Expert tips and tactics for catching Manitoba’s mighty channel catfish

This past August once again found me chasing channel cats on the Red. One cloudy afternoon, I joined renowned Manitoba fly angler Stu Thompson to cast streamers from shore at Lockport. Under his guidance, I hooked two cats on the fly, and managed to land the smaller of the two. The experience was a real eye-opener for me. I learned that bait isn’t the only way to entice channel cats—these aggressive fish will also take surprisingly small flies. (See On the fly)

The following afternoon, I returned to the same spot with my long-time friend Brian Hagglund to show him what I’d learned. Unfortunately, the gravel bar that Stu and I had been fishing from was under three feet of water. As it turned out, the lock had been opened up overnight to reduce upstream water levels.

Luckily, we found a similar gravel bar that allowed us access to promising-looking water and, after two hours of repetitive casting, I finally managed to hook and land a pretty nice cat. Sure, it wasn’t exactly fish-a-minute angling, but it did reinforce the lessons I’d learned from Stu for consistently producing cats on the fly.

The following day, Brian and I joined another old fishing friend, well-known angler and outdoor communicator Don Lamont. We launched the boat at Selkirk and ran upstream to Lockport, but after 20 minutes without a bite, we pulled anchor and moved back downstream. Few anglers know how to locate cats as well as Don does, and about two-thirds of the way back to the boat launch, we anchored mid-river in what to me looked like a stretch of river identical to every other stretch of the Red.

As I was to learn, however, it was a combination of shoreline and midstream structure, current flow and the rocky bottom that led Don to select that particular location. His instincts were excellent, and we were into our first catfish within 10 minutes of arriving. Over the next two hours, we hooked up regularly and boated about a dozen cats, including several that would have easily qualified for the Manitoba’s Master Angler awards program. If ominous black clouds hadn’t finally chased us off the water, I’m sure we would have continued to hook and land fish, one after another.

I was on the highway home to Alberta the following day, and the 14 hours of windshield time afforded me plenty of opportunity to think about my many seasons of catfishing and time on the water with old friends. And as sure as rock beats scissors, you can bet I’ll be back in Friendly Manitoba this coming summer to make even more catfishing memories.