Channel Catfishing Holy Grail *videos added*

[DTro]

Just got home a few hours ago from the great Red River of the north at Lockport MB.

As many of you know, the stretch from Lockport down to Lake Winnepeg in Manitoba is the Holy Grail of Channel Catfish, so you can imagine how exciting it is to travel up there to target my favorite species!

I could go on and on about the fish up there, they are truly unbelievable and something that you cannot describe unless you experience it yourself. Instead of blabbing on and on about the trip, I will just let the pictures speak for themselves.

To sum it up, we caught lots of big fish, all 4 of us crushed our personal bests, and the weather was outstanding. From what I gather, the bite was slow, but we had a blast. What surprised me the most, is how little we fished the dam area and how much bigger the fish are in the downstream portions of the river.

We all caught fish over 20lbs, and the biggest of the trip was just under 26lbs and caught by Eric!

We also had a little fun in Selkirk during the "off" hours.

I can't stress enough how everyone who loves catfishing must take this trip at least once in their life.

Enjoy, I know we did.

more to come in a minute.....

[DTro]

Until next time!

[DARK30]

Been up there twice...great destination...and home of the "Manny Slap"

[aanderud]

'Twas as good time. Darren pretty much said it all. Those fish are powerful, and I will agree with the Manny Slap comment -- many times, you would be holding a fish up and he'd flap around trying to smack you in the jewels, face, or head...anything he could get his tail on.

Everyone up there said it was slow, but to be honest, compared to the flathead fishing I'm used to, we were way ahead in fish-per-hour. Even moreso if you narrow down to "quality" fish per hour, as almost 80% of our fish were over 10 lbs, and about 20% were over 20 pounds.

Personal bests all around. Yahoo!

[rushing]

that'll move the chains

[Gordie]

I'm speechless well maybe not. MAN O MAN those are some pigs and congrats to all of you guys on your personal bests thats truely awsome to say the least glad to here you guys had a great time. I thought about you guys setting the hook a few times on friday night while fishing and thinking that my 27 inch c-cat had nothing on what you guys were about to get into.

Hopefully next year I can make that journey to the Red River of the North

[DTro]

We measured one of our "average" fish and it was 36x20 LOL I truly cannot imagine a "hot" bite.

[Gordie]

definately numbers I could deal with

BTW what was your bait of choice?

hmm time during the off hours did that have to do with any of the erotic bingo

[DTro]

I think Frogs were the clear winner, but we also did well on cut sucker, tulibee and different "combos" of each.

Can't say exactly what the erotic bingo was, but Aanderud has a good story to tell that has the punchline, "three wieners in a bun"

[HotPocket]

Nice fish guys. Looks like alot of fun.

[hanson]

How'd the shake down at the border go?? Any excess quantities of Kokanee to declare? Lost passports? Expired driver's licenses (ummm.... maybe thats just me)? Potatoes?

Looks like a good time! I think they'll let me across next year finally.

[DTro]

1 almost lost passport

1 blown trailer tire

1 bag of contraband fruit

1 case of "you guys take a seat I want to talk with him a bit more"

1 almost complete loop of the city of Winnipeg

Just the normal stuff

[hanson]

Just the normal stuff.

Nice!

How about looking at the wrong side of the speedometer?

[Larry FlatCaster]

Glad to hear it was a great time... Sweet pics.... MOOOOOOOooooo

[Here-Kitty-Kitty]

Glad to hear it was a great time... Sweet pics.... MOOOOOOOooooo

Gooooooooooooooooordie!!! Can't wait till I can plan a trip up there. Nice kitties guys

[Ed Carlson]

Even a "Slow Day" up there can be the best channel catfishing ever for many cat anglers.

A 20 fish day is good, 50 is starting to take a real toll on the body, a 100 fish day per angler is a double dose of ibuprofen before bed, and another dose with a ice pack chaser with the morning coffee.

The cats get bigger in the fall and as you noted you find more big fish down stream from the dam most days. You may see a morning flurry on the dam and then back off to the deeper channel the rest of the day some place to the North.

It is an amazing fishing experience and one all cat fisherman need to do at least once.

[pureinsanity]

Nice fish! Should have put some of those hogs in the MN River

On your tour of winnipeg did you stop at a bar called the Pony Corral? Nice place to eat, cheap too! Its in the heart of down town. Near the Delta Winnipeg Hotel

[Shack]

Looks like a blast. As D30 would say "Some very nice rannel-rats!"

Oh, by the way Happy B-Day Dtro!

[Tyler Holm]

WoW. Awesome fish guys. WoW

[SteveD]

It was a great vacation. The laughs were good and the fishing was fun. Watching Brian order Poutine from the menu was a hoot. When the waitress said "You aren't from Canada are you?" it pretty well capped the moment.

We met some nice folks that went out of their way to help us find fish. Everybody we met in the local area was friendly and helpful. It is a fishing kind of place - from Lockport to Selkirk there is hardly a stretch of water that doesn't have somebody sitting on the shoreline with a rod out. The dam at Lockport had people lining the shore fishing almost 24/7.

As soon as my wife washes my dirty clothes I'm ready to head back up. I hope we can do this again. You guys cannot believe how a 20 lb channel cat feels on the end of a rod.

I had a great time- EH!

[DTro]

Yeah, I forgot to mention all the friendly folks up there. It’s pretty cool to have someone you’ve hardly met, pull up next to you and offer up extra tulibee since it’s working so well and then to catch a fish not 5 minutes after throwing out a piece of it!

I received a lot of good info from Brad Durick who guides out of Grand Forks, but spends quite a bit of time up there. Knowing these things going in helped a lot and if you need a good catfish guide look Brad up for sure.

[proguide]

I'm glad you guys had a great trip. It was good getting to visit with you that last day. (I felt kind of bad we didn't get to visit sooner but pulling up to someone in that froth at the dam can get hairy sometimes.) Your title says it the best. "The holy grail of catfishing" It just doesn't get any better than that.

Now that you have the lay of the land the adventures will only get better from here on. I'm glad you had a good time and made a memory that will last a lifetime.

BD

[howellcanufish]

Awesome pics guys! Looks like a great guys trip up North! Roughly how spendy was the trip?

[DTro]

It was a fairly affordable trip. For a group of 4, I would say approx 400-500/person for everything (gas, lodging, license, passport, misc) I’m sure you could hit the high or low side of that depending how far you have to drive and what lodging you choose. We stayed at “Cats on the Red” and its location and convenience can’t be beat. There are a few other options for lodging in nearby Selkirk as well that I would recommend checking out for anyone considering the trip.

[uppdacreek]

Nice report and fish guys!!

I'm pretty sure I've got Jennie convinced to go next year! I think she was about 80% sure before the pictures and now I'm just about 100% sure it will be next year's vacation for us!!

Congrats to all for blowing your PB's out of the water!!