cat dreams

[PYROPAL]

this year i'm hoping to go to the red river in minnesota and try the cat fishing. i've heard it is awesome. (hmmm..red lake...awesome crappies...red river awesome cats) any starting points or tips would be appreciated.

[DARK30]

Don't just dream it do it! You'll be glad you did. I fished the Red at Selkirk last year for the first time..It gets no better for Channels.

[Captain B.R.K]

For 2 summers straight bklimek and I made a drive to the Red to fish for SUMO Cats! We drove just north of Fargo,ND about 1hr to a little town called Drayton,ND. From there there is an access point below the dam. We've fished the first 5-10miles below that dam and have done very well!

My biggest was 15lbs and the biggest we have caught out of that stretch was a 24/25 lber!!!

There isn't much for hotels or motels in the town of Drayton, so we make a camping trip out of it. There is a city campground available for first come first serve. I think the cost is around $7 or $8 a night. I believe they have electric sites as well, but they cost a bit more. They have a bathroom facility with running water, showers and a dryer (incase of a wet day ).

Great sites with plenty of trees to camp under incase of a summer thunderstorm that rolls in. The city has a small grocery store, local bar and gas station. If you are looking for a quick candy bar or pop, they do have a Conoco there too.

I don't know where you are looking to fish the Red, but the drive to the Drayton area is worth fishing!

Here's a start to a great adventure!!

[bklimek]

Cap' I am looking to make it 3 years in a row this summer. Looking at taking a day off to make it worth while. I was told today we may get 2 "free" vacation days this year for the months June-August (total 6)!!! Regardless with the shorter drive and an extra day it would be a blast. If you can't swing a day off you could meet me up there. You can find me hanging out at Jimmy's drinking whiskey and spraying crickets with Raid. I think snowball is yet to get on the board with one of those sumos. The boys on Strike King were on OLN yesterday and were fishing by the (Contact US Regarding This Word) in Winnipeg for channels. Brings back good memories. Ahhhh....heres to dreaming for warm days and big fish!

[Ed Carlson]

The Red is very good from start to finish and points both left and right of its shores. The whole basin is very good. The Canadian end is phenomenal!

The Strike King guys were shooting when we were there. They boated 40-60 chubby cats that day. We boated 100+ by noon and about again that much in the afternoon. At a 19-22 lb average weight per piggy…you do the math.

The most amazing piggy stats I know of is 2 years ago a crew from Nebraska guided by “Cats on the Red”, this crew of 9 guys boated 18,000 lbs of cats in 4 days. All C&R. Ya.....UF-DA!

Ya..."Cork'n Sucks" ...Eh!

[hanson]

Captain-

I would take up you on that trip.

I spent 22 years of my short life living in that neck of the woods (Crookston & Fargo) and never fished the river for cats. I'm bumming on that fact now. I recently became a cat fan last summer and plan to expand on that more this summer. Becomes sort of hard when you don't have a boat.

The dam in Crookston is also an awesome fishery. I'm looking forward to the walleye run this spring as well as some more cat fishing down there.

I'm hoping the Belle Plain cat league has room for a non-boater this summmer. That would probably keep me entertained.

[fiskyknut]

PYROPAL- Just do it! Iffin you're gonna fish south of the border you are definetly gonna wanna fish the more northerly streches, from Drayton on up to the border. The fish average bigger the further north you go, and I'd say your chances of hooking up with a GIANT one are way better than spots to the south. Best time of year would be from mid/late August thru september and into early October. The big fish are fattening up for winter bigtime and are ravenous! River level/flow is more favorable usually as well at this time. Multiple big fish are the norm at this time of year. Bring a boat if you want, but the fishing is good from shore as well though mobility is lessened. I do most of my fishing from shore on a handful of spots and if you make it up get ahold of me and I'll share a couple of them with you....Heck I may even be out fishing too! Frogs are on their menu bigtime as these are moving towards the water this time of year. Cutbait and large live Chubs trip their trigger too. You can go for miles out this way and not see another boat/angler as well. Take a peek at the Red river forum at a post called....'rising water=great fishing', pics of a few Cats caught last year out that way.

