Here is a transcript of the video as well for those who may need it. This is an automatically generated transcription which means it may contain errors and inaccurate language and/or sentences.
00:03
what a great crowd hey everybody my name
00:07
is Jeff Williams and maybe some of you
00:10
see me on this and YouTube videos or
00:13
Facebook over the years but I really
00:15
appreciate you guys coming out to the
00:17
catfish conference isn’t this a great
00:19
event
00:20
you see Steve Douglas and some of these
00:22
other guys thank them because this is a
00:25
this is a really nice event it’s great
00:28
to be able to come out here and and meet
00:30
all of you I’ve had a lot of fans over
00:32
the years come by the booth and shake my
00:34
hand and buy some products so we’re
00:38
really proud to announce it
00:40
team catfish is in nearly 2000 Walmart
00:43
stores this year we’re at Bass Pro we’re
00:45
at Cabela’s we’re at Academy we’re going
00:48
into Sportsman’s Warehouse I mean you
00:50
can find our products all over the
00:52
country if you know if you have a local
00:55
tackle shop in your area that you like
00:57
to buy products from have them get a
00:59
hold of it and we want to be able to
01:00
supply your your local tackle dealers so
01:03
but you know even though as many places
01:06
as we are there’s a whole lot of places
01:08
that we want to be and there’s a whole
01:10
lot of people learning how to catfish
01:12
all over the country so as most of the
01:16
folks that are here are from the Midwest
01:19
Ohio area Kentucky area let’s see some
01:22
hands okay I’m from Oklahoma we got
01:27
anybody else from Oklahoma in here
01:29
Missouri okay we got some Missouri
01:32
Tennessee okay all right so we love
01:37
Illinois okay Texas yeah Kansas let’s
01:43
see Florida all right well that’s
01:46
wonderful to have you all here and like
01:48
I said what a great event so today they
01:53
brought me in to kind of talk about some
01:56
of the different species of catfish
01:59
flatheads blue cats channel cats it’s
02:02
not all the same catfish you don’t fish
02:04
for those catfish the same way you
02:06
shouldn’t target them the same way the
02:08
anatomy of the catfish is not the same
02:11
they don’t have the same
02:13
habits from season to season so you
02:15
really have to figure out today what
02:18
fish am I gonna go fish for am I gonna
02:20
fish for channel cats how many people in
02:22
here fish for channel cats blue cats
02:26
flatheads we got a nice mix okay that’s
02:31
wonderful so let’s talk a little bit
02:34
about the anatomy and how these catfish
02:37
are built let’s just look at one okay
02:39
now you all have seen a lot of catfish I
02:42
didn’t bring any pictures or any videos
02:43
up here with me because I really like to
02:45
talk about this stuff now your channel
02:47
cat if you look at him he is built with
02:50
an overbite okay if you look his top lip
02:54
goes down okay he’s got a forked tail
02:57
and that dude is made to where he can
02:59
swim a long way he can swim pretty fast
03:03
and they’re made to pick things up off
03:06
the bottom it’s a lot harder for a
03:09
channel cat to rear up and eat something
03:12
even though they do eat suspended baits
03:13
from time to time but you really need to
03:16
look at the anatomy of these fish and
03:18
you need to look before and as you do it
03:21
really starts to kind of make sense of
03:23
how I should target them so the next
03:25
fish that we have is blue catfish again
03:30
overbite okay not quite as an aggressive
03:33
of overbite as a channel cat blue cats
03:36
do do a tremendous amount of suspended
03:39
out in sometimes they suspend behind
03:42
wing dams they suspend out in out in
03:46
open water they also feed on the bottom
03:49
they blue cats are a lot more notorious
03:51
for chasing live shad or live skipjack
03:57
or golden eye or moon eye or something
03:59
like that your channel cat he’s – he
04:03
will eat live bait sometimes if he
04:06
because they’re all opportunistic but
04:08
your channel cat doesn’t always target
04:11
live bait blue cats will target live
04:14
bait they will literally get on a
04:15
pattern and that’s what they want
04:17
sometimes from day to day is is live
04:22
bait now I’ve spent a lot of you know
04:25
spent a long time fishing for catfish
04:27
but the last three years I was a catfish
04:29
guide at Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri
04:31
I was fishing specifically for blue
04:34
catfish over 200 days a year
04:36
and I learned a lot about catfish I
04:39
learned a lot about blue catfish and one
04:43
of the things that we really like about
04:45
blue catfish is the size of the fish of
04:48
course you can catch really large fish
04:51
or you can catch some small fish and I
04:54
recommend taking fish that are like 28
04:56
inches or 30 inches down for to harvest
04:59
those are to me those are the best fish
05:02
so unless we’re going to get into a
05:05
little bit about the seasonality of how
05:08
to target these but I want to talk about
05:09
a flathead because I think at all three
05:12
species of catfish the flathead is
05:15
probably the most misunderstood and it
05:18
is lumped into the group of catfish the
05:21
easiest okay now let’s look at the
05:24
anatomy of a flathead the flathead has
05:27
an underbite like this not an overbite
05:31
he’s got an underbite if you look at him
05:33
from the side in the front his top jaw
05:37
goes down underneath his bottom jaw so
05:41
he’s built to feed different it’s a
05:45
different critter his body is a lot
05:48
flatter it’s a lot it’s it’s not quite
05:52
as sleek like a blue cat in the channel
05:54
cat and he’s got a round tail okay
05:57
the round tail is a big indicator and
06:01
the end the under bite are big
06:03
indicators of what that species how he
06:06
feeds so flat heads for the most part I
06:11
believe target live bait new people
06:15
catch them from time to time on cut bait
