CAT FIGHT
Small boats in small water can put you on very big fish
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WHY AND WHERE
There are good populations of channel catfish in Lakes Huron, Erie and Ontario, where these whiskered denizens of the deep grow to enormous sizes. The problem is, the lakes are so huge, it’s difficult to find and catch these fish. From approximately mid-May to mid-June, however, many thousands of cats ascend the tributaries to spawn—and that’s the time to head out in your kayak.
During this time, even small creeks can have large numbers of fish, among them trophy-sized cats, such as the bruiser above that I nabbed in May 2015. Often, these are rivers no wider than 50 feet, and many neck down to 20 or even 10 feet in width. I regularly fish two small creeks on the north shore of Lake Erie, where the catfish average eight pounds and can get as big as 30 pounds. When conditions are prime, 10-fish days are typical, and I’ve even had 20-fish days.
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