads are known to lie in wait with their mouths open and wait for an unsuspecting fish to just swim in, thinking it is just a dark hole.

When feeding, most catfish can be caught one after another and usually put up a pretty good battle.

Bullheads, however, often hit hard and settle back to the bottom with the food firmly locked in their jaw and won’t move again for quite a while, leaving fishermen wondering if the fish cleaned his hook. Most often they are there but will not begin to fight until you start to reel them in.

Bullheads were a favorite of my Father and his fishing buddies. They had their favorite spots along the Monongahela River, Pigeon Creek and Tenmile Creek.

Bullheads are found almost everywhere, are easy to catch, and are quite tasty if taken from clean water. But that is the catch – clean water.

In most streams catfish are still a victim of pollution. Being bottom feeders they pick up PCBs, chlordane and other fertilizer and pesticide residues. For that reason it is best to just catch the river cats, bullheads and channels, just for the fun of it and take those for table use from cleaner waters such as the Youghiogheny River, Youghiogheny Reservoir and lakes and streams that are stocked with trout and farm ponds and hunting club ponds and lakes.

However, there no guarantee the water is free of pollutants, but it is probably better quality water if trout are stocked there.

For best results, keep your bait near the bottom, but in pay lakes, which usually have little structure, channel cats are often taken while fishing on top with a bobber good-sized hook baited with a cluster of worms or a lively minnow.

Channels and flatheads are good battlers, while the yellow and black bullheads common to this area put up a little scrap but seem to tire quickly.

Channel catfish are found in the deep, clear water of lakes and rivers, and its cousin the bullhead likes more structure near the shore, especially weedbeds. Unlike its cousin the bullhead, channel cats hit hard and run, so you don’t have to worry about setting your hook immediately.

If you really want to keep some catfish for table fare, keep the smaller ones.

Not only are the smaller cats better eating, they usually contain less contaminants than larger fish.

Contaminants in Pennsylvania fish species include PCBs, chlordane and mercury.

When properly cleaned and prepared, it is safe for anglers to eat fish once a week. Women beyond their childbearing years and adult males face fewer risks from contaminants in fish than do younger women and children.

The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission fish consumption advisory suggests that fishermen do not eat any white bass or channel catfish from the Mon due to high concentrations of chlordane.

The Fish and Boat Commission notes that PCBs and other organic contaminants usually build up in a fish’s fat deposits and just underneath the skin. By removing the skin and fat before cooking, you can reduce the level of these chemicals. Mercury collects in a fish’s muscle and cannot be reduced by cleaning and cooking methods.

To reduce PCBs and other organic contaminants:

1)Remove all skin, 2) slice off fat belly meat along the bottom of the fish, 3) cut away any fat above the fish’s backbone, 4) cut away the V-shaped wedge of fat along the lateral line on each side of the fish, 5) bake or broil trimmed fish on a rack or grill so some of the remaining fat drips away and 5) Discard any drippings. Do not eat them or use them for cooking other foods.

For the sake of your health, get out and have some fun fishing for catfish limit the number you consume, especially from the local rivers and streams.

Herald-Standard Outdoor Editor Rod Schoener can be reached online at rschoener@heraldstandard.com.