06:17
I think a lot of times that cut bait is
06:19
moving or it’s made of vibration or it’s
06:22
wiggled or a rods been pulled or
06:24
something caused that bait to move but
06:28
for the most part if you’re going to
06:29
fish for flat heads you need to fish
06:32
with live bait so flat heads really like
06:35
to lay in structure they like to lay in
06:37
rocks they like to lay in
06:39
wait the catfish that camouflage on a
06:42
flat edge is a lot different too okay
06:44
channel cats are you know kind of tan
06:47
looking with a couple little specks blue
06:49
cats of course are are you know in muddy
06:52
water they’re really white and in clear
06:54
water they’re they’re blue slate gray
06:57
kind of a shark looking color but a
06:59
flathead he’s camouflaged he he’s he’s
07:04
built to just lay around in a wood pile
07:06
looking up and waiting for something to
07:11
swim by and he just reaches up inhales
07:13
it now if he has to make a short quick
07:16
bursts he’s got that round tail to give
07:20
him all the pushing power he needs to go
07:23
after something with a short strike it’s
07:25
a different tale than a forked tail like
07:28
you find on a blue cat and you find on a
07:31
channel cat so targeting these fish by
07:36
the anatomy and by the the traits is how
07:40
you should be looking at catfish don’t
07:42
put all cat don’t say I’m going
07:45
catfishing I’m going blue catfishing
07:48
today I’m going flat head catfishing
07:50
today I’m going channel catfish today
07:52
and you know there’s a lot of times
07:54
you’ll have some crossover between
07:56
channel cats and blue cats but once you
07:59
learn how to target these fish you’re
08:03
going to be a lot more successful okay
08:05
and also I’m going to talk I’m going to
08:08
ask if there’s a few questions at the
08:09
end of the end of the seminar but now
08:12
that we’ve really kind of discussed the
08:14
anatomy of a fish let’s talk about the
08:19
seasonality of a fish okay
08:21
so when I was a guide I had to learn how
08:24
to capitalize on these fish from season
08:28
to season they’re predictable okay they
08:31
just they just are but the water
08:34
temperature the length of daylight all
08:37
of these factors drive the instincts of
08:40
these fish to behave differently from
08:43
season to season so we have four seasons
08:46
here in
08:47
Midwest and you really need to fish for
08:49
your blue catfish your channel cats and
08:51
your flat heads differently for the most
08:55
part your flat heads really become
08:58
dormant once the water temperatures drop
09:01
down below about 45 degrees they fish
09:05
are cold blooded so their metabolism
09:07
slows or the metabolism heats up as the
09:11
water warms which brings up a good point
09:14
a lot of times in cold water where the
09:17
fish has a slow metabolism he’s looking
09:19
for a smaller bait okay his body is not
09:23
burning as much food as he does when the
09:28
water is warm
09:28
now that’s don’t don’t take that to
09:31
heart but you always remember that that
09:33
sometimes if you’re struggling to catch
09:34
fish in the winter you might be fishing
09:37
with a bait that’s too big especially on
09:40
cold front days bluebird skies and days
09:43
when the fish might not be quite as
09:45
active so flat heads become pretty
09:49
dormant when we get into the winter
09:51
months all right channel cats can be
09:54
somewhat dormant blue cats really remain
09:57
active all winter the thing that really
10:00
kind of kills the blue cat fishing in
10:02
the winter times a lot of times is a
10:04
shad kill we have it we have a gizzard
10:08
shad kill or we have a threadfin shad
10:10
kill and these shed these sheds start to
10:13
die off once your water temperatures
10:15
drop below 42 degrees gizzard shad in a
10:18
specially threadfin shad they go into
10:21
what we call thermal shock and have
10:23
y’all seen shad washed up on the banks
10:25
or seen shad float and after you have a
10:27
hard cold front or you know haven’t
10:30
happened we have shad kills all over the
10:32
Midwest it happens on rivers it happens
10:34
on lakes so a lot of times that shad
10:39
kill can really it’s not call it right
10:42
rain and cheeseburgers I mean there’s
10:44
just there’s just shad everywhere okay
10:48
these shad are going into thermal shock
10:50
and they swim and they’ve flutter and
10:54
they swim and they flutter the majority
10:56
of them sink to the bottom
10:58
some of them sink if not
11:00
they rise to the top a lot of times when
11:03
they rise to the top you’ll see a lot of
11:05
goals work in an area okay and these
11:07
goals will follow these shed up to the
11:10
banks so with that being said that leads
11:16
me to a pattern in the winter time for
11:21
blue catfish in some channel camp okay a
11:23
lot of times during a shad kill if you
11:26
will fish the shallow water on the windy
11:28
side of the lake that is where a lot of
11:30
that winter shad kill is being blown
11:32
it’s being pushed up onto a sand bar
11:35
into a gravel bar up onto a mud flat and
11:37
that is a pattern that you can take
11:39
advantage of as a channel cat fisherman
11:42
but especially as a blue cat angle
11:45
especially on reservoirs that are really
11:48
really loaded with lots of bait fish
11:50
okay
11:52
blue cats just don’t quit and it doesn’t
11:54
matter if it’s 32 degree water and they
11:57
just keep on biting as long as there’s
11:59
not so much bait in the water so much
12:02
shad in the water that they become full
12:04
they’re just completely gorged with all
12:06
of the free food channel cats you know
12:10
it’s just kind of a hit or miss there
12:12
with those guys sometimes they take
12:14
advantage of that winter kill that
12:16
winter shad kill sometimes they don’t
12:18
they’re just not as active in the
12:20
wintertime they’re not as aggressive in
12:22
the wintertime as blue cats are so let’s
12:27
move from winter time into spring time
