The Off Season- Tips for the Northern Catfish Angler (Part 1)

For many of us in the North Country one season seamlessly moves to the next. We go from early spring pike fishing to summer catfishing to hunting to ice fishing and over and over as the years go by. There are people out there who do experience an off season. We may not hunt or ice fish. That leaves us with the winter to prepare for the summer. Catfish anglers are no different than any others. So the question is for the hard core catman, “What do I do in the off season”?

Put the Gear Away

When fall becomes winter and it is time to put the gear away until spring. It is a great time to take the reels off the rods and give everything a good once over. Check out all the eyelets in your rods, make sure they intact and not cracked or broken. If you find a bad eyelet you can usually find parts at your local outdoors store or find a custom rod shop that can do a quick repair for a couple bucks.

Catfish reels take a harder beating than any other part of your arsenal. Take time to wipe off your reel, back off the drag, (leaving the drag tight over the off season is harder on it than a big channel cat taking a hard bulldog run.) Make sure all the moving parts are working properly, and take the line off. If your reel is sticking, or making noise during the cast or retrieve, this is a perfect time to either take the reel apart for a cleaning and lubrication. If you are like me, just take it to a good reel repair shop and pay the $12 to $15 for a professional to go through and make sure the reel is back in tip top shape.

This is also a great time to take inventory of all your other gear from hooks to sinkers. Make a list of supplies you will need for next year and put the gear you have away in your tackle box or a place that will be easy to find for the first spring catfish outing.

Review any Notes

Your gear is cleaned and tucked away for the winter and ready to go for spring. If you kept a journal of your adventures or even took a few pattern notes this is a great time to get those notes together to review them. Going over these notes is a vital key to becoming a better angler.

In the fall your fishing prowess from the previous season is still fresh in your mind. If you have notes and mentally go back to the good days and the bad days you may find that one nugget of information that made the difference between a great day and a day to forget. It is that information that could be the key next year if the same scenario should arise.

2010 presented me a tough go at a certain point during fluctuating water. It seemed that every time the water got to a certain point my bite vanished. I knew the fish did not quit feeding but was unsure about where they moved to. In November 2010 (just after the season ended) I took the opportunity to look back over my catch records and water records. What I found was that I had two great days as the water came up. It was at that point I discovered secondary currents. In 2011 I hit the high water early and started playing with the secondary current lines that I discovered in my research and what do you know; SUCCESS. That little bit of homework in the off season actually made the 2011 season my best season ever.

Your notes or research do not have to be that in depth. They can be as simple as a bait change or a small presentation change. Just a little off season research keeps your blood pumping and make you a better angler at the same time.

Back to the Basics

Every winter I read In-Fisherman’s Catfish Fever at least once. To me this book is “the bible”. It tears down the art of catfishing to the bare bones and builds it up. Today with advancements in technology and the abundance of basic articles on the internet everything tends to be made more difficult than it needs to be.

By going back to the beginning and reviewing the most basic way to catfish you will be reminded of very simple details that you may have forgotten. Hitting just one of these details buried in the back of your mind could be the key to catching just one more trophy next season. It may give you a tidbit of information to go back to your notes and put two and two together on something you had not figured out yet.

Captain Brad Durick is a nationally recognized catfish guide, seminar speaker, and writer based on the Red River of the North at Grand Forks, North Dakota. http://www.redrivercatfish.com