Catfish rods and Reels What is your favorite combo

I have always loved to catfish and recently moved to arkansas and catfish all the time but the catfish in arkansas are alot bigger than what im use to catching in indiana need to upgrade my gear for bigger fish what do you guys perfer for big blues and flat heads

I have a 7' Ugly Stick with a Ming Yang CL70A and an 8' Zebco Catfish Hunter with an Abu Garcia 6500. Both are bait casters spooled with 50 lb. Mono. I also keep a Zebco Rhino rod with a Zebco 888 closed face Casting reel in the boat for my kids to use. It's spooled with 25 Lb. test.

I just bought my first bait caster. Its the BPS tourney special with 6.6 medium heavy rod and 40lbs braid. I feel I can pull anything out with that thing. I used it for the first time today and I love bait casters now. Should be really good for catfishing.

i love the 8ft ugly fish catfish rod paired with a HD high profile baitcaster. like a classic abu. i use for catfishing,striper, a-rig,saltwarter and fishing heavy cover for bass.

ABU 6000, berkley E glass rod 7'6 MH action with 60lb power-pro braid. ABU 6500 C3 60lb power-pro, 7'0 MH fenwick eagle GT rod.
dont really have a favorite, i like them all. also love a good TWC rod! cant go wrong...

The ABU Ambassador 6500 C4 is a solid reel. The Ugly Stick Catfishing rods 7ft Med-Heavy is a good all around catfisihng rod...enough backbone to handle a 70lb+ fish but not so much that it over powers a 25lb fish...and they are super cheap but the eyes have inserts that can pop out if you don't take proper care of them.

RiverBottomOutdoors said:

The ABU Ambassador 6500 C4 is a solid reel. The Ugly Stick Catfishing rods 7ft Med-Heavy is a good all around catfisihng rod...enough backbone to handle a 70lb+ fish but not so much that it over powers a 25lb fish...and they are super cheap but the eyes have inserts that can pop out if you don't take proper care of them.

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I bought one of the ugly sticks based on all the good reviews on it. Never heard of the eyes popping out, what should I look out for?

I've paired it with a shimano Calcutta 400TE which is way overkill for what I'm going to use it for.

parkerdog said:

RiverBottomOutdoors said:

The ABU Ambassador 6500 C4 is a solid reel. The Ugly Stick Catfishing rods 7ft Med-Heavy is a good all around catfisihng rod...enough backbone to handle a 70lb+ fish but not so much that it over powers a 25lb fish...and they are super cheap but the eyes have inserts that can pop out if you don't take proper care of them.

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I bought one of the ugly sticks based on all the good reviews on it. Never heard of the eyes popping out, what should I look out for?

I've paired it with a shimano Calcutta 400TE which is way overkill for what I'm going to use it for.

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As long has you're not overly rough with them, they'll be fine. Throwing in the bed of the truck, stuff like that.

Pro Angler Tackle 7.5' Eva Handle Cat fish Rod with either a Pro Angler Cat Real or a Abu Garcia 6501 (left hander) for the boat or a Pro Angler Tackle 10' Eva Handle Bank Rod with the same reels as I use for the 7.5 footers for bank fishing for big Blues and Flatheads.

Here's a monster my daughter caught on a 7.5 footer in January.

byounghusband said:

Pro Angler Tackle 7.5' Eva Handle Cat fish Rod with either a Pro Angler Cat Real or a Abu Garcia 6501 (left hander) for the boat or a Pro Angler Tackle 10' Eva Handle Bank Rod with the same reels as I use for the 7.5 footers for bank fishing for big Blues and Flatheads.

Here's a monster my daughter caught on a 7.5 footer in January.

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WOW that is a big one! Take a long time to get it in?

That's a nice fish!!!!

That baby was 57lbs and it took about 15 minutes to get in the boat. It was the 2nd largest fish ever caught on my buddy's boat and he has guided for about 10 years. As soon as that fish did a tail slap on the water, by buddy said, "oh Crap!! Help her while I get the net ready!!"

1/2 hour later, her boyfriend landed a 37 lber that wrapped him around a stump. That one took a little longer to get in, but patience paid off. Both fish were CPR'd to fight another day.

parkerdog said:

byounghusband said:

Pro Angler Tackle 7.5' Eva Handle Cat fish Rod with either a Pro Angler Cat Real or a Abu Garcia 6501 (left hander) for the boat or a Pro Angler Tackle 10' Eva Handle Bank Rod with the same reels as I use for the 7.5 footers for bank fishing for big Blues and Flatheads.

Here's a monster my daughter caught on a 7.5 footer in January.

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WOW that is a big one! Take a long time to get it in?

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Old school red Abu 5000 and a 7' redbone rod...........castnet up some shad..........get the freezer ready.....

I have 3 Ugly Stik Catfish rods (2 7' and 1 8') all with Abu Garcia 6500c3 's.

Update. A couple of days ago I ordered 2 8ft. War Rods for renegadetackle.com and can't wait to get them and try them out.

I are a catfish

I have two 6'6 ugly stiks with Okuma CD65 reels, that I've had for nearly seven years, the wife has a 6'0 pink ugly stick rod with a pink shakesphere ladyfish reel, and I bought a cat stick two years ago for 19.99 as a back up and it hasn't broken yet, ( caught a couple 20 plus pounders on it and it held up ). I use 65lb test power pro on all my catfishing set ups, even on the wife's.

Palmer812 said:

Update. A couple of days ago I ordered 2 8ft. War Rods for renegadetackle.com and can't wait to get them and try them out.

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How are those war rods working out for you?

Quantum big cat 8 foot rod with penn 210 reel.

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I'm fixing to try out 2 7,6" heavy action telescoping casting rods for catfishing. I'm going to put my Shimano 251B on one and a BPS Oceanmaster 4000 or a C3 on the other. These rods are rated for 3/8 to 2 oz. and seem like they would be great for casting heavy rigs and fighting decent fish. Any opinions or others who have used heavy retractable butt section casting rods for catfish?