Midnight Cattish

CuCt
of the
Midnight Cattish
Some anglers hoping to hook flatheads fish in the dark.
of late-summer
sun are disappearing behind the
Mississippi River blufftops when
Don Hansons boat touches water at
a landing south of Red Wing. In the
fading light, he, Bill Pechacek, and I
set out down the Mississippi's main
channel toward a nondescript jumble
of timber.
Hanson deftly positions us within a few feet of the driftwood and
drops two anchors, securing the boat
crosswise to the current. We're on the
doorstep of a scour hole, a debrisfilled cavity of roiling water created
when a powerful current cuts across
a shoreline. Hidden under riverbanks,
the holes are home to flathead catfish—marauding denizens known to
reach 70 pounds in Minnesota.
T H E LAST RED RAYS
Bill Pechacek fishes for "cats" in the night
on the Mississippi River near Red Wing.
V
By Jason
Abraham
Photograph by Tom
Thulen
45
With mottled brown skin and bodies of
sinewy muscle, flathead catfish feed under
a blanket of darkness on worms, insects,
minnows, and other fish attracted to the
cover of scour holes. That's when anglers like
Hanson and Pechacek nose their boats to the
edge of a hideaway in hopes of tangling with
a barbed behemoth.
"The cats will come out of that hole
and feed in this shallow once the sun goes
down," Hanson says. "They're active at
night. They'll come to you."
Pechacek retorts with a grin: "Or not."
Pechacek is clad in the baseball cap and
baggy, mid-length shorts of a twenty-something. Hansons graying beard marks him
as an angler who stores 20 years of fishing
knowledge in his head. Despite a two-decade
age difference, Hanson and Pechacek share a
tight friendship, built around hours over boat
gunwales and behind the counter at 4 Seasons
Sports, the Red Wing sporting goods store
where they work. Both belong to a small but
growing cult of anglers who brave darkness on
the water to pursue trophy catfish.
Catfish anglers share stories online and
in bait shops along the Mississippi and
Minnesota rivers, the most popular of the
states catfish waters. Almost all describe their
pursuit as an obsession, fed by the mystique of
rivers at night and a silence interrupted only
by the sound of a screaming drag, signaling
a heavyweight battle to come.
Pechacek has been hooked on fishing
flatheads since he caught a 40-pound trophy as a teenager. "I was fishing with my
girlfriend's dad," he says. "I just couldn't
believe the fight and the size of the fish. I
A flathead catfish nestles into a scour hole on t h e
bottom of t h e Mississippi River.
SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2 0 0 7
still fish for walleye and bass, but they're
nothing compared to flatheads."
Specialized Sport
As a nighttime sport, serious catfishing
befits only anglers with flexible daytime
obligations or immunity from sleep deprivation. The sport also requires specialized
equipment—heavyweight rods, 50- to 100pound test line, and bait that some people
might consider full-sized fish.
On this trip Hanson and Pechacek rig
modified deep-sea rods with 5-inch bullheads, which they caught nearby. They
weight each rod with a 5-ounce sinker.
Their baits hit the water with tremendous
splashes. Hanson and Pechacek lean their
poles against the edge of the boat and make
themselves comfortable. When afishstrikes,
their open-faced bait-casting reels will click
as the fish takes line. Then, it's a matter of
setting the hook and holding on.
"These fish are like nothing else," Hanson
says. "A muskie might fight you hard for 30
seconds and then go belly up. But an average
flathead will fight for 10 to 15 minutes in
timber-filled water. He's going to go where
he wants, and you've got to hang on."
On a good night, Hanson and Pechacek
might tangle with one or two flatheads. But
on many nights, like this one, the drags are
silent, meaning no fish. The potential for a
bruising fight keeps the anglers on edge.
Catfish Abound
Five species of catfish are commonly caught
on hook and line in Minnesota: channel
catfish, yellow bullhead, brown bullhead,
black bullhead, and flathead.
All catfish have eight barbells (four on the
upper jaw and four below), which are sensiv 47
tive to touch and covered with taste buds, as is
much of their bodies. Their dorsal and pectoral
fins have sharp spines, which contain no poison but could injure a careless angler.
Flatheads live in large, slow rivers: the
Minnesota, Mississippi, and St. Croix below
Taylors Falls. Channel catfish also live in
these rivers, as well as in the St. Louis and
Red rivers and many of their tributaries.
The best time to fish flatheads, Pechacek
and Hanson say, is early summer when the
fish are spawning and most active. During
winter, flathead and channel catfish seek
deep water and protection from the current. They gather in large numbers in these
wintering areas each year.
