Great Day Fishing Sumos on the Red!!

[hanson]

What a great weekend! Hope everyone elses weekend was a good one. Summer is coming to an end and fall is sneaking up on us now. What a great time to sneak down to the river fishing channel cats. I'm not just talking any channel cats, I'm talking Red River of the North Channel Cats.

Fellow FM ProStaffer 'Fiskyknut' has been bugging me for sometime now to come up to his stretch of river and fish for these 'Sumo' Red River Channel Cats. He kept bugging me about 30-40 fish days with the average hovering around the 20lb mark. I had to take him up on it and finally made it up there on Saturday.

Now many people know about the trophy channel catfishing in Canada on the Red River at Lockport, but a few of you may be surprised to know that you can still get these piggies down on the ND/MN border. You won't catch as many of them but it offers up a great alternative to catch big channel cats without trekking all the way up to Canada.

Before I came up, Fisky did warn me that we would be fishing falling water levels which traditionally aren't the most productive for him. Ideally we would be wanting the river to be on a rise but that wouldn't be the case for us this day.

We arrived at our spot on the Red River in the neighborhood of Hallock, MN. Leopard Frogs were going to be the bait of choice today. I rigged one up, tossed it out, and waited. We hadn't had our baits set out more than a 1/2 hour when this beast decided to eat.

What a way to start out the trip!!

35" Red River Channel Cat, 20 Pounds

Can you say 'Sumo'?

Now Fisky, being the generous host that he is, allowed me to pull in the next few fish also.

33" Red River Channel Cat

And this one too...

31" Red River Channel Cat

And another one...

33" Red River Channel Cat

Now some of you might be thinking I like to reel in all the fish so here's one I let Fisky pull in that night.

Another 35" 20 Pounder!!

As you can tell from the photos, I had a little problem mastering the technique of landing these fish. Apparently, bear hugging a 20 pound channel cat covered in Red River mud is not the proper technique.

This trip was a blast! A big thanks to Fiskyknut for sharing his stretch of river. We had some good conversation, snacks, and drink. We'll be hooking up again later this month to do it again as well as chase a different type of bottom feeder also. Hmmmm... What will happen next.

[Jim Hudson]

Great story and pictures Chris... I gotta try this catfishing out...

My wife has family in Dixon, Il along the Rock River and we were there for a wedding a couple weeks back where I wanted to make it out for some flathead fishing. But of course, time didnt permit for it. Either way, I am gonna try to do some catfishing soon. Sounds like a blast.

[rushing]

Nice ones! Looked like a good time!

thats a cirrrrrrcle hooooook!

[Hotspotter]

Chris:

Is that an Abercrombie shirt?

Sheeesh....first the snowmobile modeling.....now with fish in hand. Good thing that turkey hunt was a wet and miserable one, or you'd be trying to get on the cover of "Turkeys and Turkey Hunting."

NICE FISH!!!

Joel

[MSRiverdog]

Great Cat pics. Cam you answer me why here on the Miss big Channel's get so black colored. I caught a 10# the other day and wondered if it was even a Channel, and have seen many like that.

[Dennis Steele]

Sweeet!

Them are some piggies!

Kind of gets a guys blood pumping.

Catfish coloration can depend on a few different things.

One is what time of year you catch them. The males will often turn very dark around the spawn time. "mating colors"

Another reason may he might just have a sun tan. I have seen cats that were limited to shallow water turn from the grey to near black over a matter of a week or two.

Another reason is they may change color depending on the bottom color. They kind of blend to the color of the bottom that they have been using.

And I have also heard color can be affected by the amount of oxygen in the system.

[rushing]

I know with some fish water clarity and diet have influece on coloration as well.

[Steve Foss]

The typical cat I pulled out of the Red looked like those pics. Some were quite black with creamy white bellies, however. I suspect sex might have a good bit to do with it, or maybe it's just different color ranges for different individuals. I know water/bottom color plays a part in most fish coloration variation, but I'm remembering the big fish aquariums in Cabela's in East Grand Forks, one with several cats in it, and one or two were the dark blacks, with the others being much grayer, like the pics posted here. Since they all were in the same tank, I reckon water/bottom color wasn't a factor in their color differences. And I've caught fish with wide color variation out of the same hole in the same outing. I've also heard that big males get black during the spawning season, though one outdoor writer buddy of mine dismisses out of hand that you can tell the difference between channel cat sexes visually.

[DTro]

geez, sure makes me want to take a road trip!

