Catfish & Carp Fishing

If you want to catch the biggest catfish of your life, there’s no better place than a tidal river.

It was 1992 when NAFC blue cat guru Chris Harris of Richmond, Virginia, was fishing the James River and spotted bizarre shapes on his depthfinder. He dropped his baits to the mysterious structures and felt his sinkers tap off the tops and slide down the sides.

Small channel and blue cats are most likely to be caught on stinkbaits. These young fish eat a wider variety of foods than heavyweight adults.

The gold-colored instrument Denny Halgren plunked into the water looked like a cross between a ladle, spatula and something you might find aboard a flying saucer.

Although flatheads are opportunistic predators whose favorite prey is whatever swims past their mouths, anglers on certain waters have found that matching local forage can increase their catch rates.

Channel catfish in rivers could prowl the flats anywhere from the lip into the main channel all the way to the shoreline, and though they may hold in pods, those pods could be scattered.

On my summer guide trips on the Mississippi River near Davenport, Iowa, my clients boat an average of 10 flatheads per trip, and some of those are real trophies.

My surveys of more than 3,000 Mississippi anglers revealed that “knowing big fish are available to be caught” was very important in selecting a fishing site.

On a day-to-day basis, the best action usually takes place during the middle of a sunny day after the water warms and the increased light penetration makes baits easier for cats to see.

The rodtip twitched slightly. I had cast the bait cross-current less than two minutes earlier, so I suspected it was still rolling along the bottom, but I had to know for sure.