Across the country, you'll find several catfish tournaments throughout the year. Fishing in general tends to evoke a competitive spirit in anglers, but something about catfish just brings out the real beast. There are ways that most fishermen go about getting ready for a catfish tournament, and there are several tips that can come in handy when you're getting ready to join in your first.

First of all, under normal circumstances, you will probably settle for whatever bait is available at the time and work with it. However, for catfish tournaments, where you'll be competing for the most and largest fish, you'll want to seek out the bait with which you usually get the best results. Depending on the type of catfish you are aiming for, this could be night crawlers, crawfish, chicken livers, or some other bait that you have found incredible success with in the past.

Secondly, you want to be familiar with the waters in which the catfish tournament is taking place. Most tournaments will not be at your home lake or river, and scouting out the tournament location can give you an upper hand. Also, some lakes and rivers have so many offshoots and side pools that it's easy to get lost in them, making it difficult to get back on time for judging. At the same time, you want to be sure to know where many of these creeks and feeders are because, often, catfish are more readily found here than in main areas of a lake or river. You also need to know about structures in the water that can damage your boat, like the many trail and wing dikes in the Mississippi River. Know where the high mud banks, brush piles, and other structures are - these are always great locations to find catfish trying to feed.

Another thing you should do to prepare for catfish tournaments is to get used to being around a lot of other boats. You certainly won't be navigating an open waterway alone during these competitions, so you need to brush up on your boat safety and check out the rules requiring that you maintain a certain distance from other fishermen in the tournament. Prepare yourself - know what to expect from the weather.

Catfish tournaments will go on regardless of the weather, whether it is pouring rain or the heat index is pushing 115. Therefore, it is important to be prepared for all types of weather. Make certain that you have proper shelter and plenty of liquids to drink. Protective gear, such as hats, and sunblock is also a good idea.

Daniel Eggertsen

team winning money in tourney - top ten places, using Bite-ON Garlic www.anglerbros.com buy it now for $5 bucks - trout, bass, catfish

Smelt fishing at Kagawong, Ontario, Canada. 2.5 hour drive from Sudbury, Ontario. Sorry about the quality but the fish only "run" upriver after sunset! It was just such a great night with stars overhead and fine companions.

When fishing the waters of Missouri, catfish fishing will produce any number of the three largest freshwater catfish in the country - blues, channels, and flatheads. You'll find them in all sizes and in several different locations in the state.

Unfortunately, because of a number of environmental concerns (start with soil erosion and add pollution, gravel mining, and reservoir construction) have affected the bullhead catfish population, so while you can find a few bullheads large enough to consider in some of the prairie streams, you should not overly concern yourself with this species in this state.

However, Missouri catfish fishing can be found in almost any area of the state, especially if you are searching for small channel cats. In fact, most people who desire a quite catfishing excursion don't even have to leave town to find a good catch. Light tackle angling is extremely popular because there are a lot of urban lakes that are stocked with channel catfish that are sizeable enough for harvest several times a year.

Most individuals living in the state are within a bus trip, bike ride, or even walk of a great Missouri catfish fishing locale. Ponds provide some of the best locations to catch small channel cats, with several impoundments provided by the Missouri Department of Conservation, including Binder Lake (Jefferson County), Crane Lake (Iron County), Blue Springs Lake (near Kansas City), and many more.

You should also check out warm water rivers for small channel cats, including the Elk River downstream from Noel, portions of the Mississippi River especially near St. Louis, and Big River in St. Francis County.

For larger channel cats in Missouri, catfish fishing is abundant mainly in the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers. While the state record for pole and line channel cat fishing is nearly 35 pounds, you can regularly reel in 10- and 20-pounders in these areas. However, trophy-sized channel cats are minimal and rarely found within the state.

For the best chance of finding one of the larger specimens, fish the lower areas of the tributaries flowing into the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers in May and June. You could also pay a visit to either Lake Jacomo or Nodaway County Community Lake, which are renowned for containing a greater number of large channel catfish than other areas of the state.

If you are searching for blues in Missouri, catfish fishing should concentrate on the Mississippi River, the Missouri River, or the Osage River, since the Missouri Department of Conservation doesn't stock blue catfish outside of its native habitat any longer.

Find a slow or moderate current with shallow water that is preferably less than ten feet deep, and use river worms or bits of shad to attract the fish. For larger blue cats, target the deepest current-washed holes, using only shad or river herring to attract the trophy-sized catch.

Daniel Eggertsen

While there are plenty of magazines on the market talking about fashion and beauty, there seem to be all too few on nature and wildlife. Especially finding a magazine that talks about catfish fishing can be difficult. In many cases, magazines may focus on fishing in general, and this is the closest most come to actually addressing catfish fishing directly, with a random article here and there about it. However, there are some magazines that regularly contain at least something relative to catfish fishing.

For example, In Fisherman is an online publication, as well as something to which you can subscribe. In looking at the website, you'll find all sorts of pertinent information about fishing in general, as well as links to many outside sources. Excellent articles range from recipes and preparation of freshly caught fish to tips on ways to improve your catch. Most importantly, you can search for articles on various subject, with a list of the most popular choices on the home page, including the many types of fish that are popularly hunted in the country.

If you look down the list, you'll find walleye, panfish, bass, and even catfish. Fishin
Fly Fishing the Prairies of Manitoba 2010

g magazines often pay too little attention to the individual species of fish, but In Fisherman seems to take active interest in accuracy and wants to fulfill the desire of all readers by publishing specific information on such topics.

Old articles are indexed by relevance, making the site user friendly indeed. You can even find listings for boats for sale, contests, and award winning anglers. Overall, the magazine addresses catfish fishing in a fine manner and also covers all sorts of other interests that a catfish angler may have.

Another magazine that is quite an authority on all around fishing is Game and Fishing Magazine). While this magazine actually covers much more than just fishing, there are several beautiful things about this website. It is easily interactive.

The magazine articles are archived by almost every possible topic you can imagine, making it very simple to do a search on "freshwater catfish" and come up with literally hundreds of articles. At the same time, the entire site is well organized and thought out. There are sections to discuss big game and feature articles to consider. However, fishing has its own little section altogether where you can choose freshwater fish and opt for catfish.

Fishing magazines are rarely this organized and this easy to access in an electronic format. Once you've chosen to look at catfish fishing, you can select various states or regions to learn about top fishing spots in the area and so on.

Daniel Eggertsen