Wild Leeks

Here is John with a bundle of wild leeks (also called ramps) we harvested this morning. We're thinking next spring we're going to spend a week on the river, eating nothing but wild plants and channel cats! Well, it sure would be fun, anyway.

My thanks to the guy that was kind enough to show this nosey yankee what he had in his bag that day...I had no idea these leeks were around.

Still Off Topic

Maybe I should title this post "Back Country Foraging...Take 2". Well, it's that time of year. Hopefully I can get some slack. There are just so many wild edibles out there in April and May that I just can't help it.


This is John with some fiddleheads we harvested . Fiddleheads are the tender young shoots of the ostrich fern. They are quite delicious, tasting kind of like asparagus, with a hint of celery.

John cooked up some noodles and sauteed the fiddleheads and some fresh morels in butter and garlic. The only thing that would have made it better would have been some fried catfish fillets.

Morels In Minnesota

I know this isn't on-topic for this site, but I think most catfish-chasers also spend at least some time in the woods and fields in search of wild edibles. And none is probably more sought after than the wonderful morel mushroom.

I generally begin looking for morels in Minnesota about a week after Easter. The peak generally occurs around the last week in April. A good rule of thumb is that when the walleye bite slows down in pool 4, you may as well go after mushrooms. Weather patterns have some impact on peak, but you can generally expect to see them around the last week of April, into the first week in May.

A great way to spend a warm spring afternoon with the kids. My son John and my youngest daughter Dani Jo went with me on this expedition after morels. We had to work hard, getting way back into the thick stuff to find this mixed bag of black and yellow morels. They are running a bit small this year, but it has been dry for a couple of week.



Incidentally, I ran into a guy at one of my morel hotspots who was picking some kind of wild onion-like plant with an edible bulb. I think he said they were ramps, which is another name for wild leeks. I'm going to try to find some of those in a few days as well. I bet they fry up real nice with some morels and a couple of fresh sauger fillets...

Catfishing For The Impatient

When I was younger, catfishing had a certain flavor to it. There was an expected pace...a specific pattern. Basically, we would find a reasonable looking spot, cast out chicken livers and wait. And wait. And sometimes wait some more. In fact, in my childhood and through my teenage years I can't remember changing locations at all. It was a game of patience. When I rediscovered catfishing several years ago, all that changed.

If you've read my previous articles you'll know that I've spent most of my adult life (some fifteen plus years) chasing primarily large, toothy predators...northern pike and muskies. My primary tactics on these predators was to keep moving, covering water, searching for active fish. When I started catfishing again, this technique just kind of stuck with me. I believe it has enabled me to be a much better catfish angler than I ever was before.

Although I employ several tactics, the aggressive, run-and-gun method I learned while muskie hunting is generally my favored approach. Before I explain in detail the methodology, let me explain that I primarily fish mid-sized rivers with plenty of brush and cover. Also, I will almost always exclusively use fresh cut bait during this technique. I find cut bait the most consistent performer, and it removes one more variable from the equation. In other words, cut bait is my "search lure" of choice.

I'll start with a known good location and bait up. Set the rods and wait exactly fifteen minute. If there is no action, pull anchors and move. I literally use a wristwatch, and if I'm fishing with someone else, I'll generally announce the "deadline" for getting bit. Depending on the size or complexity of the cover or structure I'm fishing, I may just fish it for fifteen minutes and then reposition the baits or reposition the boat for another ten or fifteen minutes. It is important to stick to your timeline, and be disciplined. A morning can melt away quickly if you spend thirty minutes on four separate unproductive locations.

Here is a typical morning employing the run-and-gun for channel cats on a favorite local river:
5:00am - setup on known good current break/eddy location with brush.
5:15am - no runs, a couple of fickle hits. pull anchor and run up river.
5:25am - setup on front of rocky ledge with topside brush.
5:28am - sporadic run, missed fish.
5:35am - good run, boated 10lbs channel cat
5:40am - boated another 10 pounder
5:55 am - no hits in fifteen minutes, but had 3 decent hits and 2 fish in 30 minutes, so will stick it out for another 15 minutes.
6:10am - no further hits, pull anchor and move.
...

