Headed up to the Drayton area on Tuesday morning to catfish the Red River. I have never been there before. I will be bringing stink bait and crawlers. I don’t need specific areas but any tips on what types of areas or depths to look for would be appreciated.
Thanks. DT
Grab a bunch of big sucker minnows, 7-11″.
Preferred bait.
Call Brad Durick and maybe he’ll give you some advice.
Should be spawn to post spawn… It’ll be tough more than likely.
Look at cut banks (spawn habitat) and try slack to fast water in a strategic matter to narrow down that days metobolic behavior.
You should do well because the fishing has been great for nice fish.
First, I’d try to get suckers for bait. Slice them open and use them whole or cut them up into chunks depending upon the size. A run to GF to Home of Economy may be worth it if you can’t get them anyplace else on the way. They always work. Use the crawlers to catch gold eye that you can also cut up to use for bait. They can be a really good bait as well. Frogs can also be really good, but they have to be frogs and not toads. Dead frogs with their bellies sliced open are my favorite way to fish them. Hook them through the head. The big walleyes love them too. I wouldn’t even bother with stinkbaits on the Red River in my experience. They’ll catch fish but usually not the big ones.
If you fish below the Drayton Dam, you should catch some nice cats. It’s usually easy to catch nice fish there. Use 3 to 5 ounces of weight, a snell about a foot or so long with a 5/0 to 8/0 hook and sit back and wait. Use plenty of bait. You should catch some nice cats, but read the regulations about fishing below the dam first. Away from the dam, target fallen trees (snags) in the river or bends in the river. The cats will be in the snags so drop your baits right in front of the snags and the cats will eventually smell them and come out to eat if they are there. Work the full length of the snag from shallow to deep. Where there’s a bend there’ll be some kind of a deeper hole and the outsides of bends are generally better than inside bends because cats like current. Place baits on the upstream sides of holes and let the scent of your bait spread into the holes. The cats will track down the baits if they smell them. As far as depth, work all the way from shallow right along the shoreline to the deepest part of the river where you’re fishing.
If a snag is a big one or you’re fishing in front of a big hole, give it some time for the cats to come out to eat. It takes a while for the scent to spread. Change baits often and I also use Berkley scent when I cat fish. Walleye or catfish scent, it makes no difference, but scent gives the cats a better trail to find the baits.
Good Luck!
Thanks for all the information. Yesterday was out first time on the river. We started out with some small ones and a few carp. After a move we found a few good ones. Here is a pic of my buddies best one yesterday.
DT
20160705_153403.jpg
Very nice!
Another pic.
20160706_180248.jpg
Another
att_146790503418283.jpeg
Another.
20160706_180625.jpg
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