12:29
now the flat heads really start to
12:32
become somewhat active a lot here in the
12:34
Midwest usually in about the end of
12:38
March April May that in that period
12:41
right in there a flat has really become
12:42
active the water starts warming up the
12:45
length of the day starts increasing and
12:47
the fish really really start becoming a
12:50
lot more active channel cats really
12:54
start to become active once we’re
12:56
dealing with water temperatures about 45
12:58
degrees and again blue cat just never
13:00
slowed down okay if you can find them
13:03
you can catch blue catfish so that’s one
13:06
of the things that I want you to
13:07
consider is kind of that water
13:09
temperature and that time for
13:11
and a lot of times in the spring
13:14
fish have feeding and spawning on their
13:18
minds
13:19
so anglers will target fish in a feeding
13:22
pattern or sometimes in a spawning
13:24
pattern so you need to look at that
13:26
again by species and then you need to
13:30
look at that by season so when you start
13:33
putting all these variables together
13:35
then you start to be where you can
13:37
really capitalize on the catfish so a
13:41
lot of times in the spring like I said
13:43
they’re up in shallow water they’re
13:45
aggressive they’re moving they’re coming
13:47
out of the winter kill and you know the
13:51
waters warm
13:52
a lot of the shatter also thinking about
13:54
spawning so they’re moving shallow so
13:58
the predator fish move up and follow
14:00
those shad has anybody ever heard the
14:03
wind blew all the shad up to the one
14:06
side of the lake or the wind was blowing
14:08
and that’s where all the bait fish are
14:09
on that side of the lake the wind blew
14:11
him up there the wind didn’t blow him up
14:14
there the wind blew the zooplankton up
14:17
there that they feed on think about that
14:20
too and that’s another little thing I
14:22
want to talk about because I’m gonna
14:23
talk a little bit about night fishing I
14:25
fish mostly during the day because I’ve
14:28
learned how to talk learn how to target
14:30
all these fish during the day I would
14:31
rather fish for them when they’re
14:33
stationary and a piece of structure or
14:35
positioned on a drop-off or in a wood
14:38
pile or something at nighttime a lot of
14:40
these fish do move around they become
14:43
shallow the shad become shallow and they
14:45
start to move around and they move
14:47
around a lot more but during the day
14:49
that a lot of times the shattered deeper
14:52
and they all have to feed on zooplankton
14:54
in the water so it’s nighttime
14:56
approaches a lot of times the shad will
14:59
come up they will be shallower and your
15:02
predator fish start moving around they
15:05
start following these shadolo and a lot
15:07
of times they’ll follow them into areas
15:09
that are you know bud flats gravel bars
15:13
long points that stink stick wet on to
15:16
the lake do we have a river fisherman
15:19
versus reservoir fisherman bank
15:22
fisherman River fisherman let’s
15:24
your hands we’re going to have a lake
15:27
fisherman man this is every business
15:31
quite a mix of folks so you can target
15:34
these fish differently in reservoirs
15:38
versus rivers one of the things that I
15:43
want you to consider is current
15:45
dictating to any species of fish where
15:48
it has to live in a lake you have some
15:51
wind and you have some wind waves and
15:53
you know and you have fish that are
15:56
moving around but for the most part if
15:58
they’re in a river the current is
16:01
dictating to them where they have to
16:03
live they’re not just going to swim out
16:04
in the main current all the time they’re
16:07
going to push off in somewhere they’re
16:09
going to push into an area where there’s
16:12
a current break where there’s a piece of
16:14
structure or wood a rock an old car body
16:17
an old sunken barge or whatever it is
16:21
and they’re going to escape that current
16:23
again areas where you can target these
16:26
fish so current is a lot different than
16:30
fishing reservoirs and when you really
16:35
start to define it you have to think
16:37
about where would a fish be hiding in
16:40
the current why would he be there and
16:42
target that fish there okay reservoir
16:46
fish they they still like drop-offs they
16:49
still like edges they like ledges they
16:51
like brush piles but there’s nothing
16:54
that’s really dictating to that fish
16:56
that he has to stay there so a lot of
16:58
times they don’t they’re not quite as
16:59
predictable but at night when you have
17:02
fish that move out of deep water into
17:04
shallow water to target bait fish they
17:09
become predictable especially in the
17:12
spring and the summer and early fall
17:14
okay so most of the catfish start to
17:18
spawn around 75 degree water that’s when
17:20
that’s when you see a lot of spawning
17:22
you can take advantage of all three
17:24
species in rocks or riprap or areas
17:28
where they go to spawn a lot of times
17:30
they’ll spawn in ten foot of water or
17:31
shallower
17:32
and a lot of you know you’ve got big
17:35
long bridges that are made with big
17:38
riprap rock you know big big boulders
17:40
that they’ve put in whether it’s on
17:42
whether it’s on a lake or a river and so
17:47
you can you can target those fish in
17:49
that big rock you can use bobbers you
17:52
can you can use a rod and and dabble you
17:56
know a lot of people will use a rod and
17:58
they’ll put a piece of shrimp or a fiber
18:00
nugget or something on it and they’ll
18:01
they’ll just stand on those big rocks
18:03
and they’ll go like this this is really
18:06
popular back in Oklahoma and they’ll get
18:08
along those bridges and those fish that
18:10
are moving into spawn they will be in
18:12
those holes and they’re not really
18:15
hitting the bait because they’re hungry
18:17
they’re hitting it because they’re
18:19
trying to remove it from their nests