From this brief glimpse, you can get the picture. It helps to have the mindset of "eliminating" spots. I know most people would spend more time on the second spot after boating two decent cats in 30 minutes, but the technique as I've described it has put lots of big cats in my boat.

One of my favorite things to do in a local river is to go brush-hopping. I like this technique best when I'm fishing alone. This allows me to more easily fish with just one anchor, to more readily reposition the boat. In this version of the technique, I motor to the top end of a brushy shoreline; often one that has 15 or 20 good snags along a half-mile stretch of river. I set anchor and fish one rod from the stern of the boat. If you're wonderingwhy just one rod, Minnesota's arguably silly state law says you can only fish with one hook at a time in open water. Sometimes these snags are only really big enough for one bait anyway. I'll often only give these small, isolated snags just ten minutes to produce fish. Then I pull anchor and drift into position above the next snag downstream. This particular variation has produced some incredible catches from seemingly insignificant locations.

Although this technique is quite a bit more work than the average camp-out-all-night in one spot catfishing escapade, it has tremendous potential to produce large fish, and numbers of fish. It has the added benefit of helping you learn the river more quickly. Give it a try and don't be afraid to move the boat.

Unique Bait Placement Technique

Some years ago I discovered a very unique method for precise placement of very large flathead baits. The technique works equally well with other baits, and is really quite enjoyable.

The problem was, I was fishing with live sheephead that weighed over one pound. Oddly, none of my flathead rods are rated for 16oz. baits. I do have some very heavy rods I use, and I could kind of "toss" the poor baitfish out there; but my bait placement was quite inaccurate.

Then one day I was float fishing for flatheads, having a large sheephead suspended below an inflated balloon. In this method, I would typically position the boat directly upstream of the location I desired to fish, and simply float the bait into position. This technique can be quite productive, but it often takes several attempts to get the depth set correctly. On this particular day, I was fishing the upper branches of a large dead tree that had long ago fallen into the water. As I navigated the balloon into the branches, it hit a sharp stick and popped. I typically use a fairly large weight in this situation (something like 2-3 oz) so of course the whole rig sank immediately to the bottom. I figured it was in good position anyway, so I set my baitclicker and put down the rod to begin blowing up another balloon.

Within a couple of minutes, a flathead picked up that bait and was subsequently boated and released. As I reflected upon my good fortune of having accidentally gotten my bait on the bottom, in almost perfect placement, I began to wonder if there was a way to do this intentionally. Not every spot I fish has such a convenient balloon popper built in, you see. Then I hit upon it. My son has a Daisy Red Ryder BB gun; the kind with the single-cock lever action that holds like a hundred BB's in the tube outside the barrel. Using such a weapon, I could precisely control where the balloon is popped.

My next trip flathead fishing saw me toting this airgun along with an ample supply of balloons. The technique is basically to rig up as if you were simply going to cast into the location, and then attach an inflated balloon. Float the bait into the exact position you want to fish and then shoot the balloon with the BB gun. The balloon pops, the bait drops, and you are in the strike zone.

A few tips for using this technique:

1. Make sure your balloon is firmly inflated, an underinflated balloon is much harder to pop. I typically use water balloons.
2. If you're using a slip sinker, attach the balloon directly to the sinker using a rubber band. That way there will be no balloon residue on the line to interfere with slip sinker operation.
3. Be sure you comply with all local laws and regulations regarding the use of an air gun. In some places, even these innocuous little guns need to be cased during transport.
4. Have fun, my son loves to use this technique for obvious reasons.

Ok, so they're not catfish, but...

While fishing on the Mississippi River with my buddy Darrell, we pounded these two limits of 12 saugers between 15 and 18 inches. We caught them on jig and minnow in 18 feet of water on flooded timber. We actually boated close to 40 in five hours of fishing. Darrell also caught a small sturgeon. I kept secretly hoping to hook some catfish, but I never did. Anyways, they sure eat nice, and at least I got on the river.

I wonder how many of these saugers a nice flathead eats in a day?