Fishing Grand Forks this Weekend

[computergeek]

I will be heading to Grand Forks again this weekend with the kids and looking for any help in locating some cats so the kids can pull something in. I know this is before the tourny and nobody wants to give up their secret holes but if you could e-mail me [email protected] I would apprecate it. It will be catch and release so I won't take anyone's trophy fish We will be camping and using the landing beside Cabela's so any directions from there would be helpful.

Thanks,

Keith

[hanson]

I'm not fishing that end of town for the tourney so I'll try to give advice.

Launch and head upstream (south). Motor up until the river gets bendy. These outside bends are typically your deeper holes, the straights in between the bends are the shallower runs. There is another boat launch when you are heading south on the right side of the river. Its probably a couple miles from Cabelas. There is some nice, "fishy" water in that area. You'll still have to move and work for the fish but this should put you in a decent area.

I like to fish either up or down from the deeper holes on the outside of the bend. That should be a good place to start. If thats not working, fish a shallower run. For bait, its as easy as picking up some sucker from the bait shop, cut them into chunks the size of a ping pong ball and fish with those. If you can catch some frogs, try them as well.

Sorry that the info is pretty general but I usually cover A LOT of water when I'm fishing up there (10+ miles) either way out of town. The river is generally the same pattern of hole-run-hole, etc... and the fish usually hold in the same areas.

[computergeek]

Thanks for the information, when fising around Floodwood and Crookston we have used chicken livers. Is that not the right bait to be using around grand forks? Is there a reason that cut bait works a lot better than the livers?

Thanks for the help.

Keith

[hanson]

"Typically" chicken liver is a smaller fish bait.

On the Red, I'll always fish with Sucker, Goldeye, or Frog. If you can't catch fish on one of those 3 baits, its a bad day.

[CatManLee]

Yep, Chicken Livers will work, but Sucker Minnows, Red Horse Suckers, Goldeye and Frogs are your best choices for the most part. You'll catch some fish on just about anything, but the above three baits will increase your catch ratio on any given day. Every once in a while you'll have a good day on "different" stuff, but I wouldn't bet against the baits mentioned above.

Chicken Livers, Prepared Baits, Dough Baits, etc are more of a southern thing...they don't work nearly as well up this way as the other 3 baits. I think it has alot to do with the amount of food these fish have available to them and what their diet consist's of through out the year.

When your fishing for Walleye, Perch, Crappie, etc, What is one of the first things you should look at? What are they feeding on right?, then try to duplicate that as closely as possible. It's the same with Catfish, why do you think they seem to "prefer" certain baits at different times of the year? It's what they are primarily feeding on and it's what they are looking for.

Does that make any sense? Atleast that's my take on the whole situation.

[Catfishunter]

there's some good info for you computer geek. i will let you know next time i am up in your area.

[Wiskers]

Also try to get ahold of some River shiners or river chubs. Cats go crazy for them... At the Cabelas landing I would also try just down stream between the RR post and shore on the north side of the river.. Seems to be a lurking area for some fattys.