Is Chumming For Catfish a Good Idea?

Chumming for catfish is a good idea if you know that catfish are in the area. Is it a good idea all the time? Some will swear that it is the way to go and others will say it does not make much if any difference. I personally believe that if you fish the same location often and you chum the area whenever you are there you will catch more fish.

In case your not familiar with chumming it is simply putting lots of bait in an area you plan to fish.. There are two reasons to chum. One if you do it often enough in the same location the catfish will come looking for it. Two, if there are fish in the area it will sometimes drive them into a feeding frenzy competing with other fish to get the goodies. But remember it only works if the catfish are there. If it is not an area they visit you are just feeding the sunfish.

I personally do not chum except for the leftovers from the fish I have just cut up for bait. Maybe I am a little old fashioned but to me finding out where the catfish are and what bait they are interested in is part of what makes catfish angling interesting and fun to me. If I just wanted to catch a bunch of catfish for the dinner table I would use a trot line. I seldom have much trouble filling my stringer without chumming and when I am fishing for the big cats I don’t expect to catch as many because I am using much larger tackle that virtually eliminates the small ones.

Doug Burns is founder of CatfishAngling.com. A leading source for tips, tricks and information on catfish fishing. Doug has been an avid angler for 35 years and a steady contributor.

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