John Jamison looks forward to fishing in the type of weather that sends a chill down the spine of a fair-weather fisherman. Temperatures in the 20s? A frigid wind chill? A little snow and ice? No problem. To Jamison, that signals it’s time to launch his boat on the Missouri River and start chasing big winter catfish.
“I fish all winter long [for blue catfish] as long as there aren’t ice floes going down the river,” said Jamison, a member of the Catfishing Hall of Fame. “Really, it’s some of the easiest fishing of the year.”
“The blue cats will still bite in the cold water and they’re predictable. You know where they’re going to be,” added Jamison, who lives in Spring Hill, Kansas, and is one of the nation’s top tournament fishermen, as well as a member of the Lund Boats pro staff.
And where’s that? In the slack water behind the wing dikes that jut into the river.
The big blue cats aren’t active enough in the cold water to want to chase their meals or fight the current, said Jamison, but they’ll still eat if you present a bait right in front of them.
Play the Dikes
Jamison has the track record to prove those statements. Over the years, he has caught and released blue catfish as big as 85 pounds on the Missouri River during winter. And has landed “quite a few in the 70-pound range,” he said.
He primarily fishes from Atchison, Kansas, to Weston, Missouri, using his boat to hop from dike to dike.
“I don’t fish places where we catch blue cats at other times of the year,” Jamison said. “They’re not going to be along the outside bends or in the heavy current; 95% of the blue cats will be behind the dikes.”
Jamison follows a predictable routine when he fishes in the winter. He starts by traveling to a reservoir and uses a throw net to collect gizzard shad. The baitfish are schooled so tightly during the winter months that it usually takes only a few throws to get all the bait he needs.
He is conservative in how many shad he takes. In fact, he urges others to follow his example.
“I’ve netted as many as 300 shad in one throw,” he said. “But I’ll only keep 25 to 30. That’s plenty for a day of fishing.
“If everybody brought home that many shad, it would damage the resource.”
Jamison keeps those shad on ice overnight, then uses them the next day on the river.
Once he launches his boat, he immediately heads for the first dike and uses his electronics to determine if there are fish there.
“I won’t even fish a dike until I mark bait there,” he said. “The blue cats want to be around their food when the water is cold. They don’t want to move far to feed.”
Jamison likes to start at the tip of the dike, keying on the current seam. The blue catfish often lay in the slack water and wait for a meal to drift past.
“If there’s a winterkill of baitfish, that’s like a pipeline,” Jamison said. “It brings the food right to them.”
When Winter Catfish Are Slow, Head For the “Armpit” of the Dike
If the fish aren’t active, Jamison often finds them in what he calls “the armpit” of the dike — the spot where the dike meets the bank. He also scopes out the sand humps in the middle of the slack water: structure where the blue cats like to sun when the water is cold.
Jamison either anchors, pulls his boat onto the rocks, or uses the Spot-Lock on his trolling motor to keep his boat as stationary as possible.
If he doesn’t get a hit in 30 minutes, he will motor to the next wing dike. Not all of them will hold fish, but once Jamison locates one that does, there often will be multiple blue cats in the same area.
“You might fish several dikes and not even get as bite,” he said. “Then you hit a dike where you can catch (and release) up to 25 fish without moving.”
On average, most of those blue cats are in the 20-pound range, Jamison said. But bigger ones are always possible.
Jamison’s Winter Blue Catfish Setup
- An 8-foot medium to medium-heavy rod made by Mainlake Rod Works, LLC. It’s Jamison’s signature series that he helped develop and it has enough backbone to land a trophy catfish but a sensitive-enough tip to detect light bites.
- A Shimano Tekota baitcasting reel spooled with 80-pound-test Spider Wire braided line.
- An 8-ought Rippin’ Lips circle hook.
- Weights varying from 4 to 7 ounces, depending on the current.
- A Lund boat and a Humminbird Solix locator.
Always Think About Winter Fishing Safety
Jamison is often fishing as deep as 35 to 40 feet in the holes behind the dikes and the blue cats are “tight to the bottom,” he said.
He encourages anglers to take safety precautions in the winter. That starts with wearing insulated clothing and a personal floatation device (PFD). Jamison combines the two by wearing a WindRider flotation suit that keeps him warm, and also acts as a PFD if needed. He recommends fishing with a partner and being careful when launching.
“The water can be low in the winter and some of these ramps can get sketchy,” Jamison said. “They’ll go out a way and then drop off.”
“I’ll stand at the back of the boat while my partner backs us in and I’ll use a piece of PVC to feel for the bottom,” he added. “If it drops off too fast, we won’t risk it.”
Besides helping keep anglers safe, using extra caution can result in some great fishing, Jamison said.
“One thing about it, these blue cats don’t get a lot of fishing pressure in the winter,” Jamison said. “If you dress for the weather, it can be a great time to fish for them.”
