Joe Bragg’s guide clients, even families with young ones, learn that blue
catfish will bite in the cold of winter. Photo courtesy of Joe Bragg.
Cool Cats
By Brent Frazee
Bundle up. Big blue catfish still provide hot fishing in frigid weather.
When people ask guide Joe Bragg if blue catfish will bite in the cold of winter, he often relates a story about a family he took fishing several years ago.
The father set the trip up on Milford Reservoir in northern Kansas in advance, gambling that the weather would be nice. He lost that bet.
It was bitterly cold—not exactly ideal for a family fishing trip. But the group wanted to go anyway, because the parents’ days off were limited.
They bundled up, and Bragg set up near one of his favorite brushpiles. The group began catching crappie at the front of Bragg’s 25-foot boat, then Bragg set up heavier tackle at the back for blue catfish.
The bait? Small crappie the anglers caught at the bow. Yes, that’s legal in Kansas, as long as the crappie are caught on rod and reel.
“Their little girl, about 5 years old, took one of the rods when it went down, and she reeled in a 30-pound blue,” said Bragg, who runs the Thump30 Guide Service on Milford. “We caught some other blues, but nothing like that one.
“Everyone was cheering, and that little girl had a huge smile on her face. I’ll never forget that day.”
A fluke? Hardly. Blue catfish will bite in the winter, and as long as they’re biting, Bragg will fish for them.
“It will take ice to chase me off,” Bragg said.
Milford, the largest reservoir in Kansas (16,000 acres), is known nationally for its healthy blue-cat population. It has a ton of what Bragg calls “eater” fish, but it also has some giants.
Stefanie Stanley caught a lake-record 82.05-pound blue cat in 2013, but even that wasn’t big enough to match the Kansas state record (102.8 pounds) set by her husband Rob on the Missouri River the year before.
Just as impressive, though, is the number of smaller blues that provide bites throughout the year, even when the water gets cold.
At a time when fishermen in states such as Minnesota and Wisconsin are ice fishing, anglers in Kansas are still fishing from their boats, free to move from spot to spot to find the catfish. Kansas waters seldom freeze, and if they do, it usually isn’t for prolonged stretches.
Bragg is out fishing as long as there is open water and there isn’t too much wind. (“When it’s too windy, the baits are bouncing around and they don’t look natural,” he said.)
His favorite bait? Whole or cut crappie.
There is a daily limit of 50 crappie of any size at Milford. Bragg has found that they make for perfect bait for the blue cats he chases.
He also uses a throw net to get fresh gizzard shad, but fresh crappie are his bait of choice. (Warning: Read your state’s fishing regs. Some don’t allow the use of crappie as bait.)
Bragg starts on the flats on the north end, searching for road beds, humps, brush piles, stumps or steep banks. He will put the rods in holders, drop the line to the bottom, then crank them up a foot or two. He will then use his trolling motor to slowly drag his baits.
Bragg uses 8-foot-long medium-heavy Ugly Stik catfish rods, Daiwa Millionaire reels spooled with 80-pound Power Pro braid and circle hooks. For a diehard crappie guide, that’s quite a change from the ordinary.
Bragg will use other methods to target blue catfish. He also will set up near, but not on top of, his favorite brushpiles.
“I have learned through my crappie guiding that there are usually a few big blue cats near those brushpiles,” he said. “They’ll be circling that brush, almost like sharks, looking for a crappie to wander out.”
He also uses unorthodox methods to catch the wintertime blue catfish. Occasionally, he will cast swimbaits to the pods of blue catfish he spots on his LiveScope, and he has caught some big fish that way.
For Bragg, a well-known crappie guide, the blue cats offer a great Plan B. If the crappie aren’t biting, he will switch to blue catfish and almost always put fish in the boat.
“It’s gotten to the point where I have quite a few repeat customers for blue cats,” he said. “I’ve even had clients from Wisconsin come down to fish with me.”
Limits are generous at Milford. The Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks allow anglers to catch 10 blue catfish daily, with a slot limit in effect. All fish 28 to 40 inches long must be released. And only one fish 40 inches or longer can be kept.
Luckily for Bragg and his customers, Milford has plenty of “unders” roaming the flats. And they readily bite during the cold-weather months.
He has been out on some miserable days, but he stays comfortable in warm clothing. He dresses in an IceArmor suit made by Clam, designed for ice fishermen. The insulated suits not only provide warmth, they also are made of a material that provide flotation.
He advises his clients to dress for the weather. For those who want to brave winter, there often are rewards.
“They’ll bite during the winter,” Bragg said. “You just have to dress for it.”
To inquire about winter guide trips, call Bragg at 785-408-3172 or go to his website, www.thump30.com.
(Brent Frazee is an award-winning freelance writer from a suburb of Kansas City, Missouri. He was the outdoors editor of The Kansas City Star for 36 years before retiring in 2016. He continues to freelance for websites, magazines, newspapers and tourism agencies. He has won more than 70 national and regional awards for his writing and photography.)