18:22
they’re picking it up and carrying it
18:23
out of their nest because they guard
18:25
their nest okay they’re like all other
18:27
fish there is one of them that it’s
18:29
going to be guarding the nest so if you
18:31
drop a piece of shat or a shrimp or
18:33
something into their nest get ready
18:35
because if it’s a 40 or 50 pound fish
18:38
and you got 8 v 8 foot of line out
18:40
you’re gonna have a tiger by the tail
18:43
then pull the rod out of your hand if
18:44
you’re not prepared so that’s one of the
18:47
ways that you can target these fish by
18:49
water temperature and by season okay so
18:54
you know we have thermic lines in
18:58
reservoirs thermic lines are a dissolved
19:02
layer of an oxygen and a lot of times in
19:04
a big in a big reservoir that that layer
19:07
of oxygen is so low below the thermic
19:11
line that fish can’t survive
19:13
okay they can kind of swim down there
19:15
but they got to come back up and if they
19:17
stay down there they’ll die because the
19:19
oxygen level is not real high okay so
19:23
again that’s another key to being in the
19:27
summer when this thermic line starts
19:30
you’re not going to probably fish in 60
19:33
or 70 or 80 foot of water on a reservoir
19:35
now in a river where you don’t really
19:38
have thermic lines because the water is
19:40
constantly turning and moving you might
19:43
be able to catch some summer
19:44
blue catfish and 60 or 70 80 foot of
19:47
water so again I come back to my point
19:50
about targeting the fish by season and
19:54
learning the species and how to target
19:57
the species okay I hope and I hope
20:00
everybody’s really if you walk away from
20:02
this seminar with one you know you know
20:05
one thing that you’ve learned is I
20:07
really really want you to break out and
20:10
distinguish the fish from season to
20:12
season so we move into the fall now
20:17
let’s back up talk a little bit about
20:19
reservoirs you know in the summertime
20:21
the reservoirs a lot of people drift
20:23
fish for catfish a lot of people will
20:26
anchor fish in shallow water at night
20:28
for blue catfish and channel catfish if
20:30
you’re going to target flat heads at
20:32
night fish shallow flat heads are for
20:36
the most part you know flat heads are
20:38
not a fish of really deep water I think
20:40
a lot of times people fish for flat
20:42
heads way too deep and in the in the
20:46
reservoir that I live on 50,000 surface
20:49
acres we catch flat heads in pretty much
20:54
from year around from 10 foot of water
20:56
to 4 foot of water that’s their
20:58
preferred range flat heads are you know
21:00
they’re going to go down and they’re
21:01
going to stay in deep woods sometimes
21:03
when you got current but when you’re in
21:07
a reservoir fish for flat heads in
21:09
shallow water especially at night flat
21:12
heads will get out and move around a lot
21:14
at night they’re gonna target its bait
21:16
at night but they’re not going to swim
21:18
around a whole lot like a blue catfish
21:20
or a channel cat how many people fish at
21:22
night ok flat heads blue cats
21:31
okay well personally I don’t have a blue
21:34
catfish after dark a blue catfish during
21:39
the day because I want to be able to
21:40
target those fish where they’re living
21:43
at during the day rather than having a
21:45
fish come to me now if you’re a bank
21:46
angler that’s a little bit different
21:47
okay but definitely a lot of times night
21:51
time can be the best opportunity for you
21:54
to catch fish if you’re a bank angler so
21:56
a lot of times bank anglers have to
21:59
struggle with access but instead of
22:02
setting around someplace too long as a
22:04
bank angler I would be concentrating on
22:07
trying to find more locations to fish I
22:10
would also really concentrate as a bank
22:13
angler for first catfish in general on
22:17
fishing different depths away from the
22:20
bank if you’ve all seen the bass
22:22
fisherman that’s got the boat and he’s
22:24
got the whole Lake to fish but where has
22:26
he come he comes up by the bank to fish
22:29
well the bank angler he goes out and he
22:32
gets and he throws far out as he can go
22:33
so somewhere between there you’ve got a
22:37
lot of active fish just because you’re a
22:39
bank angler doesn’t mean you just have
22:42
to keep doing the same thing over and
22:44
over and over again I would fish some
22:46
lure or some baits extremely close to
22:49
where you are fish some baits a long way
22:53
okay try different baits don’t get stuck
22:57
in a rut but if you know sometimes if
23:00
you cast parallel with the banks you
23:03
know there’s all these tricks that you
23:05
need to be doing as a bank angler to
23:07
become more efficient being a bank
23:09
angler bank anglers can be somewhat
23:11
limited but it can also be very good but
23:15
you but the worst thing that can happen
23:16
as a bank angler is just to go sit down
23:18
in chair somewhere throughout rods where
23:21
you threw them out and you caught your
23:22
fish last time and hope that they’re
23:24
there again you need to be able to work
23:27
the water column you need to be able to
23:30
pay attention when you’re casting again
23:33
let’s say and blue cats and channel cats
23:36
in really really really this can really
23:39
make a big difference so I’m a bank
23:42
angler and I’m
23:43
Caston all right I throw out and I threw
23:45
over to that curtain wall over there I’m
23:48
not just gonna set my rod down with
23:50
mentally trying to figure out how deep
23:53
my bait sank count that bait down I like
23:58
to use the same size sinkers when I Bank
24:01
fish because I’ll cast over there and
24:03
then I’ll cast out that way and for some
24:06
reason if that felt like that was a
24:08
little deeper over there I’m gonna know
24:10
because it took a little bit longer to
24:13
sink that can be the determining factor
24:16
on you being extremely successful from
24:19
