SUMMERTIME RIVER CATS
Small Streams and Little Rivers
 EDITOR'S
NOTE: Watermelon, iced tea, suntan lotion, sunglasses
and fishing for catfish comes to mind when the sun climbs
high in the sky, and the mercury heads for the 100-degree
mark. Many anglers believe that to catch catfish in
the summer you simply throw a stink bait out on the
bottom of any river. But to consistently catch more
cats on every outing, you need to know where the fish
most likely will occur, what they're most likely to
eat in these spots, and what conditions cause them to
feed most actively. Catfish like to eat almost anything.
To catch catfish, determine the natural baits in the
river you're fishing, and fish them first. Check with
local anglers and sporting-goods stores to learn what
baits catfish bite in that region at that time of the
year. Several other factors affect when and what catfish
eat. The temperature of the water governs how actively
catfish feed, because the enzyme action in a catfish's
stomach doubles with each 8-degree increase in water
temperature. The hotter the weather becomes, the more
catfish feed. Since most catfish prefer a dark habitat,
they eat mostly at night during the hottest, sunniest
weather.
 Some
of the most overlooked, highly-productive areas to catch
plenty of catfish are in the thousands of small streams
and little rivers -- perhaps no more than 20-yards wide
-- throughout the nation. You'll often find these streams
close to home or within easy driving distance. The fisheries
sections of your state game and fish commission usually
can tell you the location of small streams and little
rivers in your state that may hold cats. If you're planning
on fishing for river catfish in other states while on
vacation, call and check with their departments of conservation,
or visit their websites online. You can pinpoint catfish
hotspots -- like a current break -- from the banks of
these small waters.
 Several
years ago on a family camping trip near our home, I
took my two children fishing along the small stream
where we camped. As we walked along the bank, I spotted
a large boulder about 10 feet from the bank that broke
the current and formed an eddy pool on the down-current
side. I cast a live redworm out to the eddy pool and
instantly hooked a catfish. For 1-1/2-hours, we continued
to catch catfish from that one eddy hole behind the
boulders. As we moved downstream, we fished behind logs,
rocks and any current breaks we could find and caught
plenty of cats all day long.
 You
also can successfully fish small waters for catfish
by floating them in a canoe or a flat-bottomed johnboat
equipped with a depth finder. Use the depth finder to
locate sharp bottom breaks and underwater boulders.
Once you've pinpointed these places, anchor upstream,
and let your bait wash into these regions where cats
normally hold. These underwater cat hotspots often go
virtually unfished and generally hold plenty of cats
for the catching.
TOMORROW: LARGE RIVERS
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