Regards.....fiskyknut

[Captain B.R.K]

Quote:

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Cap' I am looking to make it 3 years in a row this summer. Looking at taking a day off to make it worth while. I was told today we may get 2 "free" vacation days this year for the months June-August (total 6)!!! Regardless with the shorter drive and an extra day it would be a blast. If you can't swing a day off you could meet me up there. You can find me hanging out at Jimmy's drinking whiskey and spraying crickets with Raid. I think snowball is yet to get on the board with one of those sumos. The boys on Strike King were on OLN yesterday and were fishing by the (Contact US Regarding This Word) in Winnipeg for channels. Brings back good memories. Ahhhh....heres to dreaming for warm days and big fish!

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Hanson- You are more than welcome to come along with bklimek and I, should be plenty of room in the boat. We make a great time of it. Fish all day, bake our A$$'s off in the sun, come back and sit over a warm campfire and fall asleep dreaming of another hot day and settin' the hook into those SUMO kitty cats on the RED!!

Klimek - If I do make the trip, probably come up a Friday afternoon or evening after work and fish Saturday and Sunday. Our luck over the years has brough plenty of rain- maybe we'll miss that jinx.

You going to have a boat for us to use this year?!?!?

[Canuck]

Eddy: There really aren't any kitties in the Red by Lockport, ARE THERE??????? You must be kidding. Catch & Release and barbless; what is that? Only 3 more months to wait.......Oh well, ehhhhhh

[PYROPAL]

wow..i gotta clue my buddies into this area of the forum!! you guys got me stoked i bought a cabelas rod..one of their "whoopin' sticks" thought it would be good for bassin the weeds...turns out it is the heaviest toughest rod i've ever owned...like a pool cue with line guides. kept it 'cause i thought it might work for muskies. maybe it will whoop those big cats you got up there? it will be in the truck when i come up! thanx for all the replies...the more tips the better!

[Ed Carlson]

The Whoopn Stiks are built from E-Glass blanks and should do a good job on cats for you. You can use E-Glass for a wide range of rod needs for many species. E-Glass rods come in rods from light actions all the way up to Ex/Hvy pool sticks. I like a med to med/hvy for cats in E-Glass. Depends on how the bite is and what methods I plan to use. A 7'-8' med/hevy action with a sensitive tip is a good channel cat rod in my book.

A graphite HMX-7 rod I like is the Pete Maina Signature series with the telescopic handle. This is a Bass Pro line designed by Pete Maina for Muskie and has found favor with many a cat hunter.

Eh Canuck...Cork'n still Sucks!

My calander is in count-down mode to May Eh.

I hate to rub it in but I'll be on cats by mid Apral here Canuck.....Tee-Heee. Canuck maybe you will need to pop down for a weekend then and fish some puddy Tats here and stock up on some tackle Eh?

[Canuck]

I actually have considered down to give them a try. I am busy attending Clean Environment Hearings to try and save our aquifer but I HAVE to make a trip south for no other reason than because. I am going to give the sturgeon a try with the 2 Brads in April so hopefully I can learn alittle for our sturgeon up here.

I totally agree with Eddy on his comments on rods. There are time when a pool cue is needed then another time when a real sensitative tipped rod. It all depends on the bite. I am a lover of the longer rod but have to say I am always looking for new and different rods. My rod selection far outnumbers my reels. As a guide it is hard to take out my graphit (sp) rods as not everybody knows how to treat them and usually they are the more expensive. This is not to say that the EGlass rods aren't good and hard for a novice to tell the difference from.

I think Stu has a few of those pics from the Kentucky group still on his HSOforum. Me and the other guides had sore arms for many a day after their trip but it was FUN and they were great guys, I just hope we can repeat and I don't see why we can't provided the conditions are right.

[TylerFlom]

i like catfishing, know a lot about it, but don't get a chance to do it very often, is this a river where someone with little experience like me could go, and still catch a bunch of fish? Also, could someone give me the budget from their trip?

[Canuck]

Tylerform: It depends where U live. You may have great fishing in your back yard. Catfishing can be cheap or expensive it all depends on what U want to spend. As fishing goes I think catfishing is one of the cheapest. You don't have to spend mega bucks on lures and U can fish from shore if U want.

Can't really help as I don't see your home address on your profile.

[TylerFlom]

Well i live in Burnsville, but usually fish the Mississippi, we put in on the acess under the 494 bridge. Thanks for any info around here, but I ment the Red River

[hanson]

TylerFlom-

If you are not fishing for catfish in the Mississippi, what are you usually fishing for??

You might want to put a little more effort into the kitty cat fishing if you're not already. The metro area Mississippi & Minnesota rivers are both fantastic cat waters.

