River Cats???

[preach4bass]

I go a wild hair the other evening and decided to go catfishing in our local river. I set up in the middle, right above a bend, and used cutbait and whole bream on a 7/0 hook Carolina rigged. The boat was sitting in 10 foot of water and the bait in about 20 (deepest hole in the bend was 30). Lost one that about pulled my rod out of the boat, and caught another. The one I caught was 26-8, the biggest freshwater fish I've ever caught! I don't know what kind of cat it was, but I want some more of them!

For you river catfishermen, where are you supposed to set up? Straights or bends? Upriver or downriver? Inside of the curve or outside? Middle of the river or the side? Deep holes or shoals?

In other words, teach me to catch some more cats! Thanks in advance!

[SchlottyD]

As far as set up it depends on bottom composition, time of year, and weather. Generally holes above and below riffles, slack water areas, and towards the inside of bends.

[Tony L.]

As far as set up it depends on bottom composition, time of year, and weather. Generally holes above and below riffles, slack water areas, and towards the inside of bends.

What he said ^^^. I will also add log jams and bridge pilings to the list.

[Bluebasser86]

I go a wild hair the other evening and decided to go catfishing in our local river. I set up in the middle, right above a bend, and used cutbait and whole bream on a 7/0 hook Carolina rigged. The boat was sitting in 10 foot of water and the bait in about 20 (deepest hole in the bend was 30). Lost one that about pulled my rod out of the boat, and caught another. The one I caught was 26-8, the biggest freshwater fish I've ever caught! I don't know what kind of cat it was, but I want some more of them!

For you river catfishermen, where are you supposed to set up? Straights or bends? Upriver or downriver? Inside of the curve or outside? Middle of the river or the side? Deep holes or shoals?

In other words, teach me to catch some more cats! Thanks in advance!

Yes 

 

Generally, the outside bends are your deepest areas, and while they may have high concentrations of fish, those are often your less active fish. In-Fishermen's Doug Stange is who I adopted my river fishing technique from. Start at the bottom of the riffle (shoal). Fish that area for 30 minutes, if nothing happens move to the top of the hole for 30 minutes. Next stop is the heart of the hole for 30 minutes before moving down to the next riffle. Don't be afraid to go shallow, even when it's hot. My PB blue and flathead (both over 50 pounds), came from 3' and 5' of water in the middle of the day when the temp was flirting with triple digits.

 

Now if you're after flatheads you'll need to find cover like logjams, broken concrete, big rocks, undercut banks, rootwads, old cars (seriously), anything they can hide under/inside. Get your bait real close to the snag and dig your feet in when you get a bite because if you don't move them fast they'll be gone. 

 

Your choice of bait sounds perfect. Big catfish are predators and like the real stuff. The stinky concoctions works well for the little guys, but rarely fools a big one. This time of year you can even target big flatheads with big jigs. A big, bulky brush jig with a big trailer hopping through a logjam will get big flatheads that are getting ready to spawn to bite.

[Fisher-O-men]

Sounds like whatever you were doing, you need to keep doing! Pic?

[preach4bass]

Fisher o men, I can't figure out how to upload a pic (hence the ghost in my profile pic).

Bluebasser, I fish a river with no ripples. It's fairly deep and probably 50 yards wide at its narrowest spots. How would that translate to your style?

Big D, inside of bends? That's the exact opposite of what I would have thought. But, the conscious seems to be that the active cats come up the shoals to feed?

Thanks for the advice, guys!