Catfish On Topwater Baits

Catching catfish on topwater baits wasn't exactly what I planned on this afternoon, but that's what happened when I scouted the area.

I decided to leave Elmo and Odie at home and try to get some actual fishing in this afternoon.  I left the house around 4:00 pm and headed to the creeks in the northern part of the Indian River along Shiloh Road.

The other day when I took the dogs for a ride, I drove by the area but didn't wet a line.  I spotted a couple of wakes but no topwater action and today was about the same.

The air temperature was in the low 80s, and there was a little wind blowing enough to make "walking the dog" a pain.

I tried the culverts along the road with a Chug Bug and a small Skitterwalk but never got a follow or a hit.  After 20 minutes or so, I headed to another spot and walked out to the creek to toss the same baits.

This time I brought the rod with a Bass Pro XPS Slim Dog bait along with the Chug Bug tipped rod.

The area was holding fish but I couldn't tell what they were.  The larger wakes were definitely either redfish or black drum but there were a couple of fish running the banks busting on small baitfish.

They might have been small snook, but I wasn't sure.

I carefully fished the area with both topwater baits and finally settled on the Chug Bug when the water turned glassy.

I smeared the bait with a thick layer of Pro- Cure Inshore formula and started getting followups and eventually a hit.

The trick was to let the bait sit almost motionless after the first cast.   This happened accidentally as I was unraveling a knot in my line.  A rat redfish hit the Chug Bug and after a brief fight was photographed and released.Chug Bug

Several casts later, I had a good hit that pulled drag and after a brief tussle was surprised to bring in a hardhead catfish.

I released the fish and after several casts hooked and released another clone of the first fish.

As the mosquitoes started to suck me dry, I decided I had enough of the catfish and started walking to the truck to head home.

On the way back, I drove around Haulover to see if anyone was fishing the area.

There was one lady working on a kayak and only one other fisherman along the bank so I decided to head home and put on the feed bag; Lil Ceasers Pizza.

Till next time,
Tight LInes