Search Tactics for Summer Catfish – Part 1

June 11, 2025

Search Tactics for Summer Catfish – Part 1

Summer catfishing can be challenging. In this two-part series, B’n’M catfish pro-staff guide David Magness explains two great search tactics to help you locate them.

Phillip Gentry

For much of the year, fishing for catfish is a “they come to you” type affair. In many ways it could be compared to hunting wild turkey. The angler must pattern the quarry and must be in the right vicinity to connect, but those final few yards are up to the animal to commit.

During the early part of the summer, catfishing makes an about face. The reason for the change is that unlike most other fish species, catfish, particularly larger species of catfish, prefer to do so in seclusion. The desire to feed also tapers off, nature’s way of protecting the offspring from other spawning catfish.

Despite being harder to find and harder to tempt into taking the hook, there are a few tricks that veteran catters use during the summer spawning season to get fish in the boat. David Magness of Hernando, Mississippi is one of these catfish magicians. As a part time guide with Cat’n Aroun Guide Service, Magness has to produce results for clients during times when catfish are willing to cooperate as well as times when they aren’t so willing.   

Bumping is like trolling for catfish, except in reverse.

How Magness chooses to search for catfish primarily depends on where he’s fishing. Much of the time he can be found plying the vast waters of the Mississippi River near his home. The tactic he uses when he has sufficient current flow is called bumping.

“Bumping is a really natural presentation, and it covers a lot of water. It mimics food washing down current where catfish will lay facing upstream, waiting for something to come by,” said Magness. “To imitate this, what you do is nose your boat into the current and let the current drift you back, then using the trolling motor, you troll into the current, enough to cut your drift speed in half. The boat is going slower than the current, so the bait is also going slower down river.”

At first blush, bumping might seem to be a vertical presentation, but this is not the case. Bumping is very similar to trolling the bottom, only in reverse. To get the right angle in the presentation, the angler lets out more and more line until the bait is nearly sliding across the bottom with the current at a much slower speed than trolling with the current.

B’n’M’s newly redesigned Bumping Rod sets the standard for catfish bumping rods.

“You want to disengage the reel to be in free spool and you just keep letting line out until you get the rig back behind the boat,” said Magness. “You can tell by the feel of the rod that you are in a comfortable spot because it will feel like feel like the rig is only moving 5 or 6 inches at a time.”

The guide explains that moving down the river in this fashion allows him to cover a lot of ground. Covering a lot of ground provides the best chance of coming in contact with scattered river catfish.

“When you hit that sweet spot, that’s where you want to be.  You drop the rig to the bottom, and you pick it up, as soon as you set it down, you hit the bottom.  You only want to lift the weight up about 3 or 4 inches.  Just enough to get off the bottom and let the current sweep it along and then set it back down. That sort of scoots the bait along the bottom in a very natural manner,” he said.

Magness’ bumping rig simplifies how to tie on for bumping.

One of the secrets to bumping success is having the right rod. Of course, B’n’M has got you covered with our newly re-designed Catfish bumping rod. This new rod has been designed to provide a stiffer blank than the original and a stainless-steel tip eyelet designed to handle the abuse that swifter current and trophy catfish put on it.

Other times, Magness will fish oxbows off the main river or inland lakes that don’t have enough current to bump. That’s when he prefers to troll using an electric trolling motor, a unique bottom rig and a couple of planer boards – a tactic that will be covered in part 2.

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To book a fishing trip with David Magness of Cat’n Aroun Guide Service, contact him at (901) 356-1008.

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Wherever fishing takes you, B’n’M has been there. Visit our website at bnmpoles.com

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