Chasing River Cats in the Michigan Heat
Michigan will never make the list of top places to target catfish. We're completely out of the range for blue catfish, we're at the northern extreme for flatheads, and being so far north, channel cats, while abundant, are significantly smaller than their southern counterparts. Growing up, and through most of my adult years, catfish were never a species of interest for our family. The waters we frequented just didn't have them, or if they did, we weren't aware of it. It wasn't until I was in my thirties that I even attempted to catch catfish intentionally. I was invited to go fishing with my dad and uncle on a local lake. My uncle had been catching catfish there for several years so I was exited to give it a try. I had a vague understanding of the most common tactics for catfish, mainly live or cut bait on a slip sinker rig, just sitting on the bottom. I was more than a little surprised when I found out we w...