Keen To Catch A Catfish

[fifis101]

Believe it or not but I want to catch a catfish.

I am reasonably new to Queensland and I want to add a new species to the list.

Most people would see this as being lucky but in the last year of fishing the Brisbane River I have only managed to catch bream and flathead, not a single catfish!

I would love to know of some spots where people have caught plenty of catfish and what they were using for bait?

[Fearlessboagan]

Hit up goodna boat ramp brother! ahahaha :silly:

[Cheyne_jones]

Not sure about brissy river mate, but the coomera river holds heaps of catties, and some monsters at that.

We have caught them on pretty much everything including blades and topwater. I caught one a few weeks back while chasing jacks, would have gone over 2 foot long and probably 4kg. They fight hard when they get that big.

[qbkami]

ahahah mate if you want catfish, brissy river is the way to go. I find that they are mostly around the 30cm and under mark but you occasionally get big one. Just chuck on some prawn or chicken(raw) on your hook and throw it in... You've been having a streak of luck if you've only caught flathead and bream in the river

cheers

q

[madmullet]

I want some of your luck with the not catching catfish. Every time I chase Jewies on livies, my reel screams, and up come a dirty rotten catty.

Dev the brisy river, especially the city reach, it holds some big models over the 70cm

Use whole mullet, gar, pillies ect

[madmullet]

I want some of your luck with the not catching catfish. Every time I chase Jewies on livies, my reel screams, and up come a dirty rotten catty.

Dev the brisy river, especially the city reach, it holds some big models over the 70cm

Use whole mullet, gar, pillies ect

[Gloomy Samurai]

My wife Christine got seven of them two weeks ago at the mouth of Nudgee Creek using frozen prawns. They seem to like the dirty water so you might get a few at the moment.

My advice would be to chase the more common species because you know that soon enough you will get one of these as bi-catch.

Andrew

[getrigged]

Well I never!!!! Lol

We caught 10 a few weeks ago in about 3 hrs at the mouth of Brisbane river,

Try deep water bend, a chunk of mullet and sink it to the bottom, you will "win" I assure you,

[fifis101]

Is there any particular time of the day or tide?

All my luck must be going into "not" catching catfish.

I wish some of it would move onto my lure fishing as I'm really struggling to catch anything using both hardbodies and plastics.

[qbkami]

Is there any particular time of the day or tide?

All my luck must be going into "not" catching catfish.

I wish some of it would move onto my lure fishing as I'm really struggling to catch anything using both hardbodies and plastics.

no particular time i believe.

I haven't caught any catfish on my lures but some guys have. Personally i think it would be extremely hard trying to catch a catfish on lure unless your working your plastic like a dead bait on the bottom, I believe they are more of a scavenger fish then a predatory fish. But if you want to catch a fish on lure, flathead would probably be the easiest, try to throw some plastics and hop them off the bottom of sand beds or maybe even try the plastics where you caught some flathead previously.

Cheers q

[fenelious]

Is there any particular time of the day or tide?

All my luck must be going into "not" catching catfish.

I wish some of it would move onto my lure fishing as I'm really struggling to catch anything using both hardbodies and plastics.

Don't worry about the tide too much, you'll catch catfish on any tide. Early mornings and late afternoons are always the best time of day to fish for most species.

Fork tailed catfish (I'm assuming you're not after freshwater eel-tailed catfish) will take all sorts of lures, but you're much more likely to get them on bait, and pretty much any bait for that matter. I've caught quite a few of them on frozen prawns from the bait shop. If you want to catch them on lures target another species like bream, mangrove jacks, or brackish water bass, and if the catties are there you should hook the odd one. I caught one not long back with a chatterbait of all things, whilst chasing bass just above the tidal reaches.

I see you're from Mitchelton, that's my general area too, I'm out in Samford Valley. The best spot to find catties close by would be the Pine Rivers, upriver of where the South Pine joins the North Pine. I know there are a few in the 'keys' 1.5km North West of the Nth Pine/Sth Pine junction. It's (was) easy to access from the northern bank.

