Big fields of boats aren’t uncommon at some catfish tournaments run by Twisted Cat Outdoors.
Tapping Your Competitive Spirit
By Brent Frazee
Experts offer advice on how to get started in the catfish game.
So, you’re trying to get up enough nerve to enter a catfish tournament, but you’re not sure you have what it takes. Follow David Studebaker’s lead.
“I went to a weigh-in for a tournament, and I saw the fish they were bringing in,” said Studebaker, now tournament director for the Catfish Chasers circuit in Kansas. “I thought to myself, ‘I caught bigger fish than that last night.’
“So, I entered the next event on the schedule, and I won it. It was like going to the casino. You win the first time, and you’re hooked.”
Alex Nagy, tournament director for Twisted Cat Outdoors, had a similar first-time experience. He lived on the Mississippi River but had always been a pleasure boater, not a fisherman. Then he joined a friend who was an experienced cat man, and he immediately discovered a passion for chasing the whiskered fish.
“The first fish I caught was a 50-pound blue cat, and I was hooked,” Nagy said. “Ever since that day in 2012, I’ve lived, eaten, slept and breathed catfishing.”
That could be you. It doesn’t take a fortune, high-dollar equipment or years of experience to get involved in catfish tournaments.
Follow the advice of Studebaker and Nagy, who both run successful tournament circuits, and you, too, might discover your competitive spirit.
Start Small
Don’t choose a large, high-entry-fee tournament to get started. That’s an invitation for disappointment.
Instead, start with a small tournament on your home lake, and fish water you are familiar with. That’s a win-win situation.
If you catch fish in your normal honeyholes and you place high in the standings, you will gain confidence that you can compete. If you lose, you can learn from what the winners did.
You may discover things about your home lake that you never knew before.
“I’m a creature of habit,” Studebaker said. “I’ll fish the same section of lake every time I’m in a tournament. But when I’m out practicing, I’m always looking for new spots and trying new methods. That way, I have new water that I feel confident in.”
Start at the Right Level
The interest in catfish tournaments is booming, and some organizers are coming up with steps to see that beginners can compete on an even playing field. For example, Twisted Cat Outdoors has introduced a Grassroots Series, where teams pay a reduced entry fee and can compete on a level of their own.
“Instead of beginners having to compete against the pros, they can come out and pay $50 for registration instead of the $300 in our main tournaments,” Nagy said. “It’s a chance for them to get started and learn what tournament fishing is all about.”
Building a Team
Most tournaments allow up to three fishermen in a boat.
Choose your partners carefully. Someone who is a longtime fishing buddy and shares some of the same thoughts on catching catfish as you is a good place to start.
Avoid anglers who have giant egos and are convinced they know more than you do, even though they are tournament beginners themselves. That leads to a day of arguing and often a bad experience that will drive you to quit tournament fishing before you even get started.
Proper Livewell
Make sure one of your team members has a boat with a large livewell. Many of the tournaments are catch and release and want you to bring live fish to the weigh-in. If you catch big blue cats, that can be a challenge.
“You need a large livewell,” Studebaker said. “It’s not about gallons of water. It’s about length. It has to be long enough for fish to lay in there and not be stressed. And you need a recirculation pump, especially for summer months.”
Learning as You Go
So, you had a bad day in one of your first tournaments. Don’t give up. Look at it as a learning experience.
“Maybe you were fishing shallow on the flats,” Nagy said. “But the top teams caught their fish in deep water. Right away, that taught you something.”
Part of that learning curve is being observant, Studebaker said.
“You can walk around at these tournaments, see the boats, the rods, the reels, the tools of the trade,” he said. “You can see how they are set up. You can watch what they’re doing on the water.”
Beginners also can learn from on-line podcasts and YouTube videos and seminars at sports shows.
Apply What You Learn to Other Lakes
If you’re confused about where to start on a lake you’ve never fished before, keep it simple. Fish water that looks similar to where you’ve caught fish.
Studebaker recalls fishing his first tournament at Lake of the Ozarks, which he had never seen before.
“My dad and I weren’t familiar with Lake of the Ozarks at the time, but we just fished water that looked similar to what we had on our home lakes (in eastern Kansas),” he said. “We caught some nice channel cats, then my dad caught a 38-pound blue. About 10 minutes later, I caught one that went 46 pounds.”
(Brent Frazee is an award-winning writer and photographer from a suburb of Kansas City, Mo. He retired in 2016 after 36 years as the outdoors editor of The Kansas City Star. He continues to freelance for websites, magazines and newspapers.)
