I have been absent for a while. Not too interested in most topics on this board these days anyway. What brings me back is a topic that I have found very little information on the net and I’d like to share as I know there are some who will listen and go enjoy the outdoors in a different way than most.
BIG CHUBBY WINTER CHANNEL CATFISH!
Do some research and you’ll find lots of folks down south chasing blue cats throughout the winter and most that information carries some tidbits regarding channel cats; though they are rarely the target. Information on the Mississippi in MN/WI is null. So, per usual I just dive in and figure out what I can; which brings me here to share for the less adventurous.
February 11th, I decided to try fishing for channel cats, earliest I ever have from a boat. If I recall there might have been 1 other boat on P4 that day due to temps and wind (Low -5, High 17, Wind gusts 20mph).
Having extensive history ice fishing channel cats, I knew this might be a tremendous challenge of boat control and detecting light biting fish.
I started by locating cats via sonar and camera. Seemed pretty easy for me since I’m familiar with identifying species of fish on the humminbird. You’ll find them in the deep main channel holes, in dunes in the main channel, on wing dams, next to rip rap, and lately if there is a clam bed there’s going to be some catfish. Sunday Feb 18th I found an area that literally had 15’ of catfish, nearly altering the depth on your depth finder…. Would be like putting a camera in your minnow bucket. However, they were all cookie cutter size. Most main channel rock bars have catfish in front of, and behind the rock structure; often times suspended. What I have found is they school by size class. Biggest schools are the smallest in size, under 4 LBs. 4-8 # tend to hang together and will be found in more current than their smaller siblings. 8# and up and found in the main channel and relatively spread out.
Typically on camera I see channel cats hovering off the bottom.
If you were paying attention, that is a lot of different places to find catfish! Within 1-2 miles of P4 dam right now, there is oodles of them. With P3 frozen, you’ll see me out there for a while yet until the ice breaks.
To start I dropped anchor on Feb 11th directly in front of a small school of suspended catfish on a rock spine protruding into the current. Used my standard summer channel catfish setup: Medium Rippin Lips Rod, 30# Big Game Mono, Swivel & 15” Leader, 8/0 circle hook. After baiting with normal sized cut bait for summer (1.5” squares) I set my 3 lines. I think it took 8 minutes for the first catfish of 12.5 LBS. SWEET! The rest of the afternoon consisted of another 8 fish and about 40 missed bites and lost fish. Gradually I started downsizing baits and extending leader length but was not happy with the amount of missed fish.
The following weekend the 17th I brought a friend fishing, we spent an hour fishing for walleye and I suggested we conclude our walleye fishing until the sun went down and go for catfish; except this time, I had a new rig.
Using a Kentucky knot I rig up a drop shot rig with two dropper loops to attach hooks. There is no terminal tackle in this setup except the hooks. Using a 3oz weight, my first dropper was ~6” above the weight with ~6” loop and a snelled hook from that loop (Really cool knot!). The second dropper ~18” above the weight. Each dropper line had a small float like you’d use on a lindy rig to help levitate the dropper lines. I downsized all hooks to 4 or 5/0 (Tiny in my book). I gave my buddy a standard slip sinker rig like I used the week prior except with a smaller hook because I did get lots of action on the bottom rig; I didn’t want to dismiss it yet. We used spot lock and held rods because I figure that these fish aren’t moving to the bait; you need to put it in front of them and spot lock is more mobile than an anchor. Also, having a hand on the rod would hopefully result in more fish to the boat.
If you want to see this knot watch this video: Chris Souders 5 Rigs For Catfish – YouTube
Kyle caught his first catfish in under 3 minutes. I missed my first 3 minutes later. What we then began to notice was a trend; I was out fishing Kyle significantly and all my fish were coming on the upper dropper loop. We moved here and there and found different size classes of fish. Biggest roughly 16 LBS. Didn’t take long for me to rig kyle up with a drop shot rig so he could be in on the game. We also lost several after the initial hookup or on the way to the boat. We soon learned to back off the drag and take our time as many of these fish were lip hooked and the hook is easy to tear out. Most bites required you to reel down to set the circle hook, and only a couple tried to hit and run.
Interestingly enough the next day I was out alone, and the bottom dropper was the clear winner. All lessons learned the day prior helped from the start on Sunday with first fish taking less than 3 minutes and weighing in at 14.5LB.
Found that sunrise throughout the day the bite was good. Though there were definite periods where the fish turned off. Sunset activity really died and I have not tried after dark as of yet. I would be surprised to find there isn’t a better night bite.
In conclusion all the above is short learned information and not a significant enough to mark it as gospel; however, it is just the start of my winter catfishing learning and tactics. I was surprised how fast they will bite when you put the bait in front of them; Kyle had one cast where he didn’t even turn around before the rod bent over. If you aren’t on them, move your bait. I was regularly moving my bait every 1-3 minutes hoping to introduce it to a catfish. For some reason in the 3 times I’ve tried to catch one, the first cast of the day has resulted in a fish in under 10 minutes. Maybe I’m most diligent at the beginning of a session to locate and be on top of fish. I will likely continue to downsize my bait; currently running a piece a little bigger than ½”. Fishing the main channel dunes, it works well to cast to the side of the boat and allow the rig to slowly sweep the current. After all the fish are spread out here the most.
So, if you have a catfish itch mid-winter check out the Mississippi river and use some of these tips to catch your biggest catfish.
I probably missed a bunch of little details; but hope this is enough to get someone started.
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or that I know they’ll move to my bait so I don’t try to move it to them. I also wonder how well a drop shot rig would work in the summer and if they are suspending as much then as now. 
