Wild RTC fishing trip

[Bassjedi]

Here are some pics of wild RTCs caught on my fishing trip to Bolivia. Spent most of my time targeting vampire fish (payara), but whenever I spent a little time trying for catfish it seemed they were always hungry. I landed around 10 total in about 6 total hours of trying for them. All fish were released after a quick photo.

Many types of cats like the TSNs would nibble at baits and were hard to hook, but the redtails would just take off with the bait like a train. I'm pretty sure they would have taken a variety of baits (and I have caught them on other things in other places), but the guides I was with always insisted on using chunks of wolf fish. They good thing is that the tough flesh stayed on the hook well.

The catfish were found in deeper areas without piranhas. If you fished too shallow, the piranhas made quick work of the baits.

If you want to know more about how to fish for these guys, you can check out my website at www.howtocatchanyfish.com

 

[kno4te]

Nice. Seems like a fun trip.

 

[Deadliestviper7]

Sad they use wolffish as black wolves take many years to reach maturity and are extremely vulnerable to overfishing.

The other catfish are easier to catch when you use small (think panfish size) single hooks and 8 pound test line (which can easily land a 60-80 lb fish with proper drag and technique ).

 

[Bassjedi]

The wolf fish are a smaller species that are incredibly common there. If we ran out of bait we would just pull over to any spot without much current and catch 5 more in 5 mins.

On another trip we used piranhas and those seemed to work just as well.

There were a lot of snags on the bottom and 8lb test would not have worked. I was using 65lb braid with an 80lb leader and got broken off a few times. The suribim cats would just nibble, but some of the ones that managed to get hooked were in the 30-40lb range. I didn't land any that big, but I got one big one to the boat before it spit the hook and I saw photos of some of the ones the other guys caught.

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

What a great thread and a great website you got!

We need more stuff like that.

As I was looking at the RTCs, I see that all have a straight-lined top of the head and snout. Second to the last may not but it could be the angle, plus the sun is not helping.

The reason being I have 10, well currently 9 (one was adopted out) RTC, all about the same age of ~5 years, and three with the flattest, widest heads I think are males and they are the three biggest. The rest have a sloping top of the head to snout line, narrower head, and are smaller, and I am guessing they are females.

 

[Bassjedi]

What a great thread and a great website you got!

We need more stuff like that.

As I was looking at the RTCs, I see that all have a straight-lined top of the head and snout. Second to the last may not but it could be the angle, plus the sun is not helping.

The reason being I have 10, well currently 9 (one was adopted out) RTC, all about the same age of ~5 years, and three with the flattest, widest heads I think are males and they are the three biggest. The rest have a sloping top of the head to snout line, narrower head, and are smaller, and I am guessing they are females.

Cool. How big is the biggest?

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

Cool. How big is the biggest?

The biggest male is 3.5', the other two are close behind, the females are 2.5'-3'. If my sexing holds any water.

 

[amazonfishman]

On another trip we used piranhas and those seemed to work just as well.

There were a lot of snags on the bottom and 8lb test would not have worked. I was using 65lb braid with an 80lb leader and got broken off a few times. The suribim cats would just nibble, but some of the ones that managed to get hooked were in the 30-40lb range. I didn't land any that big, but I got one big one to the boat before it spit the hook and I saw photos of some of the ones the other guys caught.

Great shots! Some pretty good sized ones there for sure.

I'd agree on the use of Piranhas, we used about 4 different types of Piranha both live and filet pieces, as well as the best baits for the big cats being the armored catfish varieties like Granulosus (sp?) etc both because they liked them and also because they were incredibly durable lasting for hours on the hook so you didn't run out of bait as quickly. This was Piraiba/Dourada fishing but similar rules apply for big RTC's.

Hook size/bait size would be quite a bit different for the Pseudoplatystoma (Surubim) species compared to what you'd fish for RTC so not that surprising most were nibbling. Probably too big of bait and they'd just grab and run without getting the hook most of the time. We fished 4/0 treble hooks in the middle of the back with a 4/0 stinger octopus hook on most baits back in the tail region. If I were targeting Surubim biggest I would have gone would be like a size 2 treble with no stinger hook unless the Surubim we were targeting were Pintado (Corruscans) then I would have scaled up another size.

I also agree on using the heavy line. I've been broken off on 150lb braid fishing in Suriname and also had saltwater stainless Owner 4/0 treble hooks broken clean off by fish, not structure, and assume similar river conditions where you were. Don't know anyone that targets the larger species generally fishing anything under 80lb mainline with heavier leader for sure. We fished 300lb Marlin leader on most of the rigs and 10-16oz worth of weights plus in most cases another 8-24oz of bait.

 

[Deadliestviper7]

As far as huge catfish go I use smaller barbless single hooks, instead of treble hooks, the reason why is that the single hooks hold on better and are harder to detect, I rarely use multiple hook set ups because this decreases pressure points in hook up (in other words: more hooks equals less successful hook ups), I like to use fish heads for large catfish, run into the mouth and puncture down thru the lower "jaw"

 

[Bassjedi]

As far as huge catfish go I use smaller barbless single hooks, instead of treble hooks, the reason why is that the single hooks hold on better and are harder to detect, I rarely use multiple hook set ups because this decreases pressure points in hook up (in other words: more hooks equals less successful hook ups), I like to use fish heads for large catfish, run into the mouth and puncture down thru the lower "jaw"

I prefer single hooks for almost everything. Better hookset, easier to get out, less injury to the fish, less injury to the fisherman, etc.