the bank my cast over this way and I
24:22
notice it’s a little bit shallower and I
24:24
start catching fish a little bit
24:26
shallower I know that I need to be
24:28
filtering feeding more rods up into that
24:30
area so really pay attention to how deep
24:33
you’re fishing how far you’re casting
24:35
and try to use it you know I use three
24:37
ounce sinkers a lot where I fish I’ve
24:40
got a pretty good idea of how deep it is
24:42
from the time that sinker hits the water
24:44
until I feel it hit the bottom okay now
24:52
fish in the fall whether you’re in a
24:55
reservoir or whether you’re in a in a in
24:58
a river become very very aggressive the
25:02
fall is a great time to catfish but a
25:05
lot of times people don’t catfish in the
25:06
fall cos they deer hunter they duck on
25:09
or they burn hunter or you know whatever
25:12
but the fall is a great time to go out
25:14
and catch catfish and a lot of times
25:17
they will they will be stuck between
25:19
that shallow area and starting to go
25:22
deep for them for the winter pattern now
25:25
I said flat heads don’t usually go deep
25:27
but flat heads will winter in some
25:29
deeper holes they will winter in you
25:31
know 30 40 foot of water but they really
25:34
become inactive so but channel cats and
25:37
blue cats a great place to target them
25:39
is on drop-off areas or areas where
25:42
they’re moving from shallow water to
25:45
deep water okay that’s a great places to
25:47
target fish in the fall whether it’s a
25:49
channel cat or it’s a blue cat man I
25:53
let’s see
25:55
1215 okay all right I’m going to talk a
26:03
little bit about some of our rods and
26:05
reels I’m gonna talk a little bit about
26:06
fiber Nuggets does anybody have any
26:08
questions about targeting a fish or the
26:11
anatomy of a fish from season to season
26:20
do they school okay that’s that’s a
26:23
really good question I can tell you
26:24
something’s pretty interesting about
26:25
that I don’t think for the most part
26:27
that flat heads are a schooling fish
26:29
okay
26:30
blue cats and channel cats do school but
26:33
I think out of all three species the
26:35
blue catfish school by size more than
26:39
anything a lot of times if you catch
26:41
schooling blue cats if you catch two or
26:43
three fish at the same time they’re all
26:45
going to be somewhat about the same size
26:47
and if you drift through them again or
26:49
you know they all move in they do school
26:51
does if this has anybody ever seen how
26:55
hard a blue cat hits they just wrong man
27:00
that I mean a lot of days it’s just like
27:02
I can’t believe a fish hits that hard
27:05
okay so what a real interesting little
27:07
thing that that I got to do when I was
27:10
had kids was back when I was guiding a
27:14
lot I caught some little blue catfish in
27:16
my shad net my cast net when I was
27:18
catching shad for guide trips and I’d
27:21
catch a few little blue catfish in there
27:23
and you can’t believe how those fish
27:29
will fight over a bait don’t see it so
27:31
much with flat heads and I don’t see it
27:33
with channel cats but I’m convinced that
27:36
the reason that blue cats bite so hard
27:39
and so ferociously is because a lot of
27:42
times there’s another blue cat in the
27:44
area with him in a school they you know
27:47
or another fish and they will literally
27:50
try to pull another pull a bait out of
27:52
another fish’s mouth so they bite it and
27:54
they run with it and they they want it
27:57
they don’t want another fish to try to
27:58
get what they just ate so I think you
28:01
know it’s kind of a cool little tip we
28:02
would see we would drop little pieces of
28:04
worms in in the aquarium and they would
28:07
sink and if one of those blue cats hit
28:09
it there’d be two or three more of them
28:11
just run up and try to hit his face and
28:13
try to stick they could have went Nathan
28:15
ate the worm themself but for whatever
28:17
reason they tried to get it out of that
28:19
fish’s mouth so it’s kind of interesting
28:20
and that’s a good question
28:24
and that you know they’re gonna become a
28:27
lot more solitary in the spring and when
28:31
they’re trying to spawn they’re not
28:33
going to school at that point in time as
28:34
you move through the summer that I think
28:37
they start to build up in schools and
28:39
then as you as you get into the fall and
28:41
winter especially in the fall I think
28:43
you see a lot of schooling fish but I
28:46
think a lot of schooling fish whether
28:48
it’s crappie
28:48
or bass or Kentucky bass or smallmouth
28:51
and whatever I think fall is the primary
28:53
time that you see a lot of schooling
28:55
fish I didn’t hear you yeah that’s a
29:04
whole different animal there yeah I mean
29:09
most of the time they’re shallow they’re
29:13
you know not real deep most of the time
29:15
the water can be you know somewhat more
29:19
static or a standard temperature fish
29:25
and bait are definitely going to move
29:26
toward that hot water area the hot water
29:28
outlet when it gets really really cold
29:32
you know those fish have a comfort zone
29:34
I can’t tell you exactly what that
29:35
comfort zone is but if you’ve got a hot
29:38
water outlet or a warm water outlet
29:40
that’s where I would be concentrating on
29:43
trying to target some fish spawn
29:51
I would move out away from the hot water
29:55
area about when the water gets about 75
29:58
degrees and I would start fishing the
30:00
rocky areas or rip rafter or shallow
30:02
areas and typically there’s a bridge or
30:05
there’s some something in those hot
30:07
water outlets hot water areas or
30:10
somewhere there’s a bridge that goes
30:12
across the lake or there’s some riprap
30:14
piled up somewhere to keep erosion from
30:17
happening
30:18
those are great areas to target spawning
30:20
catfish
30:28
I’m sorry I can’t hear you
30:32
[Music]
30:44
I’m sorry I couldn’t hear you very good
30:53
probably good question sure for blues do
