How early????

At what point in the spring do you guys start fishing for cats? Usually right now I focus ob walleyes just curious how early everyone starts chasing catfish.

I try to dedicate every year to a species . Last year was my first year to cats which made me work for most of the season. I didn’t find much tell the end of April to the beginning of May.

As soon as the river opens up. Been going for 2 weeks down here on 18.

Channels bite all year round and we have reports of them in the WI back channel.

Flats won’t be active until we hit 50 degree water temps.

We’ll be fishing for them in a week or two if the forecast holds up.

Small rivers, grandpa always said when the lilacs are blooming the cats are biting. I have found this to be pretty true.

If you can find their wintering holes it gets to be fun. Found one last year I had my kids pulling out channels from shore on March 2, and I was catching them for a week or two prior. Didn’t get there till this Thursday and couldn’t even get a bite, they may have moved on, which they did last year by this time already.

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Small rivers, grandpa always said when the lilacs are blooming the cats are biting. I have found this to be pretty true.

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That actually works pretty well for flatheads.

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Didn’t get there till this Thursday and couldn’t even get a bite, they may have moved on, which they did last year by this time already.

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IMO, fish and there seasonal migrations don’t follow the temps. They know when it is time to move on.

I “think” I read somewhere that year class strength is greatly affected by the weather because when it is time to spawn, they spawn regardless of conditions or they don’t spawn at all. And I am talking about all game fish.

I wonder if flatheads seasonal migrations are affected by the weather. I know their physiology means they don’t eat much until we hit 55, but I wonder if they will leave the wintering holes regardless of temps. Maybe the migration is slower, but they still move at about the same date regardless of temps?

Mplspug..nice avatar btw that is a huge pug!

Right after ice out but the bite is slow in deeper water, try to find shallow water where it warms up quicker.

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Mplspug..nice avatar btw that is a huge pug!

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I didn’t know it would cause such a stir. He’s not huge, it’s the angle. He is bigger than a normal pug though.

I iced a nice 28″ channel yesterday.
Flatheads-i’ll worry about them in may/june-october.

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Mplspug..nice avatar btw that is a huge pug!

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I didn’t know it would cause such a stir. He’s not huge, it’s the angle. He is bigger than a normal pug though.

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Looks like he ate a pug..

ice off.

This weekend.

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This weekend.

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Where we going?

Minnesota river around the Mankato area.

Pug, If you can make it down this way from around early to mid may we’ll go and you can take home some fish.

We caught a pile of channels on a jig and minnow last week out on P2. 20 feet of water or so and just herded up in one area but they were hungry. They were just waiting for spring to show up