While most fisher people of Minnesota are looking for a limit of the golden walleye, others are going after the pre spawn bite of the Channel Catfish. John and his son Alex Steinhauer of Red Wing, Minnesota decided to just that. Target channel cats from shore in some of the slower current backwaters of the Mississippi River. Here's Alex proudly holding his first channel cat of the year.

Alex was using Secret 7 Dip Bait and a sinker to keep the bait near the bottom of the river. It wasn't long and the tug of his first catfish was bending the pole! FISH ON!!

That's what's nice about fishing for channel cats. For $40.00's a person can have a rod, reel, line, hooks, sinkers and Secret 7 bait that could last a summer of fishing. If you have or can borrow most any rod and reel a person can be fishing for under a ten dollar bill. Just add adult supervision near water and maybe a 5 gallon bucket to sit on.

But walleyes taste better! Well there's many catfish eaters that would argue that point. With a little care in the preparation (just like with walleyes) I will say they taste just as good if not better in my opinion. I'll still take a meal on skin on, bone in sunfish over both the channel cat and a walleye though, but that's just a personal opinion.

I never did get the hang of skinning them like a bullhead. I just filet them like the walleye although I'll start behind the rib cage.

Some folks soak the filets in milk over night while I just prepare them like I would a walleye. Dampened filet dusted with Sturdiwheat's Cajun fish coating and dropped in the 360 degree low priced olive oil. Don't let the word Cajun scare you off. I would call it more of a slightly spicy fish coating. Excellent for catfish and walleyes for that matter.

Now is a good time to start fishing for channels. They bite all year but from now until September they are fairly easy to find and catch. Get the kids out there and watch their eye's pop open when fighting and aggressive channel cat.

For more information on locations and channel cat fishing in general, just send an email to Brian.Klawitter@In-DepthOutdoors.com

651-307-8326