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Anglers know better than to target catfish during the early summer in the Southeast. That is unless you’re a kayak catfishing veteran like Justin Johnston. In this video Johnston shares a tactic to catch blue catfish even during the spawning time.
Catching Catfish In Spawning Season With This Tactic
It’s a glassy June morning in Tennessee. Johnston knows with water temperatures climbing for the season, catfish are beginning to spawn. With males guarding the nest until the fry hatch, activity for anglers targeting catfish is severely reduced.
Johnston’s method for productive catfishing on a deep river or reservoir during the spawn is fishing steep drop-offs below the surface. According to Johnston the abrupt changes where a channel meets shallower water are where you’ll find catfish. The catfish use the edges of these steep-drop offs as lanes of travel.
On Johnston’s fish finder, he points out the contour lines of the depth chart. Where the contour lines are stacked close together he notes abrupt changes in water depth. These are the zones he’ll motor to.
A Proven Method
Explaining a tactic is one thing, results are another. In Johnston’s video he uses the method of fishing along these steep drop-offs to catch multiple blue catfish.
One of the blue catfish Johnston hooked up with was strong enough the angler thought he was snagged. Turns out he was snagged on the lip of what the content host often refers to as a golly whopper of a catfish. We’ll be heeding Johnston’s advice for catching cats this time of year.