Red River of the North (Pt 2) - Sept 23, 2005 The return to the Red!! I have anxiously been awaiting this trip since I left the Red River 3 weeks ago. I'm pretty sure I don't need to further explain my excitement. The chance to catch twenty pound channel catfish can pretty much sum it up. Just like last trip, I met fellow FM ProStaff "Fiskyknut", a.k.a. Greg Norman, near the Red River in northern Minnesota. We loaded up our gear and headed out to the river with high hopes. Upon arriveing at "the spot", we fashioned highly technical bank sticks to prop our rods against. While fishing the Red River border water between MN/ND, each angler is allowed to fish 2 a piece. We have elected to use 3 lines both times now to keep from crowding the spot and also to prevent tangles. Not knowing what to expect on this trip, I brought along some cutbait goldeye, one of my favorite cat baits. These particular goldeyes were caught in the Red Lake River at Crookston, MN and have caught cats for me on the Mississippi, Minnesota, and Red Lake Rivers this summer. While untested on the Red, confidence was high. Of course, Fisky brought along a bunch of frogs he stomped up as well which have traditionally been an awesome bait. Our first set of baits consisted of 2 lines with frogs and one line with a heck of a good head of goldeye.

Once baits were set, my favorite part of catfishing comes into play and thats poppin' tops and having some conversation. Lets just say tonight we had lots of conversation before we encountered any action. The first sign of a cat was the clicker on one of Fisky's Abu's running off. After picking up the rod, the fish decided to get picky with a tap here and a tap there. This was obviously not what we were looking for. While I was trying to connect with this little guy, my Okuma went on a screaming run. I dropped the one rod, ran to the other rod, and set into a good fish. A short fight ensued and we had fish #1 on shore, a beautiful 32 incher. The cutbait goldeye paid off!! I rebaited my 5/0 Gamakatsu Octopus with a fresh... or not so fresh chunk or goldeye and heaved the bait out to start our second round of waiting. And wait we did. Fish number two and three were both landed by Fisky and both happened to be under 10lb channel cats, a 22" & 26" to be exact.

But all that waiting paid off when channel cat #4 hit my cut goldeye. Of all the cats I've caught on the Red, this one really fought me hard. Have I mentioned that it was fun too. This one turned out to be the biggest fish of the day and taped out at 36" and weighed a very nice 20 lbs. In my opinion, its hard to argue about any day you can go fishing, let alone a day when you land a 20 pounder. A big thank you to "Fiskyknut" for putting up with me again on the river bank. We'll be fishing again soon but more than likely chasing large slimers through the ice. While this looks like my last cattin' trip of the year, stay tuned to for a future article on cat specific tackle, equipment, and rigging for those who wish to give this cattin' thing a shot.