By Dale Michels
Tired of wading through weeds and mosquitoes to cut willow poles for the beavers to chew off, or carrying heavy re-rod poles that wears you out? Well grab a hold of a handful of the lightweight fiberglass bankline poles from Supreme Products, Inc. called the Catfish Getters and head for the River. These new lightweight bankline poles come complete with fiberglass pole, 225-lb. test nylon braided line, stainless steel swivel, sinker and stainless steel eagle claw offset hooks.
I started using a spring steel pole back in the 50s in a small creek called Rose Creek near a small town of Reynolds, Nebraska. This creek emptied into the Little Blue River near Fairbury, Nebraska. Both streams were ideal for setting bankline poles. This is where my father taught me how to catch catfish by setting lines and Ive been catching them ever since. For 32 years now Ive lived at Superior, Nebraska where Ive been setting banklines in the Republican River, which is only about a half a mile south of town.
Whats more thrilling and exciting than to get up at daybreak and head to the river to check our Catfish Getters that we had set just before dark the night before. Fresh air, deer standing on the sand bars drinking from the river or hearing the sounds of the old turkey gobbler is what its all about. And then we see our first pole that is bobbing up and down and we are wondering just how big a fish we have on. We use a large dip net to land our fish. Word of Advice-- Do not pull the pole out of the bank until you have the fish in the net. I did that once and had a 25 lb. yellow cat on and I got so excited trying to get the fish into the net I let go of the pole and down the river the fish went. I wont forget that blunder.
We start setting lines here in Nebraska around the middle of April, with usually the best fishing around the middle to the end of May. Usually the cats are spawning then and they seem to be moving and feeding more. Catching 200 pounds of fresh catfish in a weekend is no problem with the Catfish Getters. We usually set our Catfish Getters just before dark with live bait such as bluegill, goldfish, crawfish, or bullheads. We hook them through the eyes or top fin so they will stay alive. We try and set them in stiller water close to a brush pile if possible or bend or curve in the river where the water is flowing slower. We set close to the bank, just out far enough that the bait cant get back to the bank and get tangled up. We set the bait just deep enough to cover the sinker with 6 inches of water. Big catfish feed mainly at night and close to bank. We have used frogs and have set them right on top of the water. We catch mostly channel catfish early in the summer and then we start catching some of the bigger flat heads (yellow catfish) a little latter in the summer. Weve caught 50 to 60 lb. yellow cats on the Catfish Getters with no problems. Wow what a thrilling experience! You can see pictures of them on the World Wide Web at:www.catfishgetters.com We have tremendous success when we have had a large enough rain to help bring the river up a couple of feet or more. When the river is coming up the catfish are really moving and youll have better luck than when it is going down. We re-bait the hooks up every 2-3 hours even during the day when the fish are biting. The white fiberglass poles are real easy to see at night with your spotlight or flashlight. It really makes the hair stand up on your back when you see the poles bobbing up and down under the water at night and youre wondering just how big this old catfish is going to be.
We fillet most all of our catfish we catch and we make sure we cut off all fat and darker meat. The pure white fillets are very delicious if they are rolled in eggs and cracker crumbs or beer batter and then deep fat fried. You can check out some more good recipes on the web at: www.cattracker.com
Having a picnic on the river can be lots of fun for the whole family. After fishing with the rod and reel for awhile, set a few Catfish Getters before dark and then go look at them a couple of hours later and youll be surprised what youll have caught. Bait them up again and run them every two hours or go home and come back in the morning for some more excitement. We have had fishermen use these Catfish Getters in lakes, ponds or any body of water that has catfish in them. They set them along the banks or even tape them to willows along lakes from their boats. Just get them set with live bait and youll be amazed of the catfish youll catch. Well I got to go and set my Catfish Getters. See you later. Good Fishing! Dale Michels |
