5/1/08
The channel catfish – Marion’s overlooked fishery
By Terry Madewell

Terry Madewell Photo

Channel catfish don’t get as big as the blue or flathead species, but they provide great fun in terms of numbers and fighting ability. They are often overlooked on Lake Marion.

We were having a tough day of bass fishing, which seems to happen most often when I really need to catch a mess of fish for someone. I had a buddy who seldom gets to fish for anything, much less largemouth bass, but the bass had been biting very well. Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time. But as largemouth bass sometimes do, the fish had turned off and we were struggling to find any decent-sized fish.

Then I remembered one of my favorite fish species, and one of the most reliable … the channel catfish. While not as big as the blue or flatheads we have in lakes Marion and Moultrie, they get to respectable sizes and put up a great fight on light tackle. I did have the foresight to have brought some rods rigged for these rascals with me. Plus, a bucket of stink bait was hidden in the back of the boat and there was some fresh chicken breast meat in the cooler.

It was by far my best move of the day.

While the channel catfish doesn’t get as large the other two species of the “Big Three” of catfish as they are called, Santee Cooper does hold the world record for channel catfish of 58 pounds, which is plenty of catfish for most of us to tangle with. While they certainly don’t usually get anyplace close to that big, there are still some big fish in the lakes. More importantly there are plenty of numbers of fish as well.

The channel catfish is actually present in Lake Marion (and Moultrie) in significant numbers and has been a productive fishery in the lake for many years. They were here before the blue catfish and flathead catfish were successfully introduced into the lake many years ago.

Now, however, the blues and the flatheads are responsible for enabling the Santee Cooper lakes to make a legitimate claim as the number one catfishery in the country – the world for that matter.

However, the channel catfish lives on and is available as another exciting facet of the catfishing resource we all enjoy. The primary reason most people do not consider the channel catfish as a strong fishery is the bait they use. Of the catfish, the channel catfish is the one primarily responsible for the species being tagged with a preference for stink baits. They simply prefer a smelly bait. But as I’ve discovered in recent months, fresh chicken breast is another excellent recipe for channel catfishing success.

Blue catfish, too, will hit the chicken and stink type baits, but the Doc’s Catfish Dip Bait that I have used for many years on our lakes seems to be light-years ahead of any other stink bait I’ve ever use in terms of producing fish – either channel or blues.

Often these two catfish species fish can be found feeding in close proximity and you’ll catch both from the same place in many instances. Other times, it will be primarily one or the other. The key point is that you’re opening yourself up to a potential for catching an entirely different species of catfish when you use stink baits, or even if you use it in conjunction with cut bait. You’ll likely find, as I have, that the stink bait will often outperform your favorite cut bait on the blues anyway, without the added bonus of channel catfish in the cooler. Many are the days in the spring and throughout the summer when the number of channel catfish caught will outnumber the blues – even if there is a healthy number of blues in the box.

Channel catfish are very sporting fish and fight every bit as hard as the blue or flathead on a pound for pound basis, giving a twisting, turning, bottom-boring struggle when hooked. They also measure up to the standards set by the others in the frying pan.

Pound for pound, the channel catfish is a very strong, hard fighting fish. Most catfishermen that routinely catch a variety of catfish species will quickly tell you that a channel catfish is perhaps the hardest fighting of the three. I’ve recently seen a fisherman catch a five-pound channel catfish and he felt that it was stronger than a blue he’d caught earlier that was twice that size. They are the bulldogs of catfish.

The channel catfish simply deserves more respect than it often receives from area anglers. The larger fish don’t seem to be caught as frequently as in past years, due to competition from the blues and flatheads, but the channel catfish are plentiful and many average in the 1-5 pound class, with occasional 10-12 pound fish being taken. For most anyone, that’s not a bad addition to our daily catch.

For my buddy and me on the day we fished, we finished with an excellent catch of channel catfish, mixed in with a few decent-sized blue catfish. Late in the evening, we did give the largemouth another try and managed to catch a few. However, it was the channel catfish that had my buddy bubbling all the way home.

The next time you’re on the lake, especially with catfishing season now getting into full swing, discover Santee Cooper’s other catfish. It can save the day for you just as it did for me. Or, just simply go catfishing from the get-go.