Catfish become choice catches

Tournaments have increased the pastime's profile.
DALLAS MORNING NEWS
DALLAS -- Jeff Williams doesn't look like the stereotypical catfisherman. He looks more like a pro bass angler. Acts like one, too. That's Williams in the center-console boat, studying his high-powered sonar unit like a Wall Street broker watches stock quotes.
You won't find the Grand Lake, Okla., fishing guide relaxing in the shade with a cane pole, waiting lazily for old Mr. Whiskers to come calling. You won't find him setting trotlines, jug lines or limb lines. Williams has too much respect for the sporting qualities of his preferred game fish. When he catches cats, Williams wants to be personally involved.
Guys such as Jeff Williams represent the new face of catfishing. An estimated 11 million Americans fish for catfish. Only a handful participate in the catfish tournaments that are becoming more popular throughout America.
Williams expects the tournament trail to do for catfishing what B.A.S.S. did for bass fishing in the 1960s. Techniques used by the pros will spill over to the general public.
"The sport of catfishing is changing," Williams said during a morning spent scouting for fish at Lake Texoma. "We haven't done a complete 180 yet, but it's changed about 130 degrees in the past five years. The change is coming about because of tournaments."
A catfishing innovator
Williams competes in 10 to 12 tournaments a year and has qualified for championship events this year on three circuits. His success comes from a longtime pursuit of catfish and from his use of specialized equipment, including gear that he frequently designs himself.
Unable to find an anchor to position his big bay-style boat in a stiff wind, Williams designed his own.
He even made a pole that can be screwed into a hard lake bottom, brace-and-bit style, and then is boat lashed to the pole.
Williams spends most of his time drifting for catfish. He's learned to trail his baits far behind the boat. When dragged on a short line, the rod tips bounce with the rocking boat and discourage a tentative fish.
When the wind is strong, Williams uses a drift chute rigged to slow the boat speed. He positions his boat to drift up a submerged slope rather than down it. Over the years, the catfish pro has discovered he catches 70 percent of his fish while pulling baits up the slope.
"I like to use a float between my sinker and my bait," he said. "The float holds the bait up off the bottom and avoids hang-ups. I use enough weight to sink the float, but the float is rigged far enough behind the sinker that the bait floats up."
Made his own
Williams once heard about a specialized sinker called a pencil weight, shaped like its namesake, that tends to hang up less easily on logs and other bottom debris. Unable to find an actual pencil weight, the fishing guide experimented with making his own. He strung several quarter-ounce, egg-shaped sinkers together and created a flexible pencil weight.
"I call it the Super Slinky because it's so snag-resistant," he said. "It just crawls over limbs and seldom gets hung up."
He targets big blue catfish because they're the most fun to catch, and it takes heavy fish to win a tournament. While catfish are generally thought of as a never-ending source of protein, Williams has a different idea. If you book a fishing trip with him, you will do so with the certain knowledge that you will not be allowed to keep any blue catfish over 10 pounds.
"Blue cats are very slow-growing fish," he said. "It takes years to replace a big one. They're too valuable to kill. If you want to eat catfish, you should keep the small ones. They're better eating, anyway."