After spending the last couple trips drifting for Channel cats on the main channel and not having very productive nights due too low water temps at 79, it was time for a change. Wanting to find fish in the worst way having friends Largemouth in my boat and JP Mason in hot pursuit with his boat, a light finally went on in my head telling me to get my 
off the main channel and up into side channels.
At first I wasn’t liking what I was seeing, the surface temp never came up from 79 degrees 
However the locator was showing more bait fish and some good marks tight to the bottom, this was better than what was being seen on the main channel.
Not even 5 minutes into the first drift Largemouth was hooked up after having his cut bait picked up and thoughts of the first big channel cat ran through my head, that is until….a Northern Pike came flying up out of the water and came unbuttoned 
Shortly after that is was finally pay day 
We started picking up a few fish drifting an area in 8fow with a sharp drop into 14fow. JP Mason had his stick on fire 
The largest of the night was 10lbs, the majority of the cats were 6-8lbs keeping things fun and finally helping sooth my kitty itch
If the weather doesn’t change and the temps don’t rise, the search for bigger channel cats will be in sloughs and side chutes with light current and structure for the time being. I have to believe the channel cats are hung up in these areas for now and will not move into the main channel until water temps get over 80 degrees or the flow drops considerably.
It was fun Largemouth and JP Mason 
Thanks for the laughs and great time 
My favorite picture is the action shot of JP Mason wrangling with a channel cat.
