September Catfishing: Fall Feed-Up Tactics

September is the month catfish start eating like winter is coming — because it is. The dog days are over, nights are cooling, and the shad schools that blue catfish spend all summer shadowing are starting to bunch up and move. For anglers who chase cats on big reservoirs and rivers, that adds up to the best stretch of action since spring.

It's not just the blues. Channel cats feed heavily through September to pack on fat, and flatheads make their last big night moves of the year before settling into deep winter holes. The patterns are different for each species, but they all share one theme this month: follow the baitfish.

Why September Changes the Catfish Game

Water temperature is the trigger. Through August, cats on most southern and midwestern waters are dealing with surface temps in the 80s and a summer pattern of deep, sluggish daytime feeding. September nights cool the shallows, baitfish respond, and catfish — especially big blues — abandon the deep summer haunts to chase shad into creek arms and over flats.

You can see the feed-up happening. When you spot gulls and terns working over an open-water point in September, there's almost always a ball of shad underneath — and where shad ball up in the fall, blue cats aren't far behind. That's the single most reliable early-fall clue an angler can watch for.

The Reservoir Pattern: Ledges, Points and Riprap

On lakes, the September blueprint is simple: find the shad and fish the structure next to them. Creek-channel ledges in 15 to 30 feet of water are the backbone of the fall pattern, especially the inside bends where the channel swings close to a flat. Main-lake points that funnel shad movement and the riprap along dams and causeways produce all month.

Blue catfish are the species that school up on this pattern, and they'll hit cut bait hard. The Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation recommends cut shad on a circle hook fished either off the bottom or below a float around creek-channel ledges and dam riprap — a setup that works anywhere blues swim. Fish the first and last hours of daylight hard, and don't leave the ledge at dark; the biggest blues of September often bite well into the night.

River and Tailwater Tactics

Flowing water changes the game. Below dams, catfish stack in current seams where the flow breaks — the edge of a wing dike, the slack water behind a rock pile, the deep hole at the end of a gravel bar. Tailwater cats position to intercept baitfish washed through the turbines, so fishing the generation windows (when you can get the schedule) is usually far more productive than fishing dead water.

Skipjack herring and gizzard shad are the classic river baits for blues, fished on a slip-sinker rig bumped slowly along the bottom. Channel cats in rivers spread out more than blues — they'll hit cut bait, but a chunk of shrimp, a gob of nightcrawlers or a tight ball of prepared dip bait fished in 6 to 12 feet of water along current edges catches them consistently.

Match the Bait to the Species

• Blue catfish: cut shad, skipjack herring or other oily cut fish, fished on the bottom or suspended off ledges and riprap.
• Channel catfish: the opportunists — cut bait, shrimp, chicken liver, worms or dip bait all work; focus on shallower structure and current edges.
• Flathead catfish: almost exclusively live bait — sunfish and goldfish — fished tight to cover at night. Flatheads are ambush feeders, so put the bait next to a logjam, brushpile or rock ledge and wait.

There's one September quirk worth knowing: on some river systems, cats key on grasshoppers that fall into the water this month. Outdoor Life notes that late August and September is the one time of year anglers on big western Kentucky waters switch from cut fish to hoppers. Where hoppers are thick along the banks, drifting a live one under a bobber along the grass line can outfish everything else in the boat.

Rigs and Gear That Put Cats in the Boat

The workhorse is the slip-sinker rig — an egg sinker above a barrel swivel, 18 to 24 inches of leader, and a circle hook in 5/0 to 9/0 depending on bait size. Circle hooks do the hook-setting for you: reel down until the rod loads and the fish hooks itself in the corner of the jaw, which keeps deep-hooked fish rare and releases clean.

Where suspended fish are the pattern — blues holding over deep ledges, or fish chasing shad at mid-depth — switch to the Santee Cooper rig, a three-way setup with a float on a short dropper that holds the bait off the bottom. It's the go-to for drifting bait over structure without hanging up.

Rod choice follows the fish. A 7-1/2 to 8-foot medium-heavy or heavy rod with 30- to 50-pound braid handles everything from a 2-pound channel to a 40-pound blue, and a rod holder lets you fish multiple presentations until you find the bite. Missouri's conservation department notes that blues in the 20- to 50-pound class are common in some waters, so rig for the biggest fish the lake can produce, not the ones you expect.

Playing by the Rules

Catfishing is open year-round in most states, but regulations vary — daily limits, minimum lengths and bait rules differ from one water to the next, and some waters restrict or prohibit trotlines and jug lines. Before you set multiple rods or any fixed gear, check the state fishing regulations for the water you're fishing.

September's feed-up only builds through the month. Start watching the gulls, work the ledges and current seams, and the cats will do the rest. For more seasonal tactics, the fishing tips section covers the other species turning on this month.