Where are the best places to catch Channel Cats?

Typically, you’re going to find the Channel Catfish in rivers, reservoirs, natural lakes and even small ponds. If you’re fishing a small to medium sized river, you’ll want to concentrate on the deepest pool of water you can find. These areas tend to be located directly below the rapids where a hole has been created from the rushing water. Channel Cats tend to favor the upstream end of the depression especially if there are fallen trees, logs or rocks in the area. You’ll also want to check out areas around logjams, backwater channels, eddies, large rocks or boulders and low-head dams. In the larger rivers, the Channel Catfish tends to hang out closer to structures that will break the current. This break provides a better opportunity for them to feed. Structures you’ll want to watch for would include sandbars, gravel, deep holes on the outside river bends and tributary junctions as well as bottom holes or depressions. Large lakes and reservoirs with warm water and lots of cover in the shallows are the best places to find large numbers of catfish. Within the reservoir, old river and bridge channels as well as tributary mouths and busy lakes and ponds are the areas that will tend to be host to the Channel Cat. Another excellent place to find the Channel Catfish are farm ponds. As the primary fish stocked in most of these ponds, Catfish are usually plentiful and hungry. In the daytime, Channel Cats in a farm pond will stick to deep water.