Florida Catfish Fishing Secret Tips And Tactics

Catfish are a hugely popular prey for anglers acrossstatewide, there are certain areas of the state that
the United States, and luckily, the fish is widely available.have a high concentration of catfish and provide the
However, in Florida, catfish fishing can be even betterbest opportunity for anglers in search of whiskered
than many other locations in the country, mostlyfish.
because of the weather conditions maintaining warmFor example, The St. Johns River Basin is a great
waters throughout the year, which produce fertileplace to find a great number of yellow and brown
spawning grounds for catfish.bullheads, as well as some channel cats and white
In Florida, however, you'll find a different variety ofcatfish. The best portion of the river for a good catch
catfish than in many other areas of the country.lies between Lake George and the Buckman Bridge at
Florida catfish fishing is most likely to produce eitherOrange Park on Interstate 295. However, for the best
yellow bullhead catfish (referred to frequently ascatfish fishing of all, pay a visit to Lake George itself.
buttercats) or brown bullheads. While these are not theWhile the lake is only about 14 feet deep, you'll find a
largest species of catfish in the world (usually ranginglarge number of bullheads and channel cats. Look for
from about one to four pounds), they are plentiful inyour trophy fish in he grass beds around the edges of
Florida.the lake, or find channel cats in piled up structures
In the same size range, though less common, you mayoffshore at depths of at least five or six feet. You
come across white catfish in some of the rivers to themay also want to check the various holes, some of
north of Lake Okeechobee (in fact, these are oftenwhich reach as deep as 20 feet or more, for larger
mistaken for channel cats because of their size andchannel and white cats.
appearance). Other than these, the common channelAnother great location for Florida catfish fishing is
catfish is also widely found in Florida. These fish areOklawaha River. Here, you can expect success below
found in almost every type of body of water and canRodman Dam, as well as at Black Creek in the
reach enormous sizes, with a world record of 60Middleburg area. Because of the amount of timber, the
pounds.number of holes, and the twists and turns of these
Also, while not native to the area, flathead and bluesystems, you can find a decent number of channel
catfish (the two largest species) have made their waycats year-round, with excellent results occurring in the
into the panhandle.early part of summer.
While good Florida catfish fishing can be found