catfish flies?

i know that there are some people that fly fish for cats. what flies do you use and how do you fish em? If you got one a recipie would be great.

Thanks,
squirrelhunter912

Thats a new one on me, I guess Flatheads pefer to eat live bait so any type of Clouser Minnow Patterns in shad or bream colors tied with lots of weight should work with fast sinking lines and stripped very slow in deep river holes. It would be interesting to see how effective it would be, I would think you would have to add smell to the fly as Cats hunt thru smell more than sight. I don't know if sent sprays or a bag of dead minnows to rub or hook a small piece on the fly would be better. I bet you would pick up a lot of bass and strippers if you're in the bigger rivers, so I'd use a rod with some backbone in it. The more I think about this the more interesting it becomes, maybe we would be breaking new ground. Should be some IGFA line tippet records available in the catfish catorgy. Anyway google Clouser minnow there is a ton of Flies from Bob Clouser and many might lend themselves for this endever. Anybody else have any thoughts on this?

Black Wooly Buggers are good in channel cat ponds!

Throw a wooly bugger on sinking line and strip it in slow.

thanks for the help guys if someone could post a tutorial or recipe for a wooly bugger would be great

Black Bead Head Wooly Bugger

Hook..... #6-8 Steamer
Thread ... 6/0 Black
Head... Brass Bead
Tail.... Black Marabou
Body.... Black Chenile
Hackle. Black Saddle Palmered Tail to Head

I wonder if a large San Juan Worm would work. ???? I used to catch plenty of catfish on nightcrawlers and pinks, back in the old days.

And, Sq/hunter, the WB and the SJW are two easy flies to tie.
Keep us informed.

I don't FF for cats, but I have caught a fair number on small, black marabou jigs. So, I think the black WB suggestions are good.

wooly buggers and crawfish patterns. Nothing more than 3" long nothing less than 1.5" long.

Black, olive (with a bit of flash) white and my favorite, brown and orange.

I've caught 'em accidentally on black rld's.

yaknfish said:

I wonder if a large San Juan Worm would work. ???? I used to catch plenty of catfish on nightcrawlers and pinks, back in the old days.

And, Sq/hunter, the WB and the SJW are two easy flies to tie.
Keep us informed.

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How should I fish the SJW and when I tie it the only colors I got is green or pink is either alright or should I get more?

Most SJW I've seen have been pink. Earthworms are pink. So that sounds good.
The first fly I tied myself that caught a fish was a Wooly Worm, tied green and yellow to look like a Catawba Worm.

I guess you could tie with what you have, then soak 'em in chicken livers or stink bait overnight. ?!?!?!?!?! ;^)

yaknfish said:

Most SJW I've seen have been pink. Earthworms are pink. So that sounds good.
The first fly I tied myself that caught a fish was a Wooly Worm, tied green and yellow to look like a Catawba Worm.

I guess you could tie with what you have, then soak 'em in chicken livers or stink bait overnight. ?!?!?!?!?! ;^)

Click to expand...

nuh-ugh. Ya wanna know how I actually got to catfishin with fly rods?? I had my fly rod and a light bass rod and my tackle bag in a small john boat on a local private lake thats very clear. In the evenings I often see big catfish swimming up in to the flats. But you try and throw a bass bait like a zoom lizard at them and they bolt.

So when one came cruising up in the flat I started throwing a white wooly bugger at it. It would follow the bugger, and even bump it a bit with it's mouth like it was tasting it..... but would not take it.

It came and left the flat I was in 4 times, I looked down at the tackle bag and saw my wifes PINK power bait paste she uses for trout, pokin out a pocket. So I took the wooly bugger and jobbed it in to the jar and smeared it up in the pink power bait paste.... next time he came cruising in I dropped the fly 2 feet in front of him.......10 minutes later I landed the 8# ble cat on a 6wt fly rod........ in the next 2 hours I landed four more the same way........ yea it's cheatin..... but other than smell a "hot flash" has been the main thing I can get a cat to hit..... and a hot flash is like. a spinner bait blade!