If you’re interested in an entirely different fishing experience this season, focus your sights on The Red River of the North.  The Red offers something unique to the typical Minnesota angler - Catfish.  Yep, that’s right, those fish wearing whiskers may just give you a fishing memory that you'll talk about for years to come.   

Anything But Ordinary          

 To the casual observer The Red River of the North is about as mundane as rivers come.  It casually moves muddy water roughly 550 miles from Breckenridge, MN into Lake Winnipeg.  Parts are wide, others narrow.  There are deep holes and shallow flats. On its banks one can find urban development, farmland, woods, wetlands and prairies.  However, the Red is anything but vanilla.

Believe it or not, the Red is actually famous, world wide mind you, for two distinct reasons.  First off, it's no secret that the Red bends the rules by meandering North instead of South.  Secondly, the Red River is one of Earth’s most productive fisheries for Channel Catfish – a fact that seems to be unknown to many Minnesota Anglers. 

Cat Fights

Recently, my dad and I enjoyed a day hauling in hefty Red River cats with guide Kent Hollands of Trophy Cat Adventures.  We fished a few river miles north of Grand Forks and ended up landing twenty-four cats over five pounds - including a fat 23 pound cat.

The fishing set-up was simple – stiff rods, big sinkers and circle hooks tipped with hunks of freshly diced sucker minnows strategically resting on the bottom.  After the rods were placed securely into the rod holders it didn’t take long for the nibbling to begin.  Once a Catfish took more then a nibble the circle hook would do its part.  That’s when the reel fun would begin.  Dragging some of these cats off the bottom, against the current, took time – it often felt more like pulling up the anchor, then reeling in a fish.  After the netting, pictures and release it was time to start all over again and it never seemed like we waited to long.