Holes often are the basic holding area of catfish during the Prespawn Period. Not the deep, slack holes they occupied during winter, but mid-depth holes laden with cover such as snags, boulders, and wing dams. The size and depth of the hole matters, but the amount and quality of the cover seem to be more important. The fish might not hold near a logjam in the middle of a shallow run, but neither are they usually found in a large, deep hole that's void of cover.

You need to cover a lot of water in order to identify top locations. If you fish the bend hole immediately downstream from the boat ramp, you're probably overlooking a much better hole around the next bend. You're also fishing the same areas that most other anglers fish. To catch more and bigger cats than the average angler, move more often and cover more water.

THE SPOT ON THE SPOT

Once you've identified a good hole, or better, a few good holes, preferably a few miles from a boat ramp or popular shore-fishing access, how do you proceed? If you're like most catmen, you probably anchor upstream from the cover element, cast your baits to the front or side of the cover, and wait for a bite. If you don't get bit in 20 minutes or so, you pull anchor and move to your next spot.

That's not a bad strategy when the fish are really cranked and the action's fast. But that's the exception rather than the rule. In most small rivers, truly great spots don't exist every mile. Use a run-and-gun tactic when you're exploring a river stretch for the first time, or when you're fishing streams with lots of good holes and an above-average catfish population.

Several factors determine how channel cats set up in a hole, but none is more important than water level -- except, perhaps, current velocity. High water usually means faster flows, and vice versa. So if we limit our discussion to high, normal, and low water levels, we can cover most of the conditions we'll encounter.

During normal water levels, active channel cats hold in areas that provide the best opportunity for a meal. Current is the purveyor of those meals, so it's easy to see why current seams are such high-percentage fishing spots. These areas allow cats to hold out of the main force of the current, positioned to easily intercept morsels carried by the faster water.

In a small river hole, the most active cats might hold at the tail of the riffle at the head of the hole. This is a where the fast water pouring over the shallow riffle slows, dumping its load of insects, baitfish, and carrion -- all the stuff channel cats crave. Active catfish get first crack at the food that washes into the hole.

Another top spot is the area in front of a snag piled along an outside bend. Inactive fish hold in or behind the snag to escape the current, and then move to a position in front of the timber when they're ready for a meal. Again, they patrol an edge along which food is delivered by current.

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A TOP PRESPAWN-PATTERN FOR LAKES & RERSERVOIRS Current draws catfish most of the year, but particularly right now. That's obvious in rivers, but not always obvious to anglers who fish lakes and reservoirs. Current attracts and concentrates forage, and food is of primary concern for channel cats during the Prespawn Period. Bridges usually aren't the best places to fish in rivers, but they can be top spots in lakes and reservoirs. Bridges are built over necked-down areas in lakes, sometimes connecting one lake with another lake, other times connecting one portion of a lake to another portion. Bridges mean current, and current means catfish. One of the most productive bridge spots connects shallow areas with deeper areas. Could be a marsh on one side of the bridge connected to the main lake on the other side. The catfish hold in the lake during winter, but are drawn to the current from the warm runoff coming from the marsh in early spring. Another great spot is where a bridge crosses a creek near where the stream enters a lake or reservoir. Cats move out of the lake and into the creek. In larger creeks with good catfish habitat, the bridge probably won't hold cats for long. They more likely continue upstream until they reach a barrier. Most bridges, though, are built over riffle areas because the bottom there is hard. So when a bridge is built over a stream near where it dumps into a larger river or reservoir, the bridge usually is built over the first major riffle -- a natural hot spot for migrating channel cats. Doug Stange, Editor In Chief