Chris Hartmann had his hands full when he landed this big blue
cat from his kayak on Milford Lake in northeast Kansas. (courtesy of Chris Hartmann)
Small Boat, Big Catfish
By Brent Frazee
Kayakers use paddle power to reach trophy blue cats.
Chris Hartmann and Tad Tweady aren’t exactly camouflaged when they paddle their kayaks onto Milford Lake in northeast Kansas for a day of fishing. Hartmann’s kayak is bright orange; Tweady’s is bright green.
But that’s not the only way they stand out. On any given day, the more traditional catfishermen in their big aluminum boats might pause to watch Hartmann or Tweady holding on as a giant blue cat tows one of their kayaks across the water.
“Some of the casual fishermen wonder what we’re fishing for,” Tweady said. “They’ll stop and ask us how the bass or the crappie are biting. But the locals know what we’re doing. They’ve seen some of the big cats we’ve caught.”
Indeed, Hartmann and Tweady are big-cat hunters.
“I don’t go out looking for a bunch of bites,” said Hartmann, who lives in Manhattan, Kansas. “I’m looking for the biggest catfish I can fit in my kayak. When the rod bends into the water and I can feel the kayak moving, that’s what gets me excited.”
Same with Tweady. The two met each other on the water at Milford several years ago. Each of the anglers assumed the other was fishing for bass until they paddled closer to talk. Ever since, they’ve been fishing together and mounting a two-pronged assault on Milford’s big blues.
They’re in the right place to do it. Milford is known nationally for its blue-cat fishing. Ever since the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Park started stocking the 16,000-acre reservoir with the whiskered fish in the early 1990s, its population has taken off.
Today, the Kansas reservoir not only has impressive numbers of blue cats but the big ones Hartmann, Tweady and many others seek.
Hartmann and Tweady both have caught and released blues in the 60-pound range. That’s impressive enough when an angler is fishing out of a 20-foot-long fishing boat. But out of a kayak? That captures the imagination of many grizzled veterans who are accustomed to doing things the old-school way.
Both Hartmann and Tweady have specialty fishing kayaks that are wide and stable.
“I am 6-2 and weigh 265 pounds,” said Tweady, who owns a Feel Free kayak. “I wanted something that was stable and wasn’t going to tip over easily. I can stand up in my kayak and still feel stable.”
Their kayaks also feature rod holders, small electronic fish finders with side-view capabilities and foldable landing nets.
Hartmann and Tweady fish with a Carolina-type rig with a 2- to 3-ounce sinker, a bead attached above a swivel and a leader and hook trailing behind. They suspend their baits straight down about two feet from the bottom.
Tweady fishes with 65-pound-test braid as his main line and a leader line of 40-pound-test. Baits depend on the season. In early spring, they will use cut shad to match the winter-killed baitfish that often are blown into the shallows, attracting packs of hungry blue catfish.
In late spring and summer, Hartmann likes to fish creek channels and long-tapering points. He often anchors over likely looking spots and fishes with cut white bass or crappie. (This is legal in Kansas, but check regulations in other states.)
Tweady also targets rocky drop-offs along creek channels and wind-blown coves, especially in the spring.
Depth depends on the season. Hartmann and Tweady have caught big blue cats in just a couple feet of water in early spring when the blue cats move to the banks to gorge on winter-killed shad. They will anchor in 14 to 20 feet of water in late spring and early summer when the blue cats cruise drop-offs, ledges, points and other structure.
Hartmann and Tweady both tout the flexibility of fishing from a kayak.
“We can get to places fishermen in bigger boats can’t,” Hartmann said. “I can really put in just about any place on the lake. I don’t need a ramp.
“It takes planning,” he continued. “I have to launch close to the spot I want to fish. I don’t want to paddle two miles. But I can paddle a ways and fish on the edge of the main lake and still find fish.”
The biggest advantage of fishing from a kayak? Affordability.
Both Tweady and Hartmann were bank fishermen who took the next step by purchasing kayaks.
“I had a small boat at one time,” Tweady said, “but fishing alone most of the time, it was more of a hassle than anything. So, I sold it and just started fishing from the bank. I really couldn’t afford a larger boat, so I just bought a kayak. Now, I wouldn’t fish any other way.”
The biggest disadvantage? Well, we’ll let Tweady explain.
“Last summer, I was out on an extremely windy day,” he said. Our kayaks were bouncing up and down, and the waves were lifting my bait off the bottom.
“I did something you should never do. I tightened my drag and my clicker down all the way. I hooked a big blue cat, and because it couldn’t take out line, it went under the boat and flipped me. I lost three rods and a bunch of tackle.
“I always have my life vest on, so I was never in danger. But I learned my lesson,” he concluded. “These fish are so powerful, you always want to set the drag on your reel so they can take line.”
(Brent Frazee is an award-winning writer and photographer from Parkville, Missouri, a suburb of Kansas City. He worked as outdoors editor of The Kansas City Star for 36 years before retiring in 2016. He continues to write for magazines, newspapers and websites.)
