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How To Avoid Catfish


Fisherman's gear

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Hi guys, newbie to the forum here, really learnt a lot more about fishing from this fantastic platform. Been living in Brisbane for almost 2 years now, originally from Adelaide. Only been back to the fishing world for about 3 months now landbased. But I am struggling, not that I can’t catch any fish, but 95% of my catch are unfortunately, Catfish, the other 5% being Breams, Cod, Eels, river perch, a shovelnose and a bullshark. Tbh I was very excited to catch my first few catties as I have never caught them before in SA, but then the excitement wore out after catching them everywhere from Indooroopilly to Gateway, sizes from 20cm to almost 1m. At first I thought it’s because the majority of spots I fish are along the rivers. So I went to the ocean , Wynnum, Redcliffe, I still catch them there, and once in Wynnum, I caught 5 in a row, they almost hit every time on the drop.  I changed bait from pillies to prawn, to live yabbies, to  live mullets, but never managed to stop them from biting anything.

Is there a special type of rigs Brisbane fellow fishos use to avoid catfish? Can someone teach me how not to catch catfish? Or do I have to go fishing in GC to not catch this pesty fish. I really had enough of them, I am now pretty discouraged by this coz I know whenever I go fishing in Brisbane, catfish will be waiting for me.

Any advises will be greatly appreciated guys.

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Hi Fisherman, welcome to the site/forum. keep your bait off the bottom, use just enough lead to get down. When bait fishing I have my bait moving slowly with the current by casting up current and letting it drift down to and just past the area I am interested in. This isn`t practical during stages of the tide when the current is too strong/fast. When not using this method, I still like to keep my baits moving slowly, with a few slow winds of the reel handle then a longish pause. Flathead take a moving bait, that`s why lure fishing for them is so productive. :)  

EDIT: just to add to my above ramblings, when flatty fishing, if casting and retrieving around likely areas, the sinker weight should be enough to hold it on the bottom and when you sharply lift your rod and do short continueous retrieves the action in the weight of the sinker of hitting the bottom causes little puffs of sand/ sediment to help draw the flatties attention to the bait following it.

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1 hour ago, Gad said:

Hi Fisherman, welcome to the site/forum. keep your bait off the bottom, use just enough lead to get down. When bait fishing I have my bait moving slowly with the current by casting up current and letting it drift down to and just past the area I am interested in. This isn`t practical during stages of the tide when the current is too strong/fast. When not using this method, I still like to keep my baits moving slowly, with a few slow winds of the reel handle then a longish pause. Flathead take a moving bait, that`s why lure fishing for them is so productive. :)  

How do you keep your bait off bottom? I normally just use a running sinker and 80cm fluro leader with a single hook. 

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Running ball sinker rig is the way I go, size/weight of sinker depends on depth and current flow, I only use enough weight to get to the bottom, not to anchor it, so the sinker and line moves with the current. A slightly lighter sinker/weight (for conditions) is used to have the sinker near the bottom. (this is the best I can explain it, so hope you get it.) By using feel, rod and line always in a line, guiding  tip (slightly lowering or lifting), and by feeding or retrieving line the sinker (and the leader/trace length plays it`s part) is kept off the bottom and roughly in the depth I want to fish.

Now keeping the bait up above the sinker in the water, comes down to length of rod and leader/trace and weight of bait eg: heavier baits pillies, fish fillet/slab/strip etc need a longer leader/trace. Mostly, with the way I landbase fish and my intended species targets I will fish with a 7’3-6” to 9’ rod and my leaders/traces will be between 1 metre to 1.6 metres, the longer the rod the longer the leader/trace.

Hope this makes sense to you, I`m sure others will have their methods.   

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20 hours ago, Fisherman's gear said:

sizes from 20cm to almost 1m.

Gday Fisherman's gear. Welcome to AFO. That is some serious catfish attraction you have! Good to see you fishing the river so much. A lot of folk use soft plastic lures and Vibes/blades with success. I am sure you can still get catfish on these but it should reduce the rate of catch. 

Do you have any pics of your catches? We love reports and photos here. :)

Good luck and remember catfish are people too... haha soz

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