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Catfish In Thief River Falls!

CatManLee
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CatManLee Mentor

CatManLee

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I went below the dam in town this past weekend, and finaly got into some catfish. I've tried for cats in town numerous times and out of maybe 30 trips I caught one 10lb catfish? Finaly this past weekend I caught 3 smaller cats in about 4 hours of fishing. All the fish were about 17-20" long. I once thought there were cats here, but just not that many. Now I do believe I was just looking in the wrong locations.

The river below the dam in town is shallow, and I'm used to fishing a little deeper water, so I had a hard time locating areas that would hold fish. I think I'm finaly getting somewhere!

Besides catching the catfish, I also caught a 19" walleye, some Rock Bass, a smallie and a BIG red tail sucker. I also got bit off 4 times! I'm guessing they were walleye as well, but could have been pike.

This is why I love fishing with three ways and slip rigs sitting on the bottom, you never know what you're going to catch next!

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  • 4 weeks later...
CatManLee Mentor

CatManLee

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I have still had pretty good luck with the catfish here in Thief River Falls, and on Sunday I caught my First Goldeye ever here in the river! I never expected to catch a Gold eye in this stretch of the river. I have bottom fished with crawlers for many years here and this is the first one. I'm pretty sure there is not alot of Goldeye around this neck of the woods, but they are here.

Has anyone else had any luck catching gold eye arounf Thief River Falls, St. hilaire, or Red Lake Falls? It would be nice to find a spot and catch them close, rather than going to the red river and finding them.

If anyone has a good spot in the area, feel free to let me know. grin.gif

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fiskyknut Grand Master

fiskyknut

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I get them in the Roseau river every now and then too, must be a couple hundred miles or so by water to the Red from here with all the twisty's and turny's tween here and there. Got me a few decent cats up to about 12#'s this year out of the Roseau.....anxiously awaiting the rivers to fall, hopefully before fall.

fiskyknut

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Wiskers Mentor

Wiskers

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Well over here in Crookston we have been getting them like crazy. I even took home about a dozen of them last night and smoked up 6 of them... they turned out very good.... hummm no wonder the cats like them...

Went out fishing this evening and took home a limit of Eyes this time.... catching them was like fishing for sunfish.. it was awesome. plenty of drum and gold eye too but even some real nice pike... In about 2 hours we caught 4 nice pike, 10 Eyes, 3 rock bass, too many sheep head and many goldeye... that was a good evening of fishing with my boy...

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Lip RIPPER! Mentor

Lip RIPPER!

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There aren't a lot of Goldeneye in these parts but they have been caught here for years. One of the DNR officers said with the re-doing of the river (dam) in the Crookston area, the sudden surge of more walleyes and cats in our area are a direct result of those fish moving this way. He said fishing should be good for a number of years to come. It would be nice to see those 15 and 20 pounders back up here again like years ago.

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Wiskers Mentor

Wiskers

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WELL, the fish will not make it to TRF as of yet.. there is still one more dam between us that is not being worked on. It is about 7 miles east of Crookston. I think that the Walleye population in TRF is from Red Lake dirrection.

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Lip RIPPER! Mentor

Lip RIPPER!

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That is what I kind of thought about the Crookston area. I was just stating what he said. I'm not saying I agree with it. Thanks for the correct info about the dam.

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  • 4 weeks later...
Lip RIPPER! Mentor

Lip RIPPER!

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Whiskers, how is the sauger population in your area? Had a friend stop by the other day to witness the sauger he caught. Only one he is caught in 40 plus years on the river. Not sure where the fish came from but probably not from Red Lake.

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Lip RIPPER! Mentor

Lip RIPPER!

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Did you happen to catch the article in the GF Herald on Sunday?

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fiskyknut Grand Master

fiskyknut

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High water will allow them fishes to move upstream, over and around the dams even before/without mentiond dams being altered. Extended high water periods such as 2002 and to a lesser extent this year will see bigger movements. Roseau river see's fresh flushes of Cats any year the water is high for any length of time, this is way up near Roseau, easily 100+ miles from the Red, 2 lowheads for sure between here and there. I would say you are seeing these fish coming from downstream vs upstream.

Back when I lived in gfks I spent alot of time on the RLR, and fished the lowhead at the forks in EGF often before it was altered. Amazing the amounts of fish of all types and sizes I saw swim up and over that lowhead there at varying water flows/levels. When the water is up good and high during the spring or summer they not only can go over the dams they can go around them too.

fiskyknut

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Lip RIPPER! Mentor

Lip RIPPER!

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It was written how the fish can move up this way over the dam with high water.

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