30:59
you find it more advantageous to put two
31:02
dropper hooks on one single line to
31:04
suspend for suspended fish yeah okay
31:08
yeah the suspended fish definitely I
31:11
don’t think if you’re fishing up for
31:13
bottom or bouncing the bottom you can
31:18
you can use a you know one on top of the
31:20
other or if you’re in the water call
31:22
them but when I’m anchor fishing I don’t
31:24
but when I’m fishing a lot of times when
31:27
I’m fishing suspended fish or like bump
31:29
fishing or control drifting yes I use
31:31
two baits a lot of times for sure
31:33
I don’t time and I don’t tie them one
31:35
behind each other I’m trying to I’m
31:37
trying to target two different depths
31:40
and his question his question was if
31:44
you’re if you’re fishing for drifting
31:48
for suspended fish like in a river a lot
31:51
of times you know the catfish have eyes
31:54
on top of their head so you know they
31:56
are going to be able to pick stuff up
31:58
off the bottom but they also see baits
32:00
coming to them that are above them and
32:03
they can sure to reach up there and
32:05
strike them especially blue catfish they
32:08
they will they will it’s amazing how
32:10
fast you can be drifting sometimes and
32:13
and catch blue catfish
32:14
so okay one of the things that I’m
32:19
really proud of I don’t know has anybody
32:21
ever fished with secret seven or sudden
32:24
impact catfish bait quite a few people
32:27
okay so secret seven was the first
32:31
manufactured bait that I came out with
32:33
back in 2007 and we released sudden
32:38
impact fiber bait in 2010 and this year
32:42
we’ve got a brand new product called
32:44
fiber nuggets okay how many people fish
32:47
with manufactured bait stink bait that
32:51
Bay whatever some time or another yeah
32:55
it’s at some point okay well
32:57
historically up until now it’s been
32:59
really hard to fish with even the DOE
33:02
even the DOE
33:03
and the bag debate is you got to kind of
33:06
mold it around a treble hook to get it
33:08
to stay on be getting difficult that to
33:11
get it to stay on especially in current
33:13
so what we did was we went kind of back
33:16
to the drawing board with our sudden
33:18
impact fiber bait and we came up with
33:20
fiber nuggets and this product is a
33:23
manufactured bait it’s just it’s the
33:25
same formula secret seven and sudden
33:27
impact except it’s got a lot of micro
33:30
fine hairlike fibers in it and you’re
33:32
going to be able to use it on a circle
33:34
hook so all you got to do is hook it on
33:37
cast it out and that’s it
33:40
yeah is gonna dissolve under the water
33:42
and if a fish hits it yeah I’m more than
33:44
likely he’s going to knock it off but
33:46
one of the tips I want to tell you about
33:48
manufactured bait is it gets a bad rap
33:51
because a lot of people say it doesn’t
33:52
stay on well a lot of times it stays on
33:55
better than you think it does but when
33:57
you let it soak out in the water for
33:59
20-30 minutes
34:00
it does get soft and when you reel it
34:04
back to you that’s when you lose the
34:06
majority of your bait especially if
34:08
you’re in current I don’t have a lot of
34:10
you ever thought about that or not but a
34:12
lot of people throw it out and they let
34:14
it sink they set out there 20-30 minutes
34:16
and then all of a sudden they reel it
34:18
back in there’s nothing there and
34:19
they’re like well I was sitting out
34:21
there with no bait on but more than
34:23
likely if you were using a dip tube or
34:25
using sudden impact fiber bait where the
34:27
fibers grab the hook you had bait on
34:30
your hook until you reeled it back to
34:32
you and it all came off this products
34:36
gonna allow you to put three nuggets on
34:38
a NATO hook that’s going to allow you to
34:40
cut a nugget in half and use a one hop
34:42
hook for smaller catfish so I’m really
34:45
really proud about this I wanted to
34:47
build this for three years I think this
34:49
is going to be our number one selling
34:50
catfish bait in the in the next few
34:52
years which is going to be it’s going to
34:55
be a big deal to have to take over the
34:57
secret seven or sudden impact sales but
34:59
we can’t hardly keep it in stock right
35:01
now at seven dollars a bag we got it
35:03
down at the booth and I would really
35:05
like for you to courage you if you use
35:07
manufactured bait and you’re tired of
35:09
using treble hooks all the time you’re
35:12
tired of trying to mold that bait around
35:14
here
35:14
hook try this right here okay we’ll talk
35:24
a little bit about some of the rods and
35:26
reels we have okay casting and spinning
35:32
who likes casting spinning and you all
35:39
are the half-and-half crowd for sure
35:42
so we got a rod and reel special going
35:45
on right now in our booth everything’s
35:47
you can get a rod and reel combo for 125
35:51
bucks which these pieces of equipment
35:52
right here do you buy this online or buy
35:55
this one online it’s about two hundred
35:57
and twenty dollars with shipping so we
36:00
got a really really good deal I do this
36:01
every year at the catfish conference for
36:04
all of my fans and it’s the only place
36:06
that I offer these these bargains like
36:08
this on the rods and reels you can get
36:10
two reels for 125 you can get two rods
36:13
for 125 and I’d encourage you if you’re
36:16
looking for one there’s a lot of good
36:19
broaden rod manufacturers out there you
36:21
know I see people running around here
36:23
with rods all the time I just want to
36:25
talk to you about some of the features
36:26
of these and what I think you should
36:28
look at a lot of times people buy rods
36:32
and they use rod holders and they don’t
36:34
really take into consideration what this
36:38
is in a rod holder if you’re buying a
36:40
split split grip right here a lot of
36:44
times they don’t work as well in rod
36:47
holders as something like this where
