![]() ![]() ![]() Anglers fishing these banks with night crawlers, cut bait, catalpa worms or stink baits have a virtual lock on enjoying a tasty catfish fry at the culmination of a day's trip. Another fruitful site is the stretch of water north of Monroe from Sterlington to the Arkansas state line.Ī predominant feature of the latter area is the numerous steep cutbanks beneath which catfish hide and nest. One of the areas of the river in which catfish tend to congregate most heavily is the place known locally as "river south" - that stretch of the Ouachita lying south of Monroe between Prairieon and Riverton. ![]() While many anglers go after the bass, bluegills and crappie for which the river is also known, seasoned catfishermen have no problem sitting and watching other anglers haul in other species: They're after sleek and slippery catfish, and the more others focus on other fish, the less competition they face in the search for whiskerfish. I recall several episodes of sitting with friends in a boat anchored in one of the river's deeper holes as we lazily watched rod tips for the telltale sign of a catfish taking the bait, night crawlers or catalpa worms usually. Hardly a lake or river in the state is devoid of channel catfish.Ĭatfishing on the Ouachita can be a laid-back experience. Perhaps most important, it's quite plentiful. Aside from being great table fare, it's a formidable adversary, fighting hard once hooked. But the two fish are entirely different in nearly all other ways - particularly size: Blue cats attain weights well in excess of 100 pounds. ![]() Smaller blue catfish exhibit some of the same markings and characteristics seen in channels they too are somewhat of a bluish-silver hue, and sport a forked tail. They're generally streamlined in appearance. Jeff Samsel, author of Catfishing in the South, put it succinctly when he wrote, "While overgrown blue and flathead catfish attract most of the catfishing headlines, channel cats are the whiskered fish that most Southern anglers know and love." Indeed so.Ĭhannel cats are easily identified by a silver sheen accented by small black spots on their backs and sides additionally, their tails are deeply forked. ![]()
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