Your catfish sighting experiences

[temet vince]

I am currently taking a Padi open water course, and I've been watching many dive videos on youtube about Beaver Lake and lake diving in general. Every once in awhile I'll see a big catfish (or bass), but it is rare.

As an avid (albeit horrible!) catfisherman throughout my teenage years and now into my twenties, I was wondering if any of you could help improve my catfishing from your scuba experiences.

When have you sighted most big catfish? What kind were they, how deep, temperature, activity? Also, were they above or below the thermocline? That's a big one, as I don't know if I'm generally fishing too deep or not deep enough. Have you ever seen catfish suspended, or are they usually hugging the bottom?

I hope I posted this in the right forum section. Who knows, maybe one day when I'm certified we'll run into each other!

(I'm interested in your experiences in general, not just Beaver lake.)

Oh, and hi all! I'm new here.

 

[warmwaterturner]

We were diving at Balmorhea Springs in far west Texas. The springs is at the foot of the Davis Mountains and it receives anywhere from a million to three million gallons an hours from the aquafer. I shot this group of catfish at the back of a small dark cave. They appear to be filtering nutrients out of the water as it flowed into the area of the springs from the mountains.

 

[Avonthediver]

Well were to start..

From were I stand catfish have many ways to hide from a speargun rock's, tree's, wreck's, black deep water. all of these things are what you need to look for.

right now cat's are deep and hard to find but during the early spring they like to come up and what I call sunning themselves to also spawn and will come within 3 ft or so of the surface.
This is the best time to hunt.

Durning mid to late summer catfish will take cover from the hot water and come up to feed during the evening, also a good time to hunt.

June 15th is a good date indeed!

 

[SteveC]

From my experience most of the fish in general are in the light zone. That would be the first 20 maybe 30 feet. In this area it is not uncommon to see giant schools of all kinds of fish. Sometimes it can feel like you’re in an aquarium. Below this level it gets very barren.
It seems like cat fish like to hide in nooks and crannies. Under rocks and logs and stuff like that.
Once I was feeding some small fish some bits of a hot dog. I had half a dog left, so I laid it on the ground and backed off. A fairly large catfish swept out of no were and chopped the whole thing in one bite.
It does seem like catfish are usually on the bottom.
I don’t know much about fishing, these are just some of my observations while diving.

 

[temet vince]

Thank you all for the comments and help.

When you say they hold deep on the bottom, and they tend to stay within the depth that light reaches, have you ever seen them below 30'? Everyone always talks about the 'monster fish' that stay really deep... obviously these conversations are more old wise tells than anything, but I was wondering if you noticed a trend of seeing bigger fish the deeper you go.

And Avon, can you spearfish in local lakes? I assumed that it would be illegal for sportfish, kind of like snagging is generally illegal when shore fishing. I wonder if you could take your rod and reel underwater... 3d fishing! That would be quite the experience XD.

Also Avon, when you mention that they are deep and hard to find during the winter and early spring, do you think that they stay below the thermocline? I don't do a lot of winter shore or boat fishing, and if I did I'd have no clue whether to cast out to 30' or less or whether I should cast as deep as I can go.

 

[Blu Diver]

From my experiences I have seen catfish as deep as 60 feet during the winter in a about 45 degree water. It was a large cat that was very lethargic. Catfish have a strange personality, they come across as being curious, not afraid yet seem to have a short attention span. They'll check something out and keep on going, circle back and do it again and then leave. Where Bass and other sport fish are curious yet more aggressive. I have had Bluegill peck at the hair on my head and legs and broke skin on my ear once at Cerulean Quarry in Kentucky. I've had bass literally go nose to nose with me.

Fishing I have always had good luck in about 25 to 30 feet of water about 20-30 feet off the shore. Tight line using chopped up Blue Gill or hotdogs. Throw some corn in the water to help attract them. On a muddy bottom, and you wait and wait and wait. I would much rather run a limb line, jug or trot line back in a cove somewhere. I much perfer bass fishing. As a kid my father owned a farm and we would catch big cats, bass, crappie and blue gill out of the old farm ponds. They were about 15' deep and zero visibility.

 

[Blu Diver]

Also, you can find some decent fishing on golf courses that have large lakes around. Especially in south west Florida. Just don't get caught, management doesn't seem to take kindly to fishing on the corner of the dog leg of the 9th hole. Although, those golf courses contain some record breaking hogs!

 

[Avonthediver]

I'm going to agree and say Blu Diver hit it on the head! catfish are very shy but do tend to come back to their spots if chased off.

Spearfishing has its own season from 15 June to 15 March. No sport fish can be shot..I think that sucks..check out page 11 on the Ark game and fish guide.

Catfish run deep during the winter. if you are fishing from the bank cast deep with heavy weight and sit. Like I said spring/early summer is really the best time to spearfish.

I do like the idea of 3-D fishing with a pole. Just the casting thing might be a problem

 

[SteveC]

I have never seen cat fish in very deep water, but I've heard that they are there. I hope to see one some day.