Channel Catfish Locations 101

[OldTimer]

Hey,

I was working on this as a part of my future article on "Finding New Fishing Spots" but thought I'd post it up since it is quite interesting.

Channel Cats are one of the species that gives a shore angler a chance of catching a really good size fish with simple inexpensive tackle. They are easy to target, and can test/hone your skills - spring, summer and fall. Plus there is none of the salmon/steelhead insanity here.

Unlike Bullheads - Channel Cats are really not all that widespread in Southern Ontario. Furthermore in the whopping big sizes (over 10 pounds) their range is VERY limited.

Here's a summary of ALL Southern Ontario Channel Cat entries in the latest Ontario fish eating guide. Quite short isn't it. I also attach the MNR's Channel Cat Atlas.


  Channel Catfish sizes in Southern Ontario per eating guide 2013 - OT.pdf (Size: 84 KB / Downloads: 113)


  stel02_198445 - MNR Channel Catfish Atlas.pdf (Size: 133.5 KB / Downloads: 127)

I'll leave the pondering and resolutions up to you..........discussion?

Cheers,

OldTimer

[onwind]

Good job, OT. It's really what I wanted to do days before.
though I don't think the info in atlas is very accurate, but perhaps we can try every spots near Toronto.

[zippyFX]

Great idea!

Cool I never though of using the sport fish guide this way!

I did a search through the interactive feature for "channel catfish" and it came up with 45 locations to your 19. It had some on the St. Lawrence and it does have some data on Quinte. I have not gone back to double check the PDF to confirm.

The atlas lists Dows Lake. I have been meaning to go take a look maybe I'll give it a try soon. I am not sure about that one though, but hey, what can it hurt to try one evening?

If time permits I would like to try the Larry and see what it will cough up. I've never fished it before and I have been researching spots near the 416 and 417 but I have not been able to find much. I need to make some time to go down and scout it out. There is only so much you can do via google maps

Funny note about the spot I currently fish for cats.... at about 11:00 the bite dies down almost completely... From I can see, it looks like some hungry pike hit the area about then and the cats just scram (I can see some surface splashing and snapping that I have come to associate with Pike).... Happened to me three times! I tried targeting the pike but no luck, my minnows can;t seem to compete with juicy cats.

[OldTimer]

My spreadsheet was based only on hits from inland Southern Ontario lakes/rivers from the eating guide. And to give a tip on research possibilities by getting you thinking on how to work with published studies.

Searching the Great Lakes guides would add more data - but I chose to stay with inland spots you can access and shore fish more easily - without a boat and to demonstrate those places where bigguns exist.

It is true that more inland lakes/rivers more may have channel cats - however their presence most likely is minimal and of smaller fish.

OT

[zippyFX]

Thanks for he pointer to the great research tool!

[zippyFX]

FYI... in fisherman has a special catfish issue out this month. I picked it up and I am not sure how valuable it is on it's own merits, but they did have an interesting article on catfish growth rates.


The St. Lawrence cats are some of the smallest for their age (a 15 cm channel cat is about 9 years old). Likely the same for the Ottawa River. The interesting fact was that the growth rates for norther channel cats is higher than that of the southern cousins. Put side by side in a neutral environment the norther cats would grow quicker. In absolute measure though this does not compensate for the short growing seasons up north.