Catfish angler fitness is not gym vanity; it is boat control, rod control, and decision control after hours of standing, bracing, lifting gear, and fighting fish. I look at it through fish behavior: the best bite window does not care … Read the rest
Big Cats Gear: What New Anglers Should Bring
New anglers hear big fish stories, buy one oversized hook, and hope the river fills in the blanks. That is a rough way to learn. Smart big cats gear starts with a balanced setup: enough rod to steer a heavy … Read the rest
Florida Just Refreshed Big Catch—How Big Does a Catfish Need to Be to Qualify?
Florida’s Big Catch program has a new look, and for catfish anglers the useful question is wonderfully simple: how big does a fish actually need to be? A Florida Big Catch catfish does not have to threaten a state record, … Read the rest
Why FWC’s 2026 Catfish Top Spots Should Change How Florida Tournament Anglers Scout Water
Florida catfish anglers have an unusually useful scouting tool in 2026: a statewide list built by fisheries biologists rather than social-media reports or yesterday’s dock talk. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has identified waters across the state that … Read the rest
Young Anglers Event Tips from the Grom Squad
For young anglers, the best event is not the one with the loudest weigh-in table. It is the one where a kid gets a rod in hand quickly, understands what to do next, and feels like they belong on the … Read the rest
Deep Water Fishing Casts for Late Summer
Late-summer deep water fishing rewards anglers who cast with a plan instead of simply throwing farther. By August and early September, surface heat, changing water clarity, and oxygen levels can push fish into narrow comfort zones. Your job is to … Read the rest
August Catfish Behavior: Why Fish Slide Deep
August catfish behavior can fool good anglers because “deeper” does not always mean “park a bait on the bottom and wait.” Late-summer fish may use depth as a daytime refuge, then rise through the water column as light fades and … Read the rest
Suwannee River Blue Catfish Are Still Running Big
Florida’s new blue catfish record could have been dismissed as one extraordinary fish in one extraordinary moment. The problem with that explanation is that Suwannee River blue catfish have kept showing up at heavyweight sizes months after the record was … Read the rest
High-Tech Sonar Gear Upgrades After ICAST 2026
After ICAST 2026, high-tech sonar gear gave serious anglers plenty to study before changing a console, bow graph, kayak mount, or trolling-motor setup. The biggest lesson was not simply “buy the newest screen.” The smarter move is to match live … Read the rest
Alabama Built an Entire Tourism Trail Around Catfish—Could Florida Do the Same?
Alabama has done something unusually smart with a fish that rarely gets the tourism treatment: it turned catfish into an itinerary. Its new Catfish Trail connects fishing water, restaurants, markets, farms and cultural experiences, raising an obvious question for Florida … Read the rest