Throw out a nightcrawler on a plain hook with a large sinker (2-4oz depending on current) and wait for the tug. It couldn't be easier. You'll probably catch alot of other fish while you're at it too.

The Red River is also a very big river. You can fish from shore all over the place or fish from a boat. Whatever you like. You can find cats from Fargo to the Canadian border and also on the Canadian side. The 'famous' stretch of the Red River is in Canada at the Lockport dam. This is the area that Cats on the Red, Stu McKay, Canuck spend alot of time fishing and guiding. This is the part of the Red that lots of FMers are talking about. Its probably a 9-10 hour drive from Burnsville to get there.

I hope to make it up there this summer too.

[Dennis Steele]

The catfish bellow the Lockport Dam is the best channel cat fishing I have seen for numbers and size.I made my first trip to Cats on the Red last fall with Dark 30 and I can tell you I'll be making that trip at least once a season from now on.

Our fish averaged 20lbs and every day caught 30 or so cats. The guys up there consider that slow!!

If your staying at Cats on the Red they will help you out with some good advice. I would suggest saving a few extra buck ond head out with one of Stu's guides. While we were catching 30 fish a day. Stu's guys were catching numbers above 60 to 80 fish a day. The last day we were there we hooked up with Canuck (he guides for Stu) and he gave us some really good pointers. He also ribbed me a little because my arms felt like noodles after fighting so many 20lb class cats.

Hanson is right it would be about a 9 to 10 hour drive but we made it from Chaska in nine hours when we drove straight thru. On the way up it was a little longer as Dark 30 has to stop at every little creek, river or ditch he sees!

I want to say that it cost $384 bucks for the gas, food and lodging for the Saturday thru Tuesday trip. (My suburban is a gas hog!!)

I can't be sure of that number though?

Dark???

If I had to, I could find more money than that to make the trip! Its worth it.

Hers a pic of Dark 30 and I with one of the many doubles we had. We even had triples when Canuck was with us.

[DARK30]

Yup, that was a fun trip alright! I don't remember the final $amt...I guess it didn't matter. Hope I can make it up again this year. I do have a flathead trip lined up to fish the Rock in Illinois with Denny Halgren in late May. I will probably wait till later in the summer to go up to Lockport.

Canuck, You da man!

[Canuck]

Kevin: There are NO secrets up here at Lockport. All anybody has to ask and we will pass what little we can. That is one of the nice things about catch & release the fish are still there for the next guy to enjoy. It looks like I will be able to enjoy fishing more myself this summer and hopefully be able to spend some time with fellow board members when they come up. I have been working on Stu and telling him that I am suppose to be retired but he knows I will not let him down when he needs help. Looking forward to wetting a line myself this summer as there is soooooooooooooo much to learn about these kitties.

[Wiskers]

Canuck, I will be bringing up the new rig for opener with some friends... However Stu says that I can't let you ride in it because it will make his new rig feel inferior.. LOL LOL LOL..... Just picking.........Hope to see ya up there then...keep me posted on the cat situation for opener.

[Canuck]

Rusty: The river is dropping as the feeder creeks are really slowing down. From what I see the opener should be as good as last year. Very little driftwood on the river at this time. The locks are NOT in yet and should be a couple of wks yet and then the drift wood on the upriver side of the locks will be floating. Hopefully they will not be letting it through the locks. We will be talking to them prior to the season this year.

The floodway closed a couple of days ago but the river is good and high so the outlet should be producing on the opener.

What I would sugguest is bring lots of suckers and rest up. I have a couple of new reels and rods to try out on these kitties.

[MJCatfish]

So what you're saying is. . .When we come up the first weekend in June, we'd better bring an extra set of arms to fight those bruisers.

Can't wait.

MJ

[Canuck]

I have seen people with blisters from fighting these kitties. A couple of yrs ago I went to the single fighting handle and find them much easier on the fingers. These kitties are just too much to fight day in and day out with those tiny twin handles.

There is NO reason they won't be on the bite the first part of June. Hopefully the commercial fishing season has started by then and we can get plenty of suckers.

[Blake H]

If you want the best catfishing IMO for channels, go to Lockport. Anyone with limited epxerience can catch a fish, and it is something everyone should try. It is sportfishing at its finest. I will be going up again this year a few times. Here is a pic of my little brother and I with a nice triple several years ago. We caught 54 fish largest being 27 pounds in one night. Three guys.

[Blake H]