36:50
this hard foam sets in that rod holder
36:52
sturdy whether it’s on the banker in a
36:55
boat you really don’t want to use it’s
36:58
it’s more difficult to use a split limb
37:00
in a rod holder this is why I’ve always
37:02
went with a really long but on on all of
37:06
our rods I went with an end cap that
37:09
comes comes right out of the rod holder
37:11
that’s something you want to look for
37:13
you don’t want you don’t want a flared
37:14
edge or anything right here to help and
37:16
pede you you know when that big cat
37:18
grabs ahold of something so we’ve got a
37:21
good four grip really important to me to
37:24
have a good four
37:25
it where you can fight your fish I
37:28
really like for our rods to have double
37:30
wrapped guides a lot of people don’t
37:33
know what double wrapping is they don’t
37:35
really understand that but as time as
37:37
time goes on if you don’t have a thread
37:41
under wrapper right here underneath your
37:43
guides you can damage these stainless
37:45
guides can damage your rods
37:47
all the flexing that they do you know
37:50
time after time so those are those guys
37:52
somewhat you know that there’s they’re
37:54
somewhat mobile especially after the
37:57
lacquer starts to break down and if you
38:00
don’t have an under wrap right here a
38:02
lot of times when people break a rod
38:04
they break it right around one of these
38:06
guides because there wasn’t a bed of
38:08
under wraps underneath here to take the
38:11
abuse of that foot flexing over time all
38:14
the time you cast it and everything so
38:16
that’s something that I’m really happy
38:18
to offer
38:18
I’ve got braced stainless steel guides
38:21
we’ve got a guide that’s under actually
38:24
an arm that’s underneath the ring
38:26
we’ve got stainless steel and these are
38:29
an e glass white PVA rod oh let’s talk
38:36
about the real been selling these for
38:40
about five or six years that is a gold
38:42
ring four hundred spinning it’s got a
38:44
power handle on it it’s got to cast
38:47
controls which are really important if
38:49
you’re new to bait casters or if you’re
38:53
having trouble casting out in the wind
38:55
so you maybe you’re fishing with big
38:57
baits and you’re trying to control a
38:59
long way and you get them overrun or you
39:01
get a backlash
39:02
we’ve even got what I’ve referred to
39:04
here as a wind you know a wind dial
39:06
right here this is kind of like an
39:08
extra-fine dial to help keep you from
39:13
getting back lashed so a cast control
39:17
star drag that clicks 6.1 to 1 gear
39:21
ratio power handle and really really
39:24
solid reel
39:27
some people are used to seeing spinning
39:30
reels you know some people per first
39:33
casting over spinning again the same all
39:35
of my spinning rods are two-piece I’ve
39:38
got five different models of spinning
39:40
rods from seven foot six medium all the
39:43
way up to twelve foot again they’re at
39:45
under wraps all of the all of the guides
39:48
on these rods are pressed in stainless
39:52
steel guides that are flared on the back
39:54
edge it’s important I mean you did you
39:56
don’t like to knock then you know you
39:58
don’t like to knock your guides your
40:00
rings out of your guides so we push
40:02
those in there and we flare them on the
40:03
backside makes them really really hard
40:05
to get out of there they’re not
40:06
two-piece big heavy stainless steel hook
40:11
keeper again long handle sets in rod
40:14
holder really really nice good for grip
40:18
all our rods got a soft tip soft action
40:21
on the tip lots of backbone so you know
40:25
you got a you got a rod that’s working
40:28
for you on the tip to help kind of just
40:30
detect strikes and then our reel I put a
40:33
really heavy bait a bail on this if you
40:36
look at the size of the bail who’s
40:38
notorious for just putting the rod in
40:40
their truck or the boat it sits there
40:42
and rides there and it you know it’s a
40:43
banging like this I put a really really
40:46
heavy bail spring in this and I put a
40:48
really really heavy bail on it
40:50
this rod also has the bait feeder with a
40:54
tension control right here
40:55
the casting reel also has a bait bait
40:58
runner but if you like to fish and you
41:02
like to let your bait run like a clicker
41:04
on a casting reel okay this has got that
41:07
feature on it as well and you can
41:09
control how tight that bait feeder is
41:12
with this drag back here
41:14
your stardrive or your front drags are
41:16
for when you’re fighting a fish okay
41:19
that that’s going to let you fight your
41:21
fish crank it down if you get hung up
41:23
break your break your line or whatever
41:25
this one automatically also engages once
41:29
you reel or you can cast put it in
41:33
however you want to do it those are some
41:36
of the stuff some of the things that we
41:38
offer team catfish instant anti River
41:41
really really smooth they got a one-year
41:43
warranty on the rods and reels so I want
41:46
to mention that and again I want to
41:49
mention the special it’s 125 for a combo
41:51
or you can get two reels or you can get
41:54
two rods or you can come down say hey
41:56
man would you show me whether you send
41:58
me two reels in a t-shirt for or
42:00
whatever our t-shirts are $20 $15 $20
42:05
for the long sleeves $30 for the hoodies
42:07
and we’ve been selling them like crazy
42:09
so I’ve got about another 20 minutes 15
42:15
or 20 minutes is there any questions
42:18
anybody would like to ask that’s 12
42:23
pounds
42:27
yes sir
42:32
I fish I lived in Truman I lived at
42:35
Warsaw and I but I fished in the
42:37
springtime I fished all the way down to
42:39
the 50 mile marker and then in the
42:42
summertime I drift fish at the 50 mile
42:43
marker and that’s about as far down as I
42:46
wanted to go because of the boats yeah
42:48
the really good fishing at Lake of the
42:50
Ozarks really good fishing any more
42:58
questions
43:02
