drifting cats?

Now that I have to stoppicking up sturgeon I was wondering if anyone has tried drifting for cats this late in the season. I am thinking about it if I have the time.

Hi Aaron – I drifted for channels last year into October and I caught a few fish. I was just looking at my journal and my last drifting trip for the 2006 season was on Saturday, 21 October 2006. I picked up 1 channel (27″) down south of Hwy 94 near Beanies. I only drifted Beanies for about 45 minutes and then headed back to Bayport. The weather that day was cloudy, breezy with a NW wind 11 – 15 mph, air temp was a chilly 40 degrees, water temp was 45 degrees, water level was 675.5′. I caught that fish at 11:20am. That day there were a half dozen walleye guys fishing the flats near Beanies and it didn’t look like anyone was having much success.

I may do some drifting after the sturgeon season. With the number of channels and flatheads I saw come out of the King Plant area I may give that a try. I’m going to drift though, I think if you anchor and work cut bait about all you will get is sturgeon. I’ve never picked up a sturgeon drifting so it may be a way to stay away from them and still target cats.

With all the successes drifting before sturgeon season, I know I’m gonna give it a go

Hey Aaron – Stcroixer and I were out on the St Croix on Wednesday, 24 Oct and did some drifting until the wind died out. We fished from 3:30 to 6:30pm. Water temp was a cool 51 degrees. Jarrett caught two channels (21″, 19″). We were using cut sucker.