Jump to content
  • GUESTS

    If you want access to members only forums on HSO, you will gain access only when you Sign-in or Sign-Up .

    This box will disappear once you are signed in as a member. ?

Channel Catfishing Holy Grail *videos added*


DTro

Recommended Posts

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.

006.jpg

002.jpg

004.jpg

007.jpg

020.jpg

026.jpg

030.jpg

028.jpg

033.jpg

036.jpg

more to come in a minute.....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 82
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

'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!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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" laugh

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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. wink

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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 laugh

Just the normal stuff

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now ↓↓↓ or ask your question and then register. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.



  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • By The way that didn't work either!! Screw it I'll just use the cellular. 
    • It’s done automatically.  You might need an actual person to clear that log in stuff up.   Trash your laptop history if you haven’t tried that already.
    • 😂 yea pretty amazing how b o o b i e s gets flagged, but they can't respond or tell me why I  can't get logged in here on my laptop but I can on my cellular  😪
    • I grilled some brats yesterday, maybe next weekend will the next round...  
    • You got word censored cuz you said        B o o b ies….. haha.   Yeah, no… grilling is on hiatus for a bit.
    • Chicken mine,  melded in Mccormick poultry seasoning for 24 hours.  Grill will get a break till the frigid temps go away!
    • we had some nice weather yesterday and this conundrum was driving me crazy  so I drove up to the house to take another look. I got a bunch of goodies via ups yesterday (cables,  winch ratchet parts, handles, leaf springs etc).   I wanted to make sure the new leaf springs I got fit. I got everything laid out and ready to go. Will be busy this weekend with kids stuff and too cold to fish anyway, but I will try to get back up there again next weekend and get it done. I don't think it will be bad once I get it lifted up.    For anyone in the google verse, the leaf springs are 4 leafs and measure 25 1/4" eye  to eye per Yetti. I didnt want to pay their markup so just got something else comparable rated for the same weight.   I am a first time wheel house owner, this is all new to me. My house didn't come with any handles for the rear cables? I was told this week by someone in the industry that cordless drills do not have enough brake to lower it slow enough and it can damage the cables and the ratchets in the winches.  I put on a handle last night and it is 100% better than using a drill, unfortatenly I found out the hard way lol and will only use the ICNutz to raise the house now.
    • I haven’t done any leaf springs for a long time and I can’t completely see the connections in your pics BUT I I’d be rounding up: PB Blaster, torch, 3 lb hammer, chisel, cut off tool, breaker bar, Jack stands or blocks.   This kind of stuff usually isn’t the easiest.   I would think you would be able to get at what you need by keeping the house up with Jack stands and getting the pressure off that suspension, then attack the hardware.  But again, I don’t feel like I can see everything going on there.
    • reviving an old thread due to running into the same issue with the same year of house. not expecting anything from yetti and I already have replacement parts ordered and on the way.   I am looking for some input or feedback on how to replace the leaf springs themselves.    If I jack the house up and remove the tire, is it possible to pivot the axel assembly low enough to get to the other end of the leaf spring and remove that one bolt?   Or do I have to remove the entire pivot arm to get to it? Then I also have to factor in brake wire as well then. What a mess   My house is currently an hour away from my home at a relatives, going to go back up and look it over again and try to figure out a game plan.           Above pic is with house lowered on ice, the other end of that leaf is what I need to get to.   above pic is side that middle bolt broke and bottom 2 leafs fell out here is other side that didnt break but you can see bottom half of leaf already did but atleast bolt is still in there here is hub assembly in my garage with house lowered and tires off when I put new tires on it a couple months ago. hopefully I can raise house high enough that it can drop down far enough and not snap brake cable there so I can get to that other end of the leaf spring.
  • Topics

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.