Knowing the behavior of the fish you target is a key first step to developing a systematic approach to angling. Each species goes through seasonal periods of response, which guide fish location and feeding patterns.

Channel catfish, in particular, display routine seasonal movements and habitat selection in rivers, making location fairly predictable for enlightened anglers. Once you understand what to look for and spend time evaluating spots, you’ll find fish. Then it’s simply a game of working with the best presentation strategy.

CLASSIC RIVER EDGES, CLASSIC CATFISH

In one All In The Family episode, Archie Bunker stood, cigar in hand, next to his favorite living room chair, lecturing his wife, Edith, on his difficulty in getting her to understand the obvious logic of his ways. “The problem,” he told her, “is that I explain in English and you listen in Dingbat.”

So, too, does the easy logic of the ways of catfish in rivers often pass by the casual river angler. Like Edith, most anglers really haven’t a clue. They find a bridge, park their vehicle, and walk down and plant a lawn chair—and never move. Or they get permission to drive down to the river through a farm, park at the point of easiest access—and never move. Catfishing can be so much more, particularly if you actually like to catch them.

Catfish location is all about identifying river edges, but the game must be played in a larger context than “find a river edge, find cover, find catfish.” Every edge, every piece of cover won’t attract catfish during each season—yet edges still ultimately key fish location and, thus, catfishing success.

The larger context in question has everything to do with the natural physical layout of rivers as they proceed from beginning to end, in continuous series of riffles, holes, and runs. This is by now an idea often expressed in In-Fisherman publications, including in our catfish book, Channel Catfish Fever, published in 1989. We first began to write about river layout in the mid-1970s. We still contend that it’s just about the most important basic idea in river fishing. Letters from hundreds of you over the years suggest that this kind of fishing success can be learned, though it takes time.

In any case, it’s remarkable how an angler’s fishing success can improve once he begins to see river structure for what it is and how it so naturally affects catfish location each season. Catfishing, after all, like most fishing, remains first a matter of finding fish.

The process is much easier to learn if you start looking at small rivers, where the catfish’s world is compressed into a smaller area. In a large river, major holes may be half a mile apart. On a small stream, half a mile might have 10 holes. You can move and see lots of water. More importantly, the continuing combination of riffle, hole, and run, and the cover (or edge) elements that often exist there, also are obvious.

Catfishing on small streams relates directly to catfishing on larger rivers. Yet the anatomy of larger rivers is more subtle and confusing. If larger rivers are all that’s available, learning to find catfish may take longer.

As river water meanders downhill, it flows over bottoms of varying hardness. Riffles form over hard-bottomed areas and are shallower, because current doesn’t wash away hard bottom. Riffles form natural dams that obstruct moving water. A pool of water builds at the head of a riffle and eventually flows over it, quickening over the constricted area. In most small rivers in farm country, riffles rarely run for more than 30 or 40 feet.

The force of water flowing over and down a riffle scours the softer substrate at its bottom, forming a hole or a wider and deeper river section. Depth of a hole varies according to the steepness of the riffle, subsequent current patterns, and the size of the river. In a small stream, a typical hole might be 30 feet long, 20 feet wide, and about 4 feet deep. The biggest and deepest holes might be only twice those dimensions.

Holes gradually become shallower at their downstream end as suspended materials sink when the current slows. The tail end of a hole becomes a run, which is a river flat, an area with minimal change in depth. The bottom usually is sand and silt with some gravel, plus plenty of debris like wood and brush. And, you guessed it, at some point the river flat winds and finds its way to another hard-bottomed area, a riffle forms, and begins another series of riffle, hole, run.

Flooding helps to distribute timber, brush, and other debris throughout a river. Fallen timber most likely occurs in conjunction with a river hole because of the increased scouring action of current there. Once a tree falls and is held by its roots to the bank, it becomes a prime obstacle gathering floating debris. The biggest snags form in conjunction with riverbend holes. The most extensive of these become prime holding areas for catfish, usually the best areas in a river.

Free-floating timber and brush also settle easily at the margins of a hole, or at least at its tail end, as the current slows and a run forms. Boulders that serve as cover also (again because of the scouring action of current) more likely occur in conjunction with a hole. Cover on river flats (runs) is, by comparison, haphazardly placed and, of course, rests in shallower water and therefore tends to draw smaller catfish. Cover in conjunction with a riffle usually doesn’t draw catfish unless they’re feeding and have moved up from the hole.

Holes, then, are the primary home (or holding area) for catfish most of the time. Catfish tend to spend a major portion of their time holding in or near the cover elements in and around holes. When feeding actively, they often move upcurrent into and through riffle areas. At times, they also spread downriver into runs. This is the essence of understanding catfish location in rivers.

But don’t stop there. Walk a mile and compare the riffle-hole-run series that occur there. Go ahead and try fishing in each successive area. You’ll soon see, and certainly your catch will indicate, that some of these series are much better than others. Deeper holes with extensive cover often hold the most catfish. Eventually, it becomes obvious that staying long in marginal areas isn’t productive. It might even be better to walk right on by until you reach something that’s really worth fishing.

Now travel another mile. And another. And another. Say, over the course of a summer, you eventually cover 20 or 30 miles of river: Now we’re really getting somewhere. This is when you begin to realize that some 5- or 10-mile sections of river aren’t nearly so productive as other sections. You might even realize that a lot of the best sections have narrower, more winding river portions.

And then, if you stay at it long enough, you’ll also begin to view all 50 or 100 miles of river as an entity, where the catfish population shifts throughout certain seasons. Most of the catfish population might, for example, shift into the upstream third during spring, the downstream third in fall and winter. Then again, in high-water years, the preponderance of fish might stay upstream all year long.

That’s looking at river catfishing on a grand scale. At its most basic level, once you determine on a larger scale where the fish should be, it’s still a matter of going to a river section, finding the best portion of that section, and fishing the cover edges in the riffle-hole-run sections of that area.

Larger rivers also contain classic edges, many associated with holes and structural and cover elements that attract catfish. Current edges in tailwaters, eddies, current seams, and scour holes around wing dams, midriver holes, barge moorings, and logjams are spots in big rivers that function fundamentally the same to attract cats as they do in small rivers.

PRIMETIME BONANZA

Many anglers consider the Prespawn Period as the best time of year to fish for channel cats. It begins soon after river levels stabilize from the high water caused by melting snow and spring rains. Unlike pike and walleyes, which move toward spawning areas before the ice fully melts, channel cats are in no hurry to reproduce. They’re much more concerned with finding food.

The Prespawn Period lasts for several weeks or even a couple of months, in many parts of the country. This is an extended period when the overall mood of the fish is aggressive, providing the most consistent action of the year, both for size and numbers of fish.

Prespawn patterns, in terms of location and presentation, generally carry right through summer. Fishing is often more challenging during the spawn, but catfish don’t all spawn at the same time, so you’ll find fish in mixed moods with some always catchable. Once the spawn is complete, they settle into summertime habits, which isn’t much different from the Prespawn Period in terms of location. Put the right bait in the right place at the right time. When you do, fishing can be phenomenal.