Catfish NOW – May 2023

Guide Jordan Leer uses a colorful Demon Dragon line floater to keep his hook baited with cut shad off the bottom where it is more visible to hungry blue catfish.     Shad Tracker By Brent Frazee Missouri guide uses his electronics to locate the blue cat’s food.   Jordan Leer stared at the screen […]

Big or small, famous guide James “Big Cat” Patterson never met a catfish he didn’t like. (Photo: Richard Simms)   James “Big Cat” Patterson: Where Is He Now? by Richard Simms   Before every guide trip I am routinely nervous as a cat on a hot tin roof. But on this trip, my anxiety level [...]

For fast-paced catfishing action, follow Jerry Kotal’s five-step process.   Five Steps for Catching Catfish by the Numbers By Terry Madewell Jerry Kotal has five steps he follows to find fast-paced catfishing from right now through the summer.   Targeting big catfish is the current craze for many catfish anglers and with good reason. But […]

One advantage of a fishfinder keypad is being able to use it easily when driving down the lake.   One Fishfinder Feature You Might Not Be Able To Live Without by Brad Wiegmann You get what you pay for with a multi-touch touch-screen fishfinder.       When it comes to what feature you might not […]

You know flatheads can be very confusing and elusive to many anglers out there, so let me share a quick tip to help you curb your frustration. If you are just getting started flathead fishing, I want you to think like a boxer. That’s right, stick and move, baby. Oh, sure, the traditional build a […]

Boss Kat Sabiki Rigs Put More Bait in Your Tank Sabiki rigs, sometimes called piscator rigs, are great tools to use when you want to catch your own skipjacks, shad and other baitfish. These are pre-tied rigs with a main line from which several drop lines are attached. At the end of each drop line […]

Arkansas catfisherman Bobby Bowen and his granddaughters Kaitlyn (left) and Carly making memories together on a Cache River catfishing trip.     Fishing With Kids: One Grandfather’s Advice By Bobby Bowen (Cache River Papa) Make fishing trips fun for your youngsters and you’ll have eager catfishing partners your entire life.   I have introduced my […]

Fish & Wildlife Allots $70 Million for Communications Program Courtesy of Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation Eliminating barriers, improving access and promoting conservation   The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) recently announced a new cooperative agreement with the Recreational Boating & Fishing Foundation (RBFF) in the amount of $70 million dollars over a five-year period to implement the […]

The Arkansas Game & Fish Commission can provide guidance and catchable-size channel catfish to any approved local sponsor in the state hoping to host a fishing derby like this one in Little Rock.   Host a Catfishing Derby in Your Arkansas Town Courtesy of the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission Hatchery workers provide channel catfish […]

Why We Catfish Our editor’s Facebook friends share some of the reasons they love catfishing   In each issue of CatfishNOW, we ask someone to tell our readers the reasons they like to go catfishing—just one person sharing their thoughts. In this issue, editor Keith Sutton decided to change things up a bit. Instead of […]

In a flashback to his childhood, Joey Pounders demonstrates how to find and use river mussels for catfish bait. Joey finds a mussel in the Alabama River near Wetumpka, Alabama and demonstrates how to open the mussels to extract the white meat that makes excellent blue-cat bait.