Rural Missouri - August 2018 - 18

| OUTDOORS

Blue Cats

Jordan Stoner hoists a
23.6-pound blue catﬁsh
caught in the Missouri
River near Craig. The
Big Muddy has produced ﬁsh more than
ﬁve times as heavy.

of the Big River

Anglers hit the water in search of Missouri's mighty whisker ﬁsh
by Zach Smith | zsmith@ruralmissouri.coop

t's a clear, warm night on the Missouri River. Frogs and crickets converse
with their neighbors in Nebraska, and underneath it the muddy water murmurs. Suddenly, creaking through the night sounds is the hesitant clickclick-click of line rolling off the reel. Dinner is served.
Whether catching them for fun or the fryer, there are few river monsters who
can match Missouri's whisker ﬁsh for thrills on the water. And during the dog
days of summer, the nights belong to the big cats.
"When a 50-plus pounder grabs it, you know you've got something, there's no
doubt about that," says Jordan Stoner, a keen catﬁsh angler from Craig. "As far
as the ﬁshing we have around here, there is nothing like it."
It's a rare summer night when the Atchison-Holt Electric Cooperative member isn't out in his boat on the river landing blue, ﬂathead and channel cats.
From July through September when the big ﬁsh leave the nest,
the bite is the best.
"I was out on the river with my dad, aunts and uncles before I
Craig
could even walk," Jordan says. Like most folks who ﬁsh the Missouri his family ran trotlines, but Jordan chose a different path.
"For some reason I never caught on to that. I always wanted to
catch them with a rod and reel."
A well-known culinary delight of the southern and midwestern
United States, catﬁsh are catching on with tournament anglers, particularly in northwest Missouri. In July, the Reed Chevrolet Catﬁsh
Classic in St. Joseph paid out $12,000 for ﬁrst place from a total
purse of $27,350 - the sort of prize money typically associated with
bass tournaments.
Kyle Koehler, president of the Pole Bendin' String Stretchin' Flathead Club,
says higher payouts have drawn more attention to the sport over the past ﬁve
years. The PBSS tournaments organized around White Cloud, Kansas often
draw 50 two-man teams and pay $2,000 for ﬁrst place. Bonus money is awarded if the big ﬁsh of the night beats the club's ﬂathead record of 86.45 pounds or
the ﬁve-ﬁsh total weight record of 225 pounds.
"You put out some money, that draws a lot of boats and everyone thinks, 'I
can go out and do that' - and anybody can," Kyle says.
For avid tournament anglers the primary goal in competition is sheer weight.
Personal experience has taught Jordan that blues are more active than ﬂatheads, and he and his tournament partner, Kyle's brother Kodie Koehler, will
each run three lines from their boat to up the odds of landing the big one. In
one tournament last year the duo landed $3,000 for ﬁrst place by total pounds.
Among the catch that night was a 71-pound blue, which won one tournament's

RURAL MISSOURI | AUGUST 2018

"Big Fish" category. But lurking in the Big Muddy are ﬁsh almost twice as heavy.
Missouri's current pole and line and trotline records for blue catﬁsh are 130
and 120 pounds, 8 ounces, respectively. Both were caught in the Missouri River
within the past eight years.
Jordan and Kyle agree there's a sort of code assumed by the rod-and-reel
ﬁshermen on this part of the river that anything over 10 pounds lives to ﬁght
another day. Practicing catch and release, particularly in the tournament setting, is important because while the behemoths may not be the best eating they
are imperative for maintaining the quality of the sport.
"You want your bigger ﬁsh out there for laying eggs and watching nests," Kyle
adds. "If you take those trophy ﬁsh out, it hurts the river. If everyone is keeping 200 or 300 pounds of ﬁsh a weekend, that's not good. It's going to hurt our
ﬁsheries."
For the rod-and-reel set, landing big ﬁsh means using big tackle: Heavy action
rods, 60- and 80-pound test line to handle brush, rocks and debris moving
downstream and large hooks baited with chunks of skipjack herring or live
gizzard shad. It takes some effort and practice to cast the weight into the
right spot, but even with all of that gear a 20-pound ﬁsh can give the
catﬁsh angler a battle worthy of Hemingway.
"When you put the time and effort into catching one of those big
blues or ﬂatheads, then you watch that full slam and start feeling
the drag, it's an adrenaline rush," Kyle says.
Having a boat makes it easier to locate and work a ﬁsh, but Jordan says bank ﬁshers can still ﬁnd big catﬁsh near the mouths
of smaller rivers and in the scour holes behind wing dikes. He's
seen at least one 100-pound cat caught by a ﬁsherwoman off the
boat ramp at H.F. Thurnau Conservation Access just west of Craig.
It proves a point Jordan knows well. All the years of ﬁshing experience plus the
tips and tricks an angler learns along the way runs head-to-head with luck in
the end.
"Sometimes you go out and might not get a bite, then you go out again and
catch 150 pounds in one night," Jordan says. "It can be really good and out of
nowhere it can be the toughest ﬁshing."
Still, there is something mysterious about ﬁshing on the river that brings the
catﬁshers back to the murky, rushing waters of the Missouri.
"Part of what keeps us going out there is the unknown," he adds. "You just
never know."
For more information on PBSS' August and September catﬁshing tournaments
on the Missouri River - or to see some big catches - go to www.facebook.com/
PbssFlatheadClub.

http://www.facebook.com/PbssFlatheadClub http://www.facebook.com/PbssFlatheadClub

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Rural Missouri - August 2018