what’s that my pop oh the fish grip okay
43:07
if anybody used these okay I’ve been
43:11
selling these for ten years if you’ve
43:13
got a kid or you’re sick and tired of
43:15
getting bit by a fish you really need to
43:18
get some of these these float now my
43:22
fish grips cost a little bit more than
43:24
the other fish grips that are on the
43:25
market because we use an entirely
43:27
different plastic in ours then the
43:29
orange ones or the blue ones or the red
43:31
white and blue ones or whatever else the
43:33
other ones are there so this fish grip
43:36
still floats it locks down on the fish
43:40
we recommend you put it in your hand you
43:43
reach down grab your fish pull him in
43:46
take your picture with you fish and drop
43:48
him in the Live Well whatever you want
43:50
to do and there’s something that a lot
43:52
of people don’t really utilize them for
43:54
even though there’s a hole in the head
43:56
this thing weighs just a few ounces so
43:58
you can snap it on a fish put your scale
44:01
in here and you can weigh your fish
44:03
without having to try to poke a hole in
44:05
the fish’s mouth or hook him up under
44:07
the gill and and damage the fish’s gills
44:09
they also work great when you’re playing
44:11
fish especially you know when people
44:14
Flay fish and they’re putting their
44:16
hands their fingers around the gills and
44:18
they’re trying to fillet those fish you
44:20
can grab them with the lip flam them
44:23
flip them over fillet them take this
44:25
dump the carcass so it’s a great tool to
44:28
utilize and if you’ve got kids this is
44:32
one of the very best tools that you can
44:35
use to help get kids involved in fishing
44:39
you get kids out there that are not used
44:42
to holding fish they’re not used to
44:44
touching fish the worst thing that you
44:46
can do is just force it on them okay
44:49
give them a fish grip give them a fish
44:51
let them water it around let them play
44:54
with it you know and let them become
44:56
comfortable with it and you’ll be
44:58
surprised at how much faster the will
45:03
accept handling a fish with a tool like
45:06
this and that’s important that’s one of
45:08
the things that I can speak a little bit
45:10
about it seems like
45:15
I’ve been in the tackle industry for
45:17
either guiding or selling fishing tackle
45:20
since I was about 18 I started guiding
45:24
when I was 18 years old I’m I’m 48 seen
45:30
a lot of things happen since I started
45:31
team catfish in 2006 the one thing that
45:37
we all as tackle manufacturers are very
45:40
concerned about is the amount of young
45:44
anglers and young hunters that are not
45:46
participating in fishing and not
45:49
participating in hunting it’s it’s
45:51
really alarming so you hear it all the
45:57
time take a kid fishing but it’s very
45:59
very important I see a lot of people in
46:02
here a lot of you know middle-aged guys
46:04
that have some experience and if you
46:08
just take one kid one kid a year fishing
46:11
with you we really need to continue to
46:13
do that and the reason why that is so
46:16
important is because we have a whole lot
46:19
of kids growing up that don’t understand
46:21
the hunting and fishing lifestyle they
46:24
don’t understand what it’s like to
46:26
harvest and eat eat fish or harvest and
46:30
eat animals and fellows I’m telling you
46:33
they’re all of you
46:35
we have people the American sport fish
46:39
Association has people fighting tooth
46:41
and nail in Washington to help keep your
46:44
right to fish some places live and if we
46:48
don’t have the young voters and we don’t
46:50
have people that are engaged in and the
46:52
outdoors and hunting and fishing by the
46:55
time I’m sixty or seventy years old or
46:57
by the time some of you guys that are my
46:59
age or that old there’s all I’m gonna
47:03
say is it’s a dwindling amount of young
47:06
people that are interested in in outdoor
47:08
sports so please keep that in mind and I
47:14
just take them to a pond
47:16
spend a little bit of time with them
47:18
shoot just watch a video with them do
47:20
anything to help introduce them to
47:23
fishing let go will it catch bluegill
47:25
whatever doesn’t really matter so I’m
47:29
probably gonna jump down off here unless
47:31
we’ve got any more questions I were okay
47:42
okay very good question a lot of times
47:46
your blue cats are going to be in an
47:49
area they’re going to be say your
47:52
thermic lines at 25 feet okay that 25 to
47:56
30 foot range right in there is going to
47:57
be a really good area to drift it okay
48:00
if you’re marking some big fish below
48:02
that chances are those are blues but
48:07
they’re not going to be down there very
48:08
long okay so a good thing a good rule of
48:12
thumb is is if you’ve got a thermic line
48:14
you want to fish about the same depth
48:17
the thermic line is that you want to
48:19
find some structure or a drop-off or a
48:21
mudflat or something that you can anchor
48:24
on or drift over because that’s where
48:26
the majority of those fish are gonna be
48:28
they’re not going to be below that
48:29
they’re gonna be right in that area so
48:32
you know there’s a lot of open water
48:34
that’s deeper than that but if you can
48:37
find where that thermic line goes up
48:39
onto a mudflat or drop-off or something
48:42
a lot of times all those fish will be
48:44
right there at that depth
48:46
great tool for that is a slip bobber too
48:49
if you want to target a certain death
48:55
anything else
49:00
okay all I appreciate your time come see
49:03
me I’m at the I’m at the end of the
49:05
booth back there
49:06
rod and reel spits fiber nuggets I
49:08
really hope you all are successful out
49:11
there this year I hope I taught you
49:13
something
49:13
remember target them by species target
49:17
them by season and you’ll be a lot more
49:19
successful as you as you move on through
49:21
your catfish experiences thank you
49:24
[Applause]