Good luck.

-Steve.

[rinkerdink]

I got a 30-45cm catty's on 2 out of 3 casts off the beach at Margate on a couple of trips during the day recently (never had one at night though?). Some of them hit the bait (whole pilly on ganged hooks) really hard and they all gave the biceps a bit of a work out. Big fat heads slobbering tongues and those nasty spikes. Be careful handling them. I removed the hooks using pliers at arms length but an old sea dog showed me how to pick them up - I won't try to describe it in case you get impaled :-)

[Woggie]

Wouldn't bother trying to "target" them mate....Rest assured, they will find YOU! Then you will see them as the annoying pest that we all do

[getrigged]

Yeah. Careful of those spines, they are nasty, I also forgot to mention that catfish loooove wd40, yep spray your bait with wd40 and you'll have a win!

[fifis101]

Thanks for all your input guys.

Sounds like I've been doing everything right just having bad luck (or is that good luck haha).

WD40?! That's so weird!

[tiotony]

Its because WD40's primary ingredient is fish oil.

Please don't say you are keen to catch a pike eel too :sick:

[fifis101]

A pike eel might be alright.

Go straight in the bait freezer!

[ghendoaus]

Its because WD40's primary ingredient is fish oil.

Hi I thought this was the case also until I checked the Material Safety Data Sheet see the attached pdf found on the website...

The main ingredients seem to be white spirit, paraffinic distillate, heavy, solvent- dewaxed and isoparaffins petroleum hydrotreated HFP.

msds_wd40_aerosol_20110831.pdf

[getrigged]

Whatever is in it works at catching catfish, weirdly enough

[braydo]

Gday fifis101,If you want to catch a catfish head down to coomera river there's an island infront of sanctuary cove that holds nice amounts of catfish. Just chuck on some pilchards and you're on you're way.

Cheers braydo.

[fifis101]

I managed to get 3 yesterday under the Story Bridge between 30-35cm. It wasn't easy though, I fished for a few hours & had to fight through a 55cm flattie & a 84cm bully first before I got my first cattie.

[Jollybox]

..listen, I'm relatively new to QLD ('07) and certainly new to fishing but why are catfish thought of so badly ie. "pests" and such like? I spent half my life living in Thailand - they have the most fantastic recipe for deep fried catfish...

As an aside to the WD40 mention - Urban legend has it that it was developed by NASA as a W-ater D-ispersant and they were happy by the time the 40th 'recipe' was presented - Hence WD40. Primarily used in missile nose cones...

[fifis101]

..listen, I'm relatively new to QLD ('07) and certainly new to fishing but why are catfish thought of so badly ie. "pests" and such like? I spent half my life living in Thailand - they have the most fantastic recipe for deep fried catfish...

As an aside to the WD40 mention - Urban legend has it that it was developed by NASA as a W-ater D-ispersant and they were happy by the time the 40th 'recipe' was presented - Hence WD40. Primarily used in missile nose cones...

They are considered a "pest" as there are so many of them and they are generally and annoying bycatch when you are fishing for other species.

Another two aspects that people don't like about them is the fact that they are slimy and have 3 nasty big spines.

[Clevo_31]

If you can get out around the Cleveland/Raby Bay/Wellington point area on a Yak or boat, tie up to any of the channel markers around and drop half a pillie down unweighted right next to it. Have caught plenty doing this chasing other species, and the last session I had we managed 3 between 2 of us, all of which I would easily put over the 60cm+ mark. They take you for a good ride on 6lb line and a kayak!! Best off cutting the hook off at the yak if they have swallowed it though, I have never fancied having those spikes flapping around on my lap, flatties are bad enough.

Jordan

[Gator]

Been catching plenty at shorncliffe too, big grunting suckers!

[tomartomau]

I managed to get 3 yesterday under the Story Bridge between 30-35cm. .

The family caught a couple there a couple of weeks ago, right where the old wharf sheds are. Top of the tide, current is pretty strong on the run out though.