Just got back from a fun filled adventure North of the border. For anyone not familiar with the Red River near Manitoba, it is basically the Mecca for Catfishermen. I’ve been there before, and like most all fishing, things seem to come together the more you do it and I think we finally figured a few things out up there. The previous trip was great, but just not the caliber of action I’ve heard of. But this time really made up for it!
The trip really started out on a few sour notes though. When we arrived we were informed that they booked our room to another party, so we basically had to go on a hunt for a bed. This is not an easy thing to do in that part of the country, but we did luck out and were able to find a spot about 20 minutes away.
So we finally get unpacked and geared up to go and decided to see if any fish were stacked up by the St Andrews dam. This dam is by far the most popular place to fish up there and even a local guide told us to stay up there and not venture downstream it was not worth our time. We were there about an hour and we were just about to move closer to the dam and noticed a few fire trucks up on the road that crossed the river above the dam. We then noticed a Zodiac buzzing around above the dam. The only logical thing we could think is that someone fell in, or they were trying to recover a body or something like that.
Sure enough, about 10 min later, a lifeless body comes floating by at about 100ft from the boat. This was not cool, and I was wondering if things could get any worse. Here’s a short story about it. http://winnipeg.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20110816/wpg_body_110816/20110816/?hub=WinnipegHome
We decided to get out of there and head downstream as the fish just did not seem to be up by the dam. Well, not only did things not get worse, they turned 180 degrees and the fish went bonkers! It was quite obvious that they wanted frogs and nothing else. Thanks to a friend we had about 100 with us, and they lasted all of about one night of a four night trip. Well the next night we thought we would try cut bait instead of frogs….we caught fish but not nearly as big or as fast. So the next day we went on a frog hunt. Problem is that it was basically a dessert up there and dryer than a popcorn fart. We looked everywhere, and came up empty. We even called a pet store and solicited other boats on the river to try and buy some. LOL 
. As a last resort, we spotted a pond on a golf course and on the way to the river the final night, we snuck in and walked around the pond with a landing net.
We hit the jackpot and found about 75.
As soon as we hit the water and threw anchor, the bite was on!! We ran out of bait several hours and had to start cutting them in to tiny pieces. 
At the end of the trip, we had 100 fish (well 97, but close enough) that averaged 15.3.lbs (we weighed every single fish) and each of us caught at least one over 25lbs. And to think that in most places 15lbs is considered a trophy!
It’s one of those trips I’ll never forget!! IMO, this is a MUST for catfishermen to do at least once in their life. And no need to stick your nose up at these channels. The 25lbers fought just as hard or harder than a 40lb flathead here would. Don’t make a mistake and bring your normal channel gear. It won’t be enough.
They literally will wear you out…and that’s a good thing!
Here’s a small sample video of a few fish. I cannot stress enough that if you love to catfish, you need to make this trip!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrP6VqxJLaM&feature=channel_video_title
, but even more meaningful that you’re talking about channel 
