Channel Catfish Fever

by Doug Stange (Editor), Steve Stange, Toad Smith

Fishing experts blend science with catfishing experience to sweep aside myths in this in-depth how-to book focusing on understanding and catching channel catfish.

Paperback

First published September 1, 1989

Reviews

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

I tell you, I think I may read every book in the In-fisherman line of instructional books. The combination of sloppy editing and formatting (this particular edition has blank facing pages for the first 50 or so pages), cool pictures of ugly fish and men, solid if 20 years outdated fishing advice, and blatant nostalgia have me hooked! (So to speak.)

This volume is dedicated to perhaps the ugliest fish of all, the catfish. Not only are they ugly, but their feeding habits are perhaps the most disgusting of any freshwater fish. They don't just eat dead matter, they prefer it. The most popular baits for this fish are dead fish that's been allowed to rot at least 2 weeks (the book includes the procedure for properly "ripening" this bait), worms, dough bait (don't ask what's in it, just wash your hands 12 times after using it), chicken livers, and coagulated blood. Catfish are perhaps, in my opinion, the most delicious freshwater fish around, but I try not to think about their own diet while eating them.

Catfish season is just getting started around now so I'm about to put this book to use, but a just as compelling reason for my reading it is the presence of two of my childhood heroes, Toad Smith and Old Zacker. Obviously brought in for "color commentary" around the drier and more scientific writing of Doug Stange, Steve Quinn and the other In-Fisherman editors without cool nicknames, these two old codgers were the kind of men I wanted to become when I was a kid (especially if they moonlighted as professional wrestlers). Toad Smith is catfishing's resident yeti, and Old Zacker is the resident Grumpy Old Man. Toad looks like he could be less than 3 generations removed from the first catfish to walk on dry land, and Old Zacker spends more time complaining about river damming and these new pansy-ass state regulations on trotlining and snagging than giving actual fishing advice. And they are what kept me reading the book.

[Justin · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's some pretty great stuff here, but some of it needs to be updated and some of it gets repetitive. The authors should have worked more anecdotes into how-to sections of the book.

The system here is pretty basic, and easily grasped. There are some interesting rigs explained, and the discussion about the longer European rods is particularly intriguing. I prefer longer fly rods (particularly for nymphing), but usually use relatively short spinning and casting rods, which I might want to re-think for certain situations.

Anyway, it's a quick read, and useful for novice cat-anglers. I've got no sense of the literature on the subject, but this seems like a reasonable place to start.