Are there any specific things I should be doing to catch blue catfish at night?

If you want to catch blue cats, you pretty much have to go out at night.  That’s when they are looking for food and biting.  I think nighttime is probably when I’ve caught all the big blues I’ve ever caught.  In general, catfish stay way down in the deeper parts of rivers and lakes during the daytime heat, and head out at night for food.

You’ll need some kind of light for fishing at night, but you don’t want it to be too bright.  There are some fishing poles that are made with a lantern in the butt, like the Rhino Night Vision.  These are handy because you have all the light you need, but it doesn’t shine into the water.  Shining your light in the water will scare off the cats.  There are also poles that have glowing tips, and even though there are some high quality poles that have this, the glowing tips don’t seem to do much good. 

You also want to be quiet when fishing for cats at night.  They don’t have the best vision, but cats seem extra sensitive to noise. 

At night, they’ll also be relying more on smell, so make sure you have a good, stinky live bait.  Shad, chicken livers, hot dogs and pretty much anything else smelly will work.

For a good nighttime fishing method, I would use a slipweight rig.  This is when you attach weights to your line so you can have your hook right on the lake floor.  This is a great way to catch the big guys where they’ll be prowling for food.

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