Topwater fishing for wels catfish may be the most heart-stopping form of fishing we've ever seen.
Every angler loves topwater fishing. There is nothing that gets the blood pumping quite like a huge topwater strike that annihilates your lure in an instant. Catfish are not usually a species that is targeted with topwaters simply because they are often bottom feeders, and many species do not hunt often on the surface.
However, the ferocious wels catfish is a whole different animal. This super-aggressive fish will eat anything and everything that moves given half a chance. They also grow to massive sizes approaching nearly 300 pounds.
Do not take our word for it on how aggressive this fish is, the video below does a good job demonstrating that on its own. This may be the most exciting topwater fishing we have ever seen captured on video. This angler in a float tube experiences some incredibly fast action in crystal-clear waters on some hungry wels catfish. A few of them are true river monsters in every sense of the word.
https://youtu.be/gzjO1KyVoAQ
Kudos to this guy for being brave enough to have his feet in the water with some of these monsters! Seeing that huge, black shape rise from the depths to the surface so quickly must be the ultimate adrenaline rush. The wels catfish is native mostly to Eastern Europe. It has been introduced to many other countries like Spain, Greece, Poland, Hungary, Turkey, Sweden, and more.
The video's description does not give any clues where this guy was fishing. It would seem the area receives little fishing pressure based on how aggressively these fish were acting. We have never seen a technique quite like where he dragged the lure back and forth only feet from where he was sitting. Sort of a topwater version of the figure eight technique.
Whatever the case, this was one of the most exciting fishing videos we have seen in a while. It makes us want to add the wels catfish to our bucket list of target species one day.
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