In periods of heavy rainfall, the rivers swell and rise in level until they get dirty. For fan of catfish fishing begins a period that can be full of great satisfaction.
Before starting to deal with the subject, it is necessary to make a very precise premise, namely that the behaviour of the catfish during a flood has changed considerably over time, and with this also their predatory activity, which reaches its apexes at very specific times.
In these situations our catfish tend mainly to hunt in the first hours of the arrival of the water, to then have an intermediate phase of low activity probably due to the fact of having eaten in abundance, and then resume during the phases of descent of the river, a bit like trout in the stream when a violent storm raises and dirties the water.
The river that rises....
When the water begins to rise because of the rains and consequently to get dirty more and more, the catfish can use this important advantage to go and surprise their prey, facilitated by the clouding of the water and the gathering of forage fish.
The duration of the hunting period also depends very much on the temperature of the water: with particularly cold waters it can be very intense with fish hunting everywhere, but only for a short period, and therefore in these cases it is mandatory to be able to catch the right time to be fishing.
If, on the other hand, the water has a temperature above 15 degrees, typical of the period of the very early autumn, the fish stay in the hunt even for a much longer period but with a much less intense activity than in the case described above.
When the flood has reached its peak and the river remains for a while at high levels, the fish have eaten in abundance and the possible prey are isolated and hidden in the most unthinkable places, effectively decreasing the chances of predation. This is the most difficult time for the passionate torpedo fisherman, who just has to wait for the river to start to fall.
The river that descends...
This is the best moment of all, especially for the quality of the technical fishing gesture: the river slowly returns to its bed, the floodplains empty and the forage fish are forced, by the decrease in the level of water leaking from the river bed during the flood, to exit and return to the river waters themselves.
Often they choose to do it at the last minute, and almost always in points well known by both fishermen .... and predators, which does not seem true to be able to exploit with great ease what for them is a great opportunity to hunt and then feed with the least possible effort.
Terminals and baits
Fishing with the live, naturally indispensable to fish at the buoy. In this case the terminals used are the classics for buoy fishing with adjustable hook and loop and a lead of about 100 grams, the standard length is about 1/1.50 meters of kevlar or braid with a breaking load of 100 kg.
The most attractive terminal is almost always the lead-free one and therefore with the bait completely free to swim on the surface. Using the latter, it is very often possible to hear the catfish attacking the bait almost out of the water with the typical suction, even before the alarm signals the bite.
Spinning....
In such conditions we recommend, especially when fishing from the boat, to try the best places, perhaps insisting a little and thus avoiding those long drifts that often all fishermen perform. It is better to go and privilege a smaller number of places, but exploit them more calmly with the boat at anchor.
Many times, a slowed passage causes the catfish to attack our artificial bait. Acting in drift with the river high and fast, the action is often too fast.
Another advice to follow is to use artificial that have a good swimming at low speeds of recovery, such as silicone or minnow articulated.