During cold-water periods on the Mississippi River, I like to target big blue cats in deep holes adjacent to shorter, older wing dikes beneath the water’s surface. These structures are subtle and can be harder to find than the huge, clearly visible rock dikes many people like to fish, including myself. A good depthfinder is needed to locate them, but once you do, you can expect to enjoy some good action for really nice blues.
Blue cats cruise these holes and eat anything that comes past in the current. Shad are harder to obtain these days since Asian carp have destroyed the food and locations they prefer, but I have always loved fresh ones for bait in the winter and like to fish them using a simple three-way-swivel rig. The two-foot hook leader is tipped with a 3/0 to 7/0 circle hook, and the 8-inch weight leader is tied to a sinker sizeable enough to keep the rig on bottom. The tackle we use is standard gear necessary for landing these hard-fighting brutes in the Mississippi’s heavy current: 7-foot-plus, medium- to heavy-action rods with soft tips for detecting bites and heavy butts for strength; big, large-capacity baitcasting reels; heavy line, big sinkers and big hooks.
I anchor above the hole I intend to fish and then cast to the spot and let the reel free-spool until the weight hits bottom. Sometimes I’ll have out 200 feet of line. Big cats, especially big blues, usually hit hard and quick, so rod holders are necessary if you fish with more rods than you can hold.
There’s no doubt 100-pound blues are swimming in the portion of the Mississippi River near Memphis where I usually fish, and using big fish baits and tough tackle is the way to catch them. No matter what you do, however, you have to be in the right place at the right time for it to work. The monsters are out there, but blues over 100 pounds are the rarest of rare fish. If you want to catch one, though, there’s no better place in the world to try than here in the Mississippi River.
Editor’s Note: James “Big Cat” Patterson of Bartlett, Tennessee has long been recognized as one of the country’s foremost catfish anglers and guides. He’s retired from guiding now, but he knows the Memphis stretch of the Mississippi River as well as any man alive. Many of his former clients caught the fish of a lifetime while on the river with him.
