Editors Note: Brent Riddle is an avid catfisherman and the creator of the Monstercat and Alphacat boats from Miracle Marine.
In the wintertime I like to focus on box dikes or the back side of blow holes in the dikes. I am talking about when the water drops into the 40s and less.
Fresh shad has always been my go-to bait that time of the year. Depth has never really been a factor. Sometimes I will find them in the 50-foot holes and sometimes in 20-foot holes. I just trust my electronics to find them and keep moving around until the bite happens.
It depends on the river gauge, but in normal winter conditions you can pull up to the dikes and tie off to fish. Or, you can pull up to the bank on the back side of the hole and fan rods out to several different depths.
If I locate fish at the tip of wing dikes I will go above the hole and anchor. This positioning allows me to put bait right in front of them.