Kevin Stauffer, DNR fisheries supervisor
at Lake City, says the population of flathead
and channel catfish in the Mississippi hasn't
changed much in the past 50 years: "Their
habitat has been fairly stable and water
quality has improved in the river. We don't
have much hard data on catfish, but most
indications are that we have better populations and are seeing more large catfish."
Stauffer says fishing regulations have
helped protect the species from overharvest.
For example, regulations prohibit snagging
catfish from their wintering holes and set a
combined possession limit of 10 for flathead
and channel catfish on the Mississippi.
Niche for Guiding
Brian Klawitter guides trophy catfish trips
on the Mississippi for anglers who lack the
necessary specialized equipment and nighttime fishing experience. He started fishing
the river for catfish about four years ago and
Don Hanson w a i t s for the telltale screaming drag
of a catfish on t h e end of his line.
SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2 0 0 7
often found himself bringing friends along
for company. "They always borrowed my
equipment and relied on my skills," he says.
"Eventually, I figured that I could probably
open a guide service and share this experience with people who might never get the
chance to fish flatheads."
Klawitter started his guide service last
year. "To be honest, I was hoping to get three
or four clients," he says. "But by the end of
summer, I'd guided more than 40 trips.
There seems to be a very unique niche."
Many of Klawitter's clients are father-andson teams who have become curious after
hearing tales of these barbed behemoths.
"People like to try something new in a safe
environment," he says. "I doubt that many
of my clients will continue to fish for catfish,
but they do enjoy the experience of getting
out on the river at night and catching a fish
that could weigh 20, 30, or 40 pounds."
The ranks of dedicated catfish anglers seem
to be growing as well. Both Pechacek and
Hanson say they're seeing more catfish anglers
on the Mississippi. And the fastest growing
forum at In-Depthangling.com, an online
angling chat room, is dedicated to catfish.
"Times have changed," Klawitter says.
"Fishing for cats used to be kind of a bluecollar sport, but now you're seeing a lot of
different people getting involved. Even some
dedicated walleye anglers will admit to fishing for cats once in a while."
River Icon
The pursuit of these monsters of the
Mississippi is hardly anything new. Their
abundance and their fatty meat made catfish
a staple food for Indians on the river, and
later for European explorers and settlers.
Several accounts collected in the book
v 49
"Stsnearingi a.m. and
the pair of intrepid Ct7lOt6TS
have nary a strike to show
for their efforts."
A History of Fish and Fishing in the Upper
Mississippi River by Harriet Bell Carlander
detail how early European explorers and traders depended on catfish tor survival. According
to one account, fur trader Peter Pond in 1765
fed a party of 12 men—who had not eaten
meat in several days—with three catfish weighing between 75 and 104 pounds. "Sum of them
drank of the licker it was boiled in," he wrote.
When Europeans settled along the
Mississippi, commercial fishing for catfish
became an important industry. According
to Carlander, the commercial catch of catfish
on the upper river in 1894 was more than 3
million pounds. Today catfish continue to be
fished commercially, though the catch is far
less than it was in 1894. About 2,500 pounds
of catfish were harvested from the Minnesota
side of the Minnesota-Wisconsin boundary
waters in 2005, according to Minnesota
DNR records. Most of the commercial catfish harvest is trucked to small ethnic grocery stores in the Twin Cities.
Despite centuries of pursuit, catfish have
I
Photograph by Tom
Thulen
remained abundant in the Mississippi, perhaps due in part to their elusive nature,
which has befuddled Hanson and Pechacek
on this night. It's nearing 1 a.m. and the pair
of intrepid anglers have nary a strike to show
for their efforts. They have moved the boat
to another scour hole, freshened their baits
countless times, and traded every joke they
know. Finally, Hanson gives in and calls it a
night. "You've got to accept nights like this
when you're fishing for trophy fish," he says.
"There are times when you get a lot of action,
but you've got to pay your dues too. You can't
expect to catch a 30-pound fish every time."
As a cool breeze blows down the river
valley, they pull anchor and set off for
the landing. But they'll be back another
night, because catfish present a challenge
like no other fish. They'll be back because
they have the patience to sit and wait for
a screaming reel while others sleep. And
because when that reel starts screaming,
they'll have a chance to land a fish that
fights like a freight train. %
W h e t h e r the fish are biting or not, n i g h t t i m e
catfish angling affords spectacular celestial v i e w s .
SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2 0 0 7
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