The Missouri River can produce giant catfish, night or day, as Craig Norris can attest.
Moving Water, Big Catfish
By Brent Frazee
Giant blue catfish are creatures of the current, whether it be major rivers or tailwaters below large dams.
A summer night two years ago is a good example why Craig Norris is so obsessed with fishing moving water.
He and friend Tyson Brunett traveled to Atchison, Kansas to fish in a buddy catfish tournament, not knowing what to expect. Shortly after reaching their first spot, they knew it was going to be a night to remember.
Norris landed an 87.3-pound blue cat—his personal best—on one of his first casts. And to prove that his catch was no fluke, the team kept landing trophy fish.
“We only had five bites all night long,” said Norris, a dedicated catfisherman from Meriden, Kansas. It was one of those nights river fishermen dream of. “But every time we stopped some place to fish, we caught a monster.”
Norris and Burnett ended up with five blue cats weighing a whopping 301.3 pounds, a feat that Norris doubts they will ever match.
They have returned to some of those spots since then and failed to get so much as a bite. But for one night at least, everything was aligned perfectly.
To the tournament team from Kansas, the experience taught them important lessons:
- River systems such as the Missouri harbor some huge catfish, more than most fishermen even imagine.
- Those catfish can move from spot to spot, sometimes even in the course of a day.
- Current can play an important role in where the big ones will set up.
- Sometimes, unseen conditions will just cause the big catfish to hit that day or night.
There was nothing discernable that stood out that night. Water levels were stable and so was the weather. But the big girls were hungry, and Norris and Burnett took advantage of it.
That isn’t first time they’ve done that. Norris caught an 86.42-pound blue cat on Wheeler Lake in Alabama earlier in 2022.
They’ve also teamed to win other championships or big-fish honors in other tournaments. The key to their success? Don’t hold your breath waiting for them to spill their secrets.
Norris credits putting in lots of time on the water, determining what type of structure the catfish are holding on and an ability to establish a pattern.
“Big fish could be anywhere,” Norris said. “They could be on trail dikes, wing tips, channels, seams, anywhere,” he said. “It’s not like you find one secret hole and you keep going back there. You have to figure out where they are going to be that day.”
Norris starts with a simple concept. When the water is rising, he fishes shallows. When it is dropping, he fishes the channel.
He usually looks for current breaks along seams. That could be a brush pile, a big rock, a laydown or other structure.
“Those big fish won’t just sit there with the current in their face,” Norris said. “They want to be behind a current break where they can just wait for food to drift by.”
Norris and Burnett catch most of their river catfish by using a technique called “bumping.” They use their trolling motor to slow their drift, then use a three-way rig with a weight attached to one line and a leader with a circle hook attached to other.
Fresh cut-bait from Asian carp, shad, mooneyes or other baitfish work. But one rule is critical: It has to be fresh, which means each fishing trip is preceded by throwing a bait net until the desired baitfish are caught.
The nice thing about large rivers such as the Missouri is that there always is moving water. The bad thing is there is a lot of water to cover before finding the sections the catfish are using.
Rivers aren’t the only place where moving water can provide opportunities for catching big fish. Tailwater areas below dams on major reservoirs can also attract big blue cats and trigger memorable fishing.
When power is being produced at Missouri’s Truman Dam, for example, water rushes into Lake of the Ozarks. And the baitfish and catfish often migrate upstream.
“It can turn on like a light switch,” said Chris Jones, who runs the Catfish Pursuit Guide Service. “Blue cats are current-oriented fish. That’s the reason they do so well in rivers. When there is current, they’re usually going to be moving up to feed.
“They’ll work in packs. They’re like freshwater sharks. When you catch one, a lot of times you’ll catch a second or a third.”
Jones likes to fish when water is being released through three turbines at the dam. He will use a heavy anchor to hold his boat in one of the underwater ditches or corridors the fish use as travel lanes to areas where they feed.
He baits his hooks with shad as large as he can find. For example, he will often take a 10-inch shad he nets and will fillet one side off it. That way, his bait will give off plenty of blood and scent to attract the catfish. As Norris does, he looks for current breaks that might concentrate the catfish.
Anglers can’t fish directly below the dam due to a restricted zone. But there is still plenty of current by the time fishing is allowed.
In both rivers and tailrace areas, the moving water can produce good fishing at times when the action at calm reservoirs has turned off.
Rivers such as the Missouri will sport good angling for huge catfish even in the heat of summer, especially from the bank at night.
Of course, safety comes into play on any water where current is a factor. On rivers such as the Missouri, avoid wing dikes that are barely under the water and overhanging trees or laydowns that might snag a boat.
Wear personal flotation devices and pay attention to changing weather and water conditions. But if you are aware of the hazards, moving water can produce great catting.
“It can be frustrating, trying to figure out where they are,” Norris said. “But I like the challenge. We know there are some huge catfish in some of these big rivers. That’s what keeps me coming back..”
(Brent Frazee is an award-winning writer, photographer, blogger and lecturer from Parkville, Missouri, a suburb of Kansas City. He lives in a lake community with his wife Jana and two yellow Labs, Millie and Maggie.)
