Snow Still Flying

It's about 20 degrees and the snow is coming down. A buddy of mine caught some walleyes last weekend on the Mississippi, it was much warmer then.

I bet guys from Minnesota have the cleanest, most organized tackle in the country. Not just because they are uptight Scandanavians, but because they have 5 months of winter to contend with. I reorganize my stuff about every six weeks during the winter. Of course gear is cool. More gear, more cooler. That's probably why I like duck hunting so much. All the gear.

Speaking of gear, a short introduction on the tackle I generally use is probably in order. I primarily fish medium to large rivers, from a boat, in northern states like Minnesota. My primary waters are the Minnesota river and the Mississippi. This plays greatly into my selection of rods, reels, line, etc. Keep in mind that in Minnesota, you can use only one hook at a time. And a treble hook (if not part of a lure) is considered three hooks.

I prefer baitcasters, typically larger ones like Diawa Millionares and Abu-Garcia 6500 series, they MUST have a bait-clicker. I generally like rods in the 7-8 foot range, with some good backbone. I like monofilament in rivers, and all I use is Trilene Big Game.

My Favorite Rod:
Ok, my absolute favorite rod in the whole world is an old Berkeley Grey-Fight flippin stick with a Diawa Millionaire 300s spooled with 25lb Trilene Big Game in solar green. The butt-cap is missing, and some of the foam is torn away so when I'm fighting a big one, the exposed end of the blank leaves little smileys on my stomach. I remember on particular outing where I was catching dozens of very nice channel cats in the rain. I got home and my wife will not let me in the house with my "fishing clothes" on. I take off my shirt, and her disgust turns to genuine concern "What happened to your stomach?" she asked. She was thinking I'd rolled around in some poison oak, or contracted some strange tropical disease. I looked down, and saw that a small patch of my stomach was covered with tiny "smiles" from my favorite rod. I'm not sure it was my favorite rod before that day.

I don't want you to get the wroing idea. I typically head out on the river with 8-10 rods rigged and ready. Generally these rods have differing linewidths, weights, rigs, hooks, etc. I am no resppector of rods when I'm looking for fish and developing a pattern. But, when I settle into a pattern, I'll re-rig my favorite if it makes sense to do so.

Getting Started

I'm in Minnesota. Its early February. That's why I'm writing stuff instead of fishing. I guess I could fish through a hole in the ice (yes, you can catch catfish that way!), but it's unseasonably warm and as I crossed the bridge over the Minnesota River on my way to the office this morning, I started thinking about warm, foggy June mornings and twitchy-fresh cut-bait...I guess its time to start sorting the tackle...again.

I've got a bunch of stuff I want to write about, but I'm also looking for contributors. If you've got an article you'd like published here, please email it to me at catfish at solidigm dot com .

Mission

The mission of this website is to provide informative and innovative information about angling for North American catfish species; including channel catfish, flathead catfish and blue catfish.