by Kurt Beckstrom

Channel catfish, quite possibly America’s favorite sportfish, are in habitants of big rivers. Sure, you can find them in thousands of lakes and ponds across the country, decent fish, too. But a deep, slow stretch of river with a sand, gravel or rubble bottom is what channels really call home.

Naturally, that’s also where anglers like to fish, and most of the time it’s a good choice. However, it’s not the only place on the river where channel cats like to hang. Sometimes they’ll use water so shallow you can touch bottom with your rodtip. Heck, if you stepped in, you may not even get your kneecaps wet. Fishing ultra-shallow channel cats is a lot of things—challenging, exciting—but most of all it’s fun because the fish are there for one reason, and that’s to feed. The fish are active and hit your baits with fury.

Two of the hardest-core catfish anglers we know, Stu McKay of Lockport, Manitoba, and Tim Scott of Bradford, Illinois, regularly catch channel cats in thin water. McKay, a long-time NAFC friend and full-time fishing guide, spends in excess of 200 days on the water. About 170 of those days are dedicated to tracking down channel cats, mostly on the Red River, a world-class fishery. Scott, who owns a logging company and guides part time on the Illinois and several other rivers, spends 80 to 100 days chasing channel cats. Both anglers contend that many of the fish they bring to their boats come from waters that are overlooked, if not completely ignored, by most other fishermen. Even the majority of shore anglers they see don’t fully realize the value of the catfish gold mine they’re standing on. “Probably the biggest misconception about catfish is that you only find them in the deep part of a river,” says McKay. “That’s where most anglers get thrown off because it’s just not true a lot of the time.”

“In fact, this is a perfect opportunity for shore fishermen,” adds Scott. “Many times channel cats could be just five feet from where they’re standing.”

Cats On The Red
The Red River, flowing north from the North Dakota/Minnesota border into Manitoba, supports one of the continent’s premiere channel cat fisheries. Fish exceeding 30 pounds are brought to net every year, and it’s common to spend an entire day catching and releasing 15s to 25s. It’s highly managed as a trophy channel cat fishery; the release of fish more than 24 inches long is mandatory, and the province-wide regulation mandating the use of barbless hooks helps ensure survival.

During the pre-spawn period, which McKay says can begin almost any time after ice-out, channel cats migrate upriver and congregate near the St. Andrews Dam, and action in the immediate tailrace area can be spectacular. The Red is at the extreme northern edge of the channel cat’s range, and the fish spawn in much cooler water than those do farther south.

“I’ve seen channels spawning when the water is in the mid-50s, but usually it occurs from the high 50s to mid-60s.”

That time of year, anglers anchor in the main channel and drop heavily weighted rigs baited with cut goldeye to bottom.

Goldeye are the Red’s version of shad. They grow to about 10 or 12 inches, are very oily, and along with tullibees and other assorted forage, make fat cats out of the channels in the system. When the actual spawn begins, the fish move back downriver, leaving many anglers scratching their heads. They’re fishing yesterday’s catfish, and wondering where the action is.

Where it’s at, very often, is on the spawning flats, in depths that run from, maybe, eight feet right up to the shoreline riprap. “These are overlooked and underfished waters,” says McKay. “But for two guys, a great day can mean catching 75 to 100 fish.”

The guide discovered this hidden treasure back in ’89 when he was guiding a couple of clients for white bass. “The wind was blowing hard into the bank and we were using ultra-light gear, throwing small Rapalas up to the shoreline,” he says. “We’d caught a couple of whites when my fisherman hooked a cat that spooled him. While that was going, I hooked one, too.”

In the ensuing chaos, McKay didn’t notice his boat drifting dangerously close to the bank. Until, that is, the electric motor housing started banging on the rocks. Then, it seemed like the world exploded.

“The noise caused a massive eruption of giant channel cats heading for deep water,” he says. “They were boiling out of the shallows for 100 yards, maybe 150. There’s no way to explain it. You would have had to seen it to believe it. That was the first inkling that these channel cats used such shallow water.”

