Catfishing has captured the attention of many anglers just now getting into the sport. These fish are big, feisty, and taste incredible! The biggest challenge for new anglers can be getting the collection of the perfect gear when preparing for that first trip. Choosing your perfect catfishing rod is the first and possibly most important step to the gear process.
Without the right rod, the bait will be useless, the cat will never make it to your net, and your dinner plate will remain empty. The 4 key issues you need to address when selecting the right fishing rod are What you’re planning to do, how you’re planning to fish, What kind of cats you’re planning to target, and how to pick between the various brands on today’s market.
Overwhelming, I know.
But breaking the selection process down with these questions will make it easier for you to choose your first catfishing rod, help you develop the attention to detail you’ll need to refine your fishing technique, and help you choose your lifelong catfishing commitment when the time becomes right.
What Do You Plan to do With the Rod
Bank fishing is different from boat fishing is different from kayak fishing. You may be an all around versatile catfishing fool. Your goal may be to spend a couple evenings on the bank fishing as an excuse to be outside. Or you may be a highly focused angler laser focused on finding the big cat that no one can land. Whatever your goal will be, your rod selection has to hold up to the experiences you’re going to put it through.
I tend to be a bit abusive to my rods. The bank fishing rods get more damaged than anything. Because of that, I usually select cheaper rods with a higher propensity to withstand damage. My kayak rods, on the other hand, are babied probably a bit too much. Ultimately, I’ve had to experiment with different styles of catfishing rods to find just what works for my situations. The biggest aid to me was learning how to identify the features I needed and how to recognize the rods that would offer the best combinations of those features.
How do you plan to handle the rod
When you’re out trolling on a massive trophy lake like Tawakoni or Texoma from a pontoon, you’ll need different catfish rods compared to what you’d use for bank fishing on a shallow river known for eater sized cats. Kayak Track mounted rod holders are going to have more give and sit at different angles from the secured gunwale mounted rod holders common on full sized boats. Spider rigging will require space to spread the rods out, even if they are angled and stacked.
Even transportation can influence the decisions you make when selecting your fishing rods. Two piece rods will break down and transport more easily in cars and trucks (if you’re not going to put your rods in the bed of your truck). The draw back will be the stiffness incurred by that solid connection point which will cause the two piece rod to have less sensitivity. Less sensitivity can result in missing some of those softer exploratory bites.
Boat fishing will allow you to store your rods on the boat for transport. It’s rare to have a boat that doesn’t have a rod storage option of one kind or another. Kayak’s rarely have rod storage options that will work for transport needs, which is why you have to keep in mind what you drive, how you transport your vessel, and how those rods will fit into the equation.
What are you most likely to be catching with your rod
I frequently fish for large cats in fisheries known for gar. I have frequently put out my bait intent on a solid catfish fry for dinner only to catch a variety of gar. While I love catching gar, it’s a different circumstance than catfish. They typically require more finesse and fight quite differently than catfish will.
In these Texas waters that I frequent, shorter and stouter rods tend to serve me better than longer more sensitive rods when I’m gar fishing. If I intend to fish for both (gar and catfish) I will take my shorter (6’6” to 7’0”) Heavy rods with thicker reinforced eyelets. When I’m laser focused on catfish, I generally prefer my longer rods with better sensitivity.
The Factors you need to consider
When I’m heading out to catfish, I select my rods based on 5 factors:
Where am I fishing?
Joe Pool Lake has some decent sized catfish, but nothing particularly large. I don’t need my largest rods, but better sensitivity will serve me well. When I’m going to Lake Tawakani, I know I’m potentially going to fight some rather hefty specimens. My rods need to be able to hold up to the resistance these older, larger, feistier fish will present.
How will I be fishing?
Bank fishing, I prefer my casting rods. They cast further with better precision which is critical when you’re limited on body placement. Also, they allow for better control of drag and fight when working the catfish into the bank.
When I’m fishing from my Kayak, I generally stick to my spinning rods. They are more forgiving for the awkward casting positions I often take, they are less likely to cast beyond my target zone, and they are easier to use when everything is moving. Even with an anchor, your kayak is on water and will, inevitably, move more than feet planted solidly into the dirt.
