I looked up just as Dan's rod bowed into a half circle with line screaming off the reel. Ten minutes later I snapped his photo with a twenty pound shovelhead. I watched as he released the fish and I started back down the bank. I hadn't made it thirty yards when I heard a whoop and turned around. There he was fast into another big fish his rod bent double once again. It turned out to be another shovelhead just a bit bigger then the first. The most amazing thing about these two nice fish wasn't that they were caught on back to back casts. The amazing thing was that neither was caught on live bait, or any sort of traditional catfish bait for that matter. They say that seeing is believing and I listened intently as Dan told me about the big cats he had been taking regularly on crankbaits. Now almost everyone who fishes alot has caught an accidental cat or two on lures but this was something different, something I had to try. And after experimenting with this new way of catfishing for a year now I can tell you it works. In the last dozen trips alone I've caught fifty six shovelheads ranging from five to thirty pounds plus at least that many bonus fish such as channelcat, smallmouth and drum.
The only lure I throw when trying to catch a shovelhead is a lipless crankbait. You know, the flat, pointed on the ends ones filled with BB's that there are dozens of versions of on the market. The nice thing about it is that shovelhead don't seem to care which one you use as long as it's loud, the louder the better. In fact it seems the cheaper ones might just be the best. Walmart and BassPro both sell a discount crankbait in the two dollar range that seems to work as well as anything. If you pick it up and shake it in your hand and you sound like your playing maracas in a bad mariachi band it's probably perfect. I dont really worry much about color either. Shovelhead have small eyes and dont use eyesight as their main sense in the way a bass or a trout does. Shovelheads rely on two other senses, their amazing sense of smell and another overlooked sense. You see catfish are particularly atune to vibrations in the water making them able to feed on the darkest nights or in muddy water. When a big cat is cruising the shallows at night looking for dinner, that big vibrating crankbait may not smell like dinner but it moves and sounds alive and an agressive cat will nail it. I guess the future of this kind of fishing might be a crankbait that smells like a shad or some other small fish.
As generations of noodlers will tell you, shovelheads spend a great deal of time backed up under heavy cover like an underwater ledge, a log, or a tangle of tree roots. But shovelheads are ferocious predators that prefer to kill their food rather than scavange off the bottom like other catfish species. Late at night that shovelhead that spent all day in an undercut bank is now out on the prowl looking for an unsuspecting meal. The key to catching them consistently is finding the places where several big cats congregate when searching for a meal. The very best spot we've found to tangle with a big cat on a lure is below a lowhead dam in a small to medium sized river. The dam concentrates food and often has a large population of hungry shovelhead cruising around hoping for a meal. A dam in a smaller river is not so huge and doesn't have the powerful currents of a big dam on a river like the Ohio or mississippi to deal with. While these dams hold lots of huge cats, most fisherman rely on two or three ounce lead weight just to keep their bait in place and getting your crankbait down to the fish is almost impossible. But in a smaller river you can cover the water completely insuring that a hungry cat will eventually encounter your lure. It's been my experience that a cat will cruise the whole area below a dam looking for food and you might hook up anywhere though A couple areas do seem to produce the best. I try to throw right up against the dam if possible as there is often a nice cat or two right where the water pours over. If the dam throws up a rock bar below the scour hole pay particular attention to this especially late at night. Minnows often come up extremely shallow here to escape predators and the shovelheads follow. Its not uncommon late at night to hook up almost right under the rod tip. When a twenty pound fish smashes your lure at four in the morning right under your nose be expecting it, it would be easy to be startled so bad you drop your rod!
I try to form a mental picture of the riverbottom below the dam and keep the rattlebait moving just fast enough to tick the bottom every now and then. My basic retrieve ia alot like you might use if swimming a jig or plastic grub right along the bottom. In the deeper water of the pool you will have to count the bait down on a tight line before beginning your retrieve. I've had them hit the bait on the fall so be sure and keep a tight line. Since catfish rely mainly on other senses than their eyesight I will use as heavy a line as I can and still feel and work the bait well. Usually ten or twelve pound mono during the day and twenty five pound braid at night. Plus the greater break strength of the braid helps me lose a few less lures to the bottom. Heavy mono deadens the action of the plug and the greater diameter lessens the depth the lure will run so stick with braid at night.
The other place besides a dam that this technique will net you some fish is right below a riffle if the hole itself has plenty of cover and depth to hold shovelheads in. Complex riffle/hole/riffles that include a bend or s curve in the river or where the riffle pours around both sides of an island are almost always much better than simple riffles. Expect the fish to be in either the run right below the riffle or just like below the dam cuising any shallow rock bars late at night for small fish. One of my better spots I found after catching a 12 inch smallmouth that had a large scaled ring around his midsection where he had narrowly escaped a big cat in the past.
The fish are often very shallow and since they can feel any vibration easily it pays to be stealthy and not stomp up and down the bank knocking over rocks. For this reason and for safeties sake learn a spot thoroughly during the day before attempting to fish it at night. I will also turn away from the water when switching on a light to tie on a new lure. In spring and again in fall when the water cools shovelhead will feed actively during the day and you can catch just as many fish in daylight, but in the heat of summer nighttime is the right time for this action.
The beauty of this fishing is it's simplicity. All you need are a half dozen lipless crankbaits, a rod and reel with some backbone and a good drag and nerves of steel...