McKay moved onto the flats after that, and never looked back. “It’s not a seasonal thing on this river,” he says. “You’re just as likely to find them here during pre-spawn as you would in the summer or fall. You can also find them nearly any time of day. They’re either there, or they’re not, and when you find them, they’re active.” Translation: If you don’t get on fish right away, move to another spot. “The worst thing you can do is overstay your welcome,” he says. “I get edgy after five minutes, and about the longest I stick with one spot is 15 minutes, 20 at the outside.” The areas he’s talking about are shelves that extend from the shoreline to the main river channel, an expanse of perhaps 50 to 75 feet. They can be very short, say 50 or 60 feet along the shoreline, or extend for 1,000 feet or more. One of his favorites is on the small side and sits near the dam. Another, about a mile downstream, runs just shy of a quarter-mile in length.

They’re often, but not necessarily, associated with riprap banks. Riprap offers its own set of attractions—it slows the current, concentrates forage species and is often a collection site for dead baitfish. But it’s not absolutely necessary to attract big Red River cats onto the flats. “They come in to feed; I can’t say what it is that attracts them—could be goldeye, frogs, insects or something else. The important thing is that they’re hungry.”

Anchors And Floats
McKay’s guide boat is a self-designed fiberglass semi-V, 22 feet long and 7 feet at the beam. He had it built by a local manufacturer, and it’s meant to handle a number of anglers, all their gear, and any big catfish brought aboard for photographs.

It’s also his primary tool for locating channels on the flats. “The key is to keep moving until you find fish,” he explains. “You may not have to move far, just enough to cover new water.” Since channel cats could be prowling anywhere on the flat, from the lip of the main-channel ledge right up to the shoreline, covering water is critical. And though they may form pods, where you’ll catch a number of fish from a single spot, those pods may be scattered, too.

“One of the best methods for eliminating non-productive water is to fish float rigs,” says McKay. “With them, you can fish a long stretch of the flat, maybe 200 feet. Just anchor the boat at the head of flat, and drift the rigs downstream.” Sounds simple, but there’s a method to it. From a boat anchored midway between the shoreline and drop-off, McKay can usually cover all depths, working more so on the deeper side than the shallow. Sometimes, he says, he’ll toss bottom rigs when fishing the flats, but not when he wants to probe a large section.

“When bottomfishing, you have to make the fish come to you; with floats, you go to the fish.” While McKay wants his bait, generally the head or a 11¼2-inch steak from a goldeye, to drift, he wants it to drift as close to the bottom as he can get it. It should occasionally bounce off the rocks or gravel as it moves with the current, without hanging up. “When you get the system down, you can make it hug the bottom, but you won’t lose a lot of terminal gear,” he says. From the anchored boat, he either sends the rig straight downstream, or makes a gentle lob cast to the side and feeds line as the float moves away. While it may require a little manipulation with the rodtip, the rig usually holds its course, which means the bait has covered a particular depth for the 150 to 200 feet of its drift.

To maintain control of the float rig, and to ensure solid hooksets at long distances, McKay uses a rod that’s at least 8 feet in length. His current favorite is the Berk-ley ReFlex in medium-heavy action (RFC802), matched with an Ambassadeur 6500 filled with 25- to 30-pound Big Game monofilament.

“Rod action isn’t as important as length,” he says. “You have to be able to pick up a lot of line on the set, and a shorter rod won’t do it. “When these fish take a bait, the float just disappears. I mean it’s gone! Don’t wait; don’t feed line, just set the hook. And when you do, you’re in for a fight. Because the water is so shallow, the fish has nowhere to go but away from you, and it’s usually toward deeper water.” With the likelihood that a catfish may be a half block away when you sink the barb, it’s logical that a low-stretch superline would come in handy. For some anglers, maybe, but McKay prefers to stick with mono. Its stretch factor is more beneficial during a shallow-water fight, he explains, than a low-stretch line is on the hookset.

“It’s extremely rare that you don’t hook ’em up,” he says.

Fishing the entire width of the flat entails nothing more than sliding the float up or down the line and making longer or shorter casts to the side. Each drift covers another depth range. And it’s sometimes impossible to go too shallow, according the McKay.

“Sometimes we cast so close to shore, the bait often lands on a rock and we have to pull it off into the current.”

In most river fishing situations, current breaks play a major roll in fish location, especially when the holding zone is close to shore. But McKay says it’s not a real factor on the flats he fishes. “You don’t get much of a current seam, so you don’t have to be as picky about where to position the bait. The fish could be anywhere, so you may have to search the entire flat.

In The Crease
Unlike the Red River, Tim Scott’s favorite waters require an approach that’s a bit more precise. On the Illinois River, and other smaller flows, Scott always looks for riprap areas when he’s targeting shallow channel cats.

