They have a large number of scent glands and vibration sensors all along their body, with greater concentrations around the lateral lines. These may help in detecting any vulnerable prey within their vicinity.
They have two long whiskers positioned on the upper jaw. These can be used to track live prey out in the flow of the river. They possess another four whiskers on the bottom jaw, which are used to scavenge around the river beds to detect smaller food items, such as crayfish, worms and leeches. Catfish do need their strong senses and glands in order to survive because they have very poor vision. Their eyes may just have enough focus to distinguish between day and night!
Wels Catfish often lay in quiet, dark lairs until ready to feed: overhanging trees, weed beds, lilies and hollows under the bank or on a lake or river bed provide ideal locations. They inhabit rivers and large lakes and ponds where they occupy both a scavenger and apex predator role.
Catfish have a well-developed sense of smell and are, for the most part, omnivorous which means that they will eat a wide variety of foods and are opportunistic feeders known to bite just about anything that is edible and some things that aren’t.
A Catfish’s natural diet consists mainly of fish, but is a predator with a considerable appetite and varied palate and will consume amphibians, worms, crayfish, leeches, small swimming mammals like mice, rats or voles, and water birds from chicks to adult ducks.
There are various methods to tempt the Catfish, one is to ledger deadbaits consisting of Roach, Rudd, Carp, Tench or eels. Look for any likely feature that the Catfish would patrol like marginal shelves, deep holes, old stream beds and snaggy areas and place your bait here and wait.
Worms are a very underrated bait and can be devastating if fished just off the bottom, only to be used at night though as every other fish in the lake will want to eat them during the day.
The most common bait to be used on most commercial fisheries at the moment is the Halibut pellet. The pellets come in various sizes and are best fished with a few large pellets on a hair rig over a bed of smaller pellets.
The pellet rig is a basic carp rig but stepped up to withstand the abrasive teeth of the catfish. Use either 20lb amnesia or kevlar braid for the hook length. This is tied to a size two extra strong hook using a knottless knot creating a hair long enough to hold two or three large pellets. This rig is fished using a free running lead with a large running ring.When fishing close to the near margins replace the heavy lead with a few swan shots on a link ledger. This creates a very efficient rig with almost no resistance. Although catfish are predators with large mouths they can still be very finicky when feeding, so if a bait is picked up but there is too much resistance the catfish may well drop it and move on.
From time to time, small dead animals such as mice, voles, rats, and birds will find their way into the water, all are readily eaten by catfish and can be good baits on certain waters.
A hungry cat will eat almost anything even if it doesn't occur naturally in its environment. By careful pre-baiting they can be encouraged to take most things, for instance sausages, liver, luncheon meat, squid, octopus or even shellfish will all catch especially if they have a strong smell. The attraction of this type of bait can be improved by soaking in flavours and oils, particularly the meaty or fishy ones.
So there you have a very quick guide to what is perhaps the most powerful fish in European freshwater. Wels catfish may not be the best looking fish that swims but they can't help that and it somehow only adds to their mystique.