What kind of bait and rig will I be using?
When I am using live bait, I want a rod with a medium or slow action rod. I don’t want the bait to be running around trying to escape his attacker only to be yanked across the water when the rod bounces. Alternatively, when a big blue grabs a chunk of chicken or cut bait and tries to yank it off the hook, I want the natural reset in the fishing rod’s bounce to dig that hook into his mouth for me. That’s why I typically choose the medium to fast action rods for my cut bait.
How spread out will my rods be?
If I’m fishing a bank where I can cast out in multiple directions but the rods have to be relatively close together, I will take a variety of lengths to ensure an even spread of baits. If I’m fishing a bank where my rods will be evenly spread across the bank with the baits dispersed in the waterway just as evenly, I’ll typically opt for my rods to be close to the same size.
When will I be fishing?
If I’m fishing during the day, I tend to get distracted fairly easily. I have found bite indicators (clickers, bells, etc) to be invaluable. When I fish at night, I have geared more towards using lights to my advantage. Some of my rods are reflective and I can see them quite clearly from a black light. Other rods have an attachment capability where I can put a small glow stick at the rod tip. When the glow stick moves towards the water, I most likely have a bite.
Brands to look into
When you’re first starting out in fishing, you’re reluctant to buy the more expensive gear. You don’t know what you like yet. You’re not sure what brands are the “best.” More importantly, you don’t know if you’re going to stick with the sport long enough to make the investment worthwhile. I was in the same boat. When I started catfishing, I was already obsessed with fishing, but I still wasn’t sure what I needed to focus on when selecting my rods. It also didn’t help that my budget was very limited, so I needed to be extremely selective on what I purchased. I started out with some relatively cheap options that seemed to suit my fishing needs while ensuring I would not blow my budget.
Don’t hesitate to start with cheaper fishing rods, as long as you look for the best features and quality you can get at that price range. ProCat, Shakespear, Profishency, and Uglystick make very affordable catfishing rods. I have used and owned all three brands. Personally, I would rank quality as Uglystick followed by Profishency, ProCat, then Shakespear last, but that is my personal experience.
As a side note for those in the know, yes: Uglystick is a subsideary of Shakespeare. It this discussion, however, they are being treated as seperate due to the individual lines of rods sold under the two different names and the obvious difference in quality I have seen between the two brands.
AJ caught a large flathead on an Uglystick several years ago that resulted in over 2 hours of fighting the monster. Her rod was bent almost in half during a big portion of the fight. The fish never got loose from the hook and the rod never faltered. We were both exceptionally impressed by its performance. Unfortunately, when she finally got the fish to the boat, the line broke before I could get the fish netted. It’s body was bigger than the net we’d brought and neither of us were prepared for the size fish she discovered.
I caught a solid 10 pound blue while fishing a lake I previously didn’t know had larger blue catfish. I was using my Profishency mudslinger from a very basic kayak that I had little confidence in. To my surprise, the rod did so much of the work for me that I had big blue to the kayak and in my net before I even broke a seat.
Quality will frequently increase with price
When you’re ready to invest in more endurance proven rods that will last a lifetime (or close to) consider the more specialized brands. Hellcat, MadKat, Whisker Seeker, or MonsterRods. Their specialized production line is hyper focused on catfishing which gives them a more indepth quality control and technological development process for dependable and comfortable rods. You’ll find the rods to be lighter weight, more sturdy, and completed with significantly higher quality features (eyelets, reel seats, grips, etc). These will be the rods more inclined to offer “glow in the dark” type options, the rods that often have reels matched to the rods for a more perfect casting and retrieving experience, and will often have long term or even lifetime guarantees.
All of the brands listed here offer casting as well as spinning options. They provide different strengths, actions, and lengths to accommodate any of the waterways and fishing styles you may choose to explore. Most importantly, don’t be afraid to explore. Once the catfishing bug has bit, you’re going to have more than one catfishing rod. They don’t have to be all the same brand, model, or color pattern. Change it up, try different setups, and find what works best for you.
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We’ll be following up this discussion with full breakdowns on a variety of catfishing rods over the next few months. Hellcat, Whiskerseeker, MadKat and more.