Great pics Hanson.

[hanson]

You guessed it guys. I couldn't stay away!

Trip #2 up to the Red River of the North was much slower than the previous trips, and honestly one of Fiskyknut's slowest days ever up there. I really don't care if it was slow if you can catch fish like this.

First channel cat of the evening was this 'little' 32 incher.

We topped off the evening with this 'sumo' 36 inch, 20 pound channel cat!

Unlike last time, cutbait goldeye was working equally as well as frogs for bait. Frogs dominated our catch last time up.

We're not quite sure why the fishing was a little off this day. The river level was 6' lower than my previous trip 2 weeks ago and there was a pretty nasty thunderstorm cruising through right after the photos were snapped.

It is almost impossible to describe how slippery and sticky that Red River mud can get when it starts to rain. I won't mention how Fisky demostrated this to me.

Thanks for the company again Fisky! We'll definitely do the cattin' thing next fall but I'll run into you up on the big pond before then.

[DTro]

One word......jealous.

Nice hat ya got there

[hanson]

Ya like the hat?

They're pretty sharp if you ask me. Brian did a good job!!

[Dan Thiem]

Nice job Chris. Those fish make the little ones we catch down here look like aquarium pets.

I really like the picture with the storm clouds in the dark sky background.

[MURPHFISHER]

"aquarium pets" hehe. Nice one. Those are some sweet cats. I wish the Zumbro produced monsters like that...

[Dennis Steele]

Very nice!!

I gotta get me some of that there state side Red River putty.

Is there a good prespawn bite as well?

[fiskyknut]

Dennis, Catfish are quite catchable up this way from May on thru summer and into October. I usually tell folks to come up mid August thru September as flow/level is usually more predictable then. Bite can be way good June and July too iffin the river conditions allow access, all depends on rain as this river is so volatile and subject to flood stage levels almost overnite with the big summer rains. I am not a believer in any spawning time slow down up this way at all either, catch them all summer long when mother nature cooperates and the river stays in its banks.

Murph and Theim, you 2 should wander up this way next summer and drop a line with me maybe? I could take some nice snapshots of you guys with a whale or 2 too maybe.

fiskyknut

[Dan Thiem]

Hey Fisky you know what? We have talked about doing the exact same thing. Taking our wives with for a long weekend.

You can bet we'll take you up on the offer. If we can get into something half as nice as Hanson's trips, that would be just icing on the cake.

Keep us in mind for next summer and we'll get something worked out for sure. Thanks Fisky!

[hanson]

Hey Fisky!

How's it going man! Ice is creeping up on us quickly now!

I'll let you know when I am up to LOW early ice. In fact, I'm taking my man Dan up to URL over New Years and will probably venture up to LOW for a day trip. Was hoping to run WAYYYYYY out into the lake but might have to settle for aways over Pine that early in the year, or maybe over by Gull Rock early, who knows yet?

Do you know when there is decent ice by sled out to Knight, Bridges, & Garden earlier ice? Let me know if you want to do a trip out there sometime? I'm game. Even further north maybe? They just won't let me into Canada for a few years.

Dan & Murph- Hope you can wait a year for the Sumos! Fisky is the man. Heck, maybe I'll make the trip up with you or join you for a day. There is no way we'll experience worse conditions than we did this fall Fisky, eh?

[fiskyknut]

Hanson when it comes to conditions on the Red river words like 'no way' and never are not to be uttered, this river is so very volatile that anything can happen, and happen it does in a way short span of time. You and Dan should do fine new years around Pine iffin thats all thats doable. Gull rock and the reefs around there could be doable then, with good fishing too. As far as the big cross the pond trip goes....A guy would'nt wanna be the first crash test dummy to try eh! Seriously though the Audobon trail out of Warroad gets marked as soon as those brave folks start sledding up to the Angle.

Dan and Murph, iffin you're gonna bring the ladies I hope they like fishing because there is'nt a whole lot of 'girly' kinda things up this way. Now if they are fishin gals they will have a blast for sure. Not sure if you'd wanna camp or motel it but we can figure that one out come summer eh. Late July, August and September are best bets for river conditions to be friendly, if you could shoot for the end of August or first bit of September it is hard to go wrong catching-wise. We will get each of you on a fish or 2 like Hansons fishes no problemo, them girls too!

10 months to firm up a plan...... Hanson and 'that Dave guy' would make it like a mini get-together. Fun, fun, fun!

Enjoy the winter season guys.

fiskyknut