The Red River on the border of North Dakota and Minnesota is well known for producing
monster channel cats like this, many of which weigh 20 to 30 pounds or more.
Red River Channel Cat Population Remains Healthy
by Keith Sutton
The Red River may be home to more monster channel cats than anywhere else in the U.S.
A riverwide assessment conducted by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) last summer showed that channel catfish in the U.S. portion of the Red River are doing well. Catch rates for channel cats were considerably higher than in previous surveys, which date back to 1990. Populations of saugers and walleyes are doing well, too.
The DNR normally samples fish populations in the Red River every five years, dividing the survey into four reaches: Reach 1 near Wahpeton-Breckenridge, Reach 2 near Fargo, Reach 3 near Grand Forks downstream from Riverside Dam and Reach 4 from Drayton, N.D., to the Canadian border. The latest assessment, scheduled for 2020, had to be delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Although rescheduled for 2022, the survey had to be delayed again due to high water. It began the second week of June 2022 near Wahpeton and ended the second week of July near the Canadian border.
In downstream portions of the river, “We saw very strong size-class numbers for those large trophy catfish that people are going for,” DNR Red River fisheries specialist Nick Kludt said. “However, there’s still a good chance of you tying into one of those fish in the Fargo and Wahpeton area, as well. The only thing you’re going to have to contend with is there are a lot more (smaller) fish that you’re going to have to wade through. So, your catch rate is probably going to be higher.”
Catfish growth rates in the Red River are consistent with previous surveys, Kludt said. Fish in this population grow very slow. Sexual maturity isn’t reached until age 10 when they are about 20 inches long. On the upside, harvest pressure is light, and catfish in the Red are long-lived.
“A lot of the fish that are caught and harvested are sexually immature fish,” Kludt said. “And if you have really high fishing pressure, that obviously can create quite a problem. But given that our harvest pressure remains fairly low on the Red River, that really insulates the population from that potential problem.”
Kludt summed up Red River catfish populations like this: “Our size structure remains strong, our reproduction is consistent, and growth remains steady,” he said. “We have a strong population, and in all respects, it continues to be strong.”
