Manitoba Channel Cat fever

[Profishing]

Went out fishing for Channel Catz yesterday. It was a sunny day not much through out the day. Caught a few suckers and rockbass and some smaller Cats. Kept the Rockbass for bait.Later that day when as dusk hit, you could watch all the rods start to bend all along both sides of the river bank. The fishermen started yelling i got one on!!! over here bring the net.
20+ pounder
s of hungry channel Catz eating all the fishermens baits along
the manitoba river. If you want to experience this now is time.
What a site[]
I caught 4, 28 25 22 26 pounders
Email me @or better yet goto my site in my profile i have fishing trips and can bring you to the spots.

[Tarpon4me]

Are you shure those are "channel catfish" you are catching consistantly in the 20 lb range? The average Channel catfish is under 4 pounds, and a 10 pounder is a big one. Either you've got some out of the ordinarily good fishing were you're at, or channel cat is just a local name for another species of catfish.
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[Profishing]

Well you know your right. They are the flatheads and not channels CATz. I will have to clear that up with about 50 or so of my local fishing buds ages some over 70 that have been calling them Channel Catz for the last 40 years lol.I will be the laughing stock of the river bank[cool]when i try to change the name on them.To me the
Dam things live and eat the same things look the same except for the beer belly a few spots []Hell they live in the channel in the river as well. lol I know the lil ones are the real channel cats and have razor sharp spikes under the fins not like the big Flathead Catz worn out spikes . So big deal lol But you know i think i will just call the lil Channels from now on Baby flat heads[] Oh ya and in NoRway Europe they call a moose a elk lol Never mind

[Tarpon4me]

[] There is a cool book that WalMart use to carry the was produced in help by the In Fisherman Magazine. It is solely about the different species of catfish. I picked that book up a couple of years ago. I'll get the exact name and info incase you or anyone else would like to get a copy. I'm shure you can order one for like ten bucks. Then you can prove all your friends wrong and go from the laughing stock of the lake to the professor of cat theology. [cool] I'll give you a quick run down though. Channel cats at a small size have tiny little spots on them and as they mature the spots slowly fade.(in some cases thier spots don't fade, depends on water clarity, location, etc.. etc...) They eat most of your stink baits and things of that nature. The world tackle record is under 50 lbs and like I said before. If you catch a 10 pounder, you've got a monster channel cat. 20lb's or around there, you'd better call up the DNR because chances are you've got a state record.

Flathead catfish usually have a rusty brown tent to them(once again depending on the body of water) and the flat, broad head is a dead give a way. They are among the most ugliest of the freshwater fish, unlike the channel cat that isn't quite so bad. However, they are the largest north american species. They feed exclusively on fresh live bait and will hit fresh cut bait, especially at a younger age.

Keep in mind there are many other species of North American cat's. Just like pan fish. I have a buddy that's from PA. He moved here and called all the pan fish "crappie." He never could have been so wrong. Crappie are thier own species. There must be atleast 12 different species of panfish. A few to name are sunfish, crappie, warmouth, hard head, bream, and so on and so forth.

The moral of the story is to get yourself a few books and learn about your local species. The more knowledge you have about them, first and fore most correctly identifying the species, the better your ablility to target a specific species and have a more productive day. And i've said this before, the difference between a weekend playtime fisherman and an experianced angler is that the weekend warrior just baits his hook, throws it out, and hopes something hits it. A professional is capable of targeting a SPECIFIC species among all the other and producing results. The only way to achieve results is with uncanny knowledge of the species at hand. I hope i've been of some help, and i'll try to get that book info to you. Keep up the good fishing, those are some nice cats!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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[katfish]

Maybe I can help clarify this discussion since I just returned from a channel cat trip to Manitoba.



This cat is 21

I thought it was a channel cat



This cat is 19. Looks like a channel cat to me.

The Red river near Selkirk Manitoba hosts the finest trophy channel cat fishery that I know of. Average size for channel cats here is 17 pounds.



The largest channel cat I got on this trip was 24 pounds 5 ounces.
And a lot of fun!
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