Heavy Timber River Channel Cats

[Catfishrollo]

How many of you target river channel cats by knocking down the front door? What I mean by that is putting yourself as deep as possible in their holding zone. Many of these areas can be the nastiest exposed logjams or sometimes just submerged timber. However, the most important key that I always look for though is plenty of current. Current seems to be an essential part for packing numbers of fish in and along the structure. Another element that we prefer to look for is sand and gravel. Wooden structures layed up in sand and gravel with the current seem to have an advantage over those layed up on a mud bottom. We often still catch fish in there areas, but not the numbers.


Getting into these tangled messes can sometimes be tricky and often dangerous. Extreme caution should be used when trying to navigate a boat into these areas with fast current. I have seen people get their boats pushed up on logjams, and even capsized. Some of these areas are simply not worth the chance. What I usually do is nose up in the current using the motor to hold along these logjams as I survey if we can get into the area, but most importantly, do we have a safe way out? Once were into the area, we can often find a safe pocket or eddy that is off the current seam, and look to tie the bow nosed upstream off the boat on the structure. Very important not to ever get sideways, or try to anchor sideways when dealing with current.


Time to fish! We keep our rig simple when probing these logjams. Usually a 2 or 3 ounce egg sinker on the mainline, bead, and hook. (pref. a small 5 or 6/0 circle). Using a straight rig greatly reduces the amount of hangups. And allows us to fish more vertical dropping in crevace after crevace. Prefered bait is usually cut shad, or cut suckers, shiners, or chubs. However, chicken livers are a favorite at times as well. We usually try to fish the structure for 5-10 minutes. Usually, thats all thats needed to catch the active cats. Most of the time it doesn't take long to get a rod slammed as these fish are held virtually right under you. We used to think that by driving the boat right into their homes that it would scare the fish. But, that simply is not true. Lots of times these wood piles can layed up as shallow as 4 to 6 feet. But, the fish don't seem to mind.


Not all river systems are the same, and larger systems may not offer as many of these fast flowing areas with structure. However, with alittle bit of scouting you can usually find some areas that have enough of these characteristics to find structured channel cats. The river sytems we target offer alot of these areas, and we simply start up river and can keep jumping from jam to jam. By no means is this the only way to target channel cats. I thought I would just share alittle insight on how we fish for them during the warm water months! Goodluck.... rollo

[luckeywade]

thanks for sharing.

[Seanstone]

Awesome post Rollo. We started doing this method after watching the guys at In-fisherman fish for channels in the same manner, catfish fever dvd. Its almost like bass fishing because the action can be so quick. Very fun that's for sure.

[mexicanthreat]

great tips man. I target a lot of channels. and your info is great. im glad you pointed out the safety concerns for the current. it doesnt take much current to flip a boat when anchored sideways. the slightest rocking motion or even the quick slip in a slippery boat can lead to a deadly mishap.

[Smoothkip]

Great post and pics! Thanks for sharing!

[katfish]

Rollo
You might be surprised at how many flathead
also call the logjams home. During daylight hours
flathead seek security cover and any overhead
cover could be home. A live bait right in their
face will often get noticed and even reaction bites
or intimidation strikes could produce flathead.

[Skyline1506]

awesome post rollo!

we use this method a lot when trying to catch some nice eaters. on the right pile we can some times get all the fish we need in one stop.

[banksidebandit]

I've jumped from log jam to log jam before but always during the day targeting flats like Robby said. I'll have to try to target channels this way and see how I do. Nice post.

[Catfishrollo]

Robbie you are right! And to be honest we target flatheads this way the same. Esp. if we are tournament fishing for numbers! rollo

[ducky]

good info rollo, I grew up living beside the tuscarawas river. I had a four wheeler and made trails along the river for miles. It was very easy to run and gun log jams with the wheeler. I would usualy climb right on the log jams and vertical fish every jam for miles, catching 20 or more channels a day. But my favorite method of fishing for channels was when the river would flood. I would walk that wheeler trail which was usualy knee to waist high, and drop cut bait along the Logjam's in the bottoms. Sometimes I would catch fish 200 yds from the river in these flooded bottoms. I also learned to remember the big scymore trees with huge root systems and drop a line in them which would usualy cause a bite in seconds. The funnest way of catching channels for me was catching them in the flooded corn fields with floats. I learned quickly though as soon as water would drop fish would head back to the main river channel.

[Catfishrollo]

Mar 4, 2013 0:42:17 GMT -5 ducky said:

good info rollo, I grew up living beside the tuscarawas river. I had a four wheeler and made trails along the river for miles. It was very easy to run and gun log jams with the wheeler. I would usualy climb right on the log jams and vertical fish every jam for miles, catching 20 or more channels a day. But my favorite method of fishing for channels was when the river would flood. I would walk that wheeler trail which was usualy knee to waist high, and drop cut bait along the Logjam's in the bottoms. Sometimes I would catch fish 200 yds from the river in these flooded bottoms. I also learned to remember the big scymore trees with huge root systems and drop a line in them which would usualy cause a bite in seconds. The funnest way of catching channels for me was catching them in the flooded corn fields with floats. I learned quickly though as soon as water would drop fish would head back to the main river channel.

You are fight ducky, we do the flooded corn fields as well in the spring highwater. Like you said, it doesn't get any better than that! Pretty neat to catch fish a ways away from the actual river! Can't wait for the temp.s to stabilize and hopefully get to catch a few like that again.. rollo

[captainbrad]

Fishing in wood is a blast and can be very rewarding. With that said not all snags are created equal. The key to a good snag is having what catfish want near by and that is current. Once you find the current a good wood pile can be a spot for all occasions.

I typically don't go right into the wood piles but rather anchor above them and cast into them using good spot placement and the current to pull the bait into the zone. You have to be accurate or crazy to do it but works great for what I do.

Like mentioned before the high water situations to get to snags that are not normally fishable. If you look at those areas off the main channel they now have water but they also have a current seam. the fish tend to not like the main current so they move of to the secondary current seams that are formed.