Night fishing for catfish is very popular and can be a great opportunity for bank fisherman.
Of course, it comes with certain challenges and requires the proper fishing techniques to have lots of success.
But bank fishing for catfish at night has caught me the biggest catfish of my life, so I am a huge fan of it.
Yes, catfish do bite better at night. Catfish primarily hunt and feed by smell and the feel of their whiskers rather than sight.
Catfish take advantage of this by feeding at night when they are safer from predators and also have an easier time hunting fish that can’t see them coming.
Now catfish are mostly scavengers that eat dead or dying food on the bottom.
Even when looking for this type of food, catfish still have an advantage over over fish that can’t find these foods in the dark.
During the nighttime, catfish move up into the shallows.
Lots of small baitfish, amphibians, and other creatures are either dying or caught off guard in the dark, and these types of prey mostly hangout in the shallow waters.
So at night, catfish cruise the shallow waters looking for these easy targets during the cover of darkness.
The best places to find catfish at night is shallow trenches or drop offs. Prey and food will get stuck in these and build up in large quantities.
Look for shallow depth changes and weed lines where catfish love to cruise along.
However, this can be a bit different during cold water temperatures which I will discuss later in the article.
Catfish will go right up to the bank sometimes.
This allows them to push easy prey up to the shore where they can’t escape or find dead prey or food that has built up along the shoreline.
In certain ponds and lakes, catfish will cruise the shorelines in as shallow as 6 inches.
This is a great advantage of bank fishing for catfish at night. You don’t have to make super long casts. Keep your casts within 50 ft. of the bank.
Inside this 50 ft., target weed lines, drop offs, and trenches where the catfish will be cruising.
If you are at a new pond and you don’t now where these trenches and drop offs are, consider getting a castable fish finder to help you locate these areas.
I only ever use one rig when I am bank fishing for catfish at night. That rig is the slip sinker rig.
This is by far my favorite catfish rig for pretty much all scenarios. There is one specific advantage of the slip sinker rig for bank fishing at night.
That is that the weight stays anchored in one place while your bait can be dragged freely.
This helps when catfish grab your bait and keep swimming towards the shore. Imagine the catfish grabs your bait and keeps swimming shallower.
The line will tug straight out in the direction of your cast no matter which direction the catfish is swimming.
This helps prevent the catfish from swallowing the hook or eating your bait without you knowing.
You certainly don’t need any unique gear for nighttime catfishing, but these things can make your fishing trips a bit more hassle free and enjoyable.
This can be a difficult situation. You need to be able to read the river and identify where to fish so that you are not wasting your time.
The tricky part is that reading the river can be very hard to do at night.
The best option is to scout out the river during the daylight so that you know where to cast once the sun goes down.
Once you know where to cast, you will fish just the same as if you were in a pond.
Just make sure not to get into the water and get swept away.
To make this simple, if the water is warm, the nighttime will be a great time to fish from the bank and if the water is cold, daytime catfishing will be better.
When the water is warm, catfish don’t need much or any sun to stay warm and maintain a high metabolism.
When the water is cold, catfish will sometimes come into shallower waters to get some sunlight.
During the winter and cold months, shallow waters are very cold unless the sun is high in the sky, so catfish won’t come up into cold, dark, shallow waters to feed at night.
Also Read: How to Catch Pond Catfish in Winter
Night time bank fishing has caught me the biggest catfish of my life.
It can be a bit difficult and annoying having low visibility, but this just adds to the thrill of the hunt.
Dark waters can be a bit intimidating for some anglers, but don’t let that stop you from getting out to the pond and catching big catfish.
Catfish are some of the most fun and exciting species of fish to catch and the nighttime banks can be one of the best places to catch them.
Also read: Can Catfish Bite Your Finger Off?
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