07-23-2012, 10:05 PM
Channel cats are a fish that likes current. In fast water I fish for them like i would trout. They will be behind boulder in the slack water but they are in the current. When the water gets real warm the Dissolved Oxygen is reduced. Cats will seek out ripples to get better oxygen. Channel cats are not the "swampy" kind of fish a lot of people think that they are. The best habitat changes all the time. They don't live in one area. They will even move up stream to spawn like a trout or Salmon. I know for a fact that one fish tagged at Steck was found again the same year at Swan Falls. Their needs change throughout the year and day. The ideal place right now would be a hole at the end of a riffle. Even at that their needs for the day change so at night those cats that are hanging out in that hole at the end of the riffle will move in shallow to hunt at night.
In a big body of water like Brownlee you don't have the riffle, hole, run habitat. In that case I look drop off's. In one place I fished last August I fished a drop off that went from 50 foot to 70 foot. This drop off was also under a cloud of tiny Crappie fry. The cats are pounding the crappie right now. I would not be surprised if someone soon says they saw cats working the top of the water. Cats are a species that adapt and change quickly. Ron
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In a big body of water like Brownlee you don't have the riffle, hole, run habitat. In that case I look drop off's. In one place I fished last August I fished a drop off that went from 50 foot to 70 foot. This drop off was also under a cloud of tiny Crappie fry. The cats are pounding the crappie right now. I would not be surprised if someone soon says they saw cats working the top of the water. Cats are a species that adapt and change quickly. Ron
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