But his interpretation of riprap is somewhat generous. “I classify it in one of two categories,” he explains, “man-made and natural.” Man-made riprap is what we’re all familiar with, broken or chunk rock placed as an erosion barrier. Natural riprap, he says, could be anything from a rocky shoreline to jumbled timber along the bank.

“It’s got to have nooks and crannies where forage and catfish can hide, and it has to slow the current enough so channel cats will use the area.”

Scott targets these spots from early May to July, when the water temperature is climbing from about 55 to 75 degrees. As this occurs, the fish are going through their spawning cycle and stage along these shorelines during their migration. And because they’re about to spawn, he also releases every catfish he catches.

Where McKay mainly targets flats associated with a sloping shoreline, Scott catches most of his catfish right off the riprap. “Early in the season, I concentrate on the deep side—the transition between the riprap and clay bottom, and even the bottom itself.

“As time passes, my target area moves up the riprap. About the first week in July I may catch all my fish in one to three feet of water, just two feet from shore.”

Because some of the waters Scott fishes can be unforgiving when it comes to boat travel, he uses an 18-foot tunnel-hull SeaArk, with a 115-horsepower Evinrude jet outboard, to get where he needs to go.

He looks for stretches of moderate current where friction from the riprap slows the flow even more. “That creates a current seam I call the ‘catfish crease.’ And that’s where you want to put your bait. The slow-water zone usually extends about five or 10 feet from shore.” He anchors his boat parallel to and about 15 feet from the crease, lobs his float rig about 20 yards ahead of the boat and drifts it down the crease as far as he can.

Because the channel cats in his waters generally run from 3 to 12 pounds, he can use lighter gear than McKay does. Scott’s primary stick these days is a 7-foot Mitchell Fulcrum spinning rod, in medium-heavy action, paired with a Mitchell Copperhead 20 reel spooled with 12- to 14-pound Berkley XL mono.

“I can be hard on fishing rods, and the Fulcrum stands up to it. It’s also very affordable and, if I had to, I could easily replace it at the local Wal-Mart.

“You need at least a 7 footer in order to control the float. As it drifts closer to the boat, you have to lift the rodtip to keep as much line out of the water as possible. Otherwise you have problems with drag. As it passes the boat, you drop the tip, and let out line to keep the float in the crease.

“In some situations, where the current is stronger, or I want to drift the float farther downstream from the boat, I’ll use an even longer rod—sometimes up to 11 feet.”

As the float drifts, Scott also looks for points on the riprap, or small pockets of dead water. “You can use the rodtip to steer the float into these spots,” he says. “Let it hang there for a while, then gently ease it back into the flow if there’s no take.”

Live, Cut And Dip Baits
Shad, gizzard and threadfin are a big part of the forage base in the rivers Scott fishes. Naturally, they’re among the best baits to use. Sometimes he’ll go with hornyhead or redspot chubs, but shad are his first choice most often. Scott collects his own bait with a castnet because he wants it to be fresh when it goes on the hook. “It’s got to be fresh so it will release a lot of blood and oil into the water. I think that’s so important, I often change baits every five minutes.”

Shad generally run 2 to 4 inches, and during the early part of the season, he prefers fishing whole, live shad hooked just behind the dorsal fin. “Live bait works better early, or when you’re strictly targeting big fish later on,” he says.

When he’s looking for action, regardless of size, cutbait is the choice. He removes the head and tail of a 3- to 4-inch shad and runs the hook point into the organ cavity and out the rib cage. The bait is roughly 11¼2 inches square, and can easily be taken by catfish of nearly any size. “It’s important to leave the insides in place. No guts, no glory. They leach a lot of blood and oil, as well as small amounts of plankton that the shad has eaten. This bait will definately outproduce a whole fish or fillet by five-to-one.” Like many channel cat anglers, Scott finds that dip baits work better than any live or dead baitfish on occasion. When this happens early in the season, he covers a Junnie’s Tubie Worm with shrimp-, shad-, garlic- or some other dip bait. “Anything but blood, until the water warms to about 70,” he says. “I haven’t had success with blood baits in cooler water.”

Although these anglers use slightly different methods to target channel cats in rivers hundreds of miles apart, their overall approach is basically the same. That fact should encourage you to adapt these techniques to the catfish rivers you fish.

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