Winter fishing on the Mississippi River requires a little different approach, but there are catfish to be caught, and nice ones, too.
Catfish guru David Magness may have named his guide service “Cat’N Aroun’ ” but when it comes to pulling both numbers and trophy sizes of catfish in his boat, he takes his business very seriously.
Magness is from Hernando, just a short ride from the Mississippi River where he does most of his fishing. He doesn’t have to worry about overcrowding on some of his favorite catfish holes — many of which are on the river near Tunica during colder weather, as he finds duck hunting, deer hunting and just staying out of the cold altogether pretty much gives him the run of the area.
Speaking of catfish holes, that’s exactly what Magness looks for around the holidays when he’s out on a guide trip with one of his clients.
“Big blue catfish love deep holes in the Mississippi River pretty much year-round, but when the water temps drop, they definitely have a preference for those with slack water in them,” said Magness (901-356-1008), who admits that not every hole will hold catfish, so he expects to do a lot of looking before he wets a line.
“In the summer, I don’t have to mark fish on the sonar, because these big cats move so much,” he said. “If it’s a hole that has bait, I’ll fish it, because I know that, sooner or later, something will move in. In the winter, however, I need to see something, because with slower metabolism, you’re fishing for what’s there.”
The selection of what’s on the end of the hook is also important in winter.
Slower metabolism means smaller offerings.
The bait-of-choice on the river, skipjack herring, is still the top choice, despite not being readily available this time of year and used frozen. Magness admits he has had great success with some alternative baits, however.
“At certain times, you can’t beat shad, either gizzard shad or even threadfin shad,” he said. “My wife and I won a catfish tournament one February — I mean, we walked off with it — and (we) caught all 18 fish that day on fresh shad. Everyone else was using skipjack and only had a fish or two to show for it.”
With smaller baits, downsized to thumb-sized rather than hand-sized pieces, come smaller hook sizes. Magness uses a Team Catfish Double Action hook in 8/0 most of the time but drops to a 7/0 or even a 6/0 if hookups are scarce.
Even with the preparations for colder water, he said he expects only one or two bites per hole, and the average size in his part of the Mississippi is in the 10- to 15-pound range.
“That’s not a hard and fast rule,” he said. “Larger fish are generally loners, and I caught a fish pushing 60 pounds on New Year’s Day last year, so they’re out there.”
Bottoms up
One of Magness’s secrets this time of year is that he doesn’t fish on the bottom, not all the time. In fact, he prefers not to anchor the boat if he can find the right hole with a minimal amount of current.
A lot of catfish guys are just now starting to realize that catfish will suspend off the bottom, even higher on some days. As a rule, he starts just off the bottom and works his way up as conditions and his sonar unit dictate.
“I’ll get in a deep hole with little to no current and use the Spot-Lock feature on my trolling motor to keep the boat still,” he said. “I’m basically dropping the bait straight down, but I use enough weight to keep the line as vertical as possible in the water column.”
Magness has a special rig he uses for targeting suspended catfish. He ties an 18-inch leader of 50-pound High-Seas Quatro monofilament to the hook. Above that is a 90-pound barrel swivel that connects to the main line, 80-pound braid. He uses a Rig Rap sinker slide with a Hawaiian swivel that connects to his weight, which generally weighs between 20 and 30 ounces. Because there is some considerable friction on the line at the connection, he adds a rubber bead between the slide and the swivel to protect the knot from chafing.
“It sounds like a heavy weight, and I know I said I like slack-water holes, but this is the mighty Mississippi River we’re talking about,” he said. “I want that line to be straight up and down. The weight will keep it that way, especially with the way I fish it.”
His rod of choice is a B’n’M 7½-foot Silver Cat Elite. It’s a one-piece construction rod, and that plays into his presentation.
“That rod, placed in a rod holder, is going to bend over pretty dramatically and point toward the water,” he said. “Bites when fishing for suspended fish are often upward bites, meaning the fish takes the bait and moves up in the water rather than going down.”
Magness said he can describe the bite as two distinct bites, either a “hammer” bite that pulls the rod tip down in the water or a lifting bite where you see the line go slack. A hammer bite will often take the rod four eyes deep, and the hook is already set. The other bite is different.
“When you see the line go slack — or move off dramatically to one side — you need to turn that handle on the reel fast and get that circle hook set,” he said. “My favorite weight size is 24 ounces, but they’ll still bring the line up, weight and all.”
The typical scenario for Magness is to motor across a deep, slow-moving hole and look for fish on his graph. If he likes what he sees, Magness deploys the trolling motor, hits the Spot Lock function to hold him in place, and drops the baited rig to the bottom, then turns the reel handle three cranks to get the bait off the bottom.
Rather than move if he doesn’t get a bite, he may bump the boat around to different locations over the hole and wait a little longer. He may not cover the entire hole in such fashion, but by moving his boat around the same location without reeling in and taking the bait out of the water gives the fish time to decide if they want the bait or not.
If he gets no takers after re-positioning the boat two or three times, it’s probably time to stow the trolling motor and head for the next hole.
Jogging in place
Minn Kota has enhanced its line of iPilot trolling motors with new hardware and software algorithms that work to hold you tighter to your fishing location than ever before.
The enhancement is called Spot Lock. Through the use of GPS technology, Spot Lock is one of the most-accurate electronic GPS anchors ever.
In addition to the ability to lock your boat in one place using only the trolling motor, an additional function called Spot-Lock Jog allows you to move your boat, while on Spot-Lock, 5 feet forward, backward, left or right — just by pushing a button.
This is done entirely with the iPilot remote control; the angler does not have to touch the foot pedal to reposition the boat
Minn Kota fans, ranging from bass to crappie to catfish anglers, tout the Jog feature as a systematic way to pick apart a piece of structure or fishing hole without leaving gaps that re-anchoring or picking up the trolling motor would allow.
“The Jog function is also one reason I prefer a Minn Kota Terrova trolling motor,” said guide David Magness. “I use the Riptide, which is the saltwater version, in a 36-volt, 110-pound thrust. The Jog feature on the remote control lets me move the boat from Spot Lock to any where I want in 5-foot increments. For 15 feet, I just hit the jog button three times.”
Magness said the days of hauling in hundreds of feet of cold, muddy anchor line, trying to wrangle it all into one boat compartment without creating a patchwork of tangles, and fighting to unhook anchors stuck on the bottom are behind him with his new trolling motor.
Be the first to comment