By Dan Anderson

So you want to know the best places to catch catfish in Iowa this year? Well, let's get right to it. In eastern Iowa, if we're talking about catfish, we're talking about the Mississippi River, Coralville Reservoir and the region's major inland rivers. In central Iowa, it's tough to beat the Des Moines River system. In western Iowa, anglers can limit out at Storm Lake, North Twin Lake and on the mighty Missouri River.

Want details on exactly where and how? Read on. We'll rate our picks in each region from No. 1 (exceptional) through No. 5 (merely good). According to Iowa Department of Natural Resources fisheries biologists, very few Iowa lakes or rivers are rated "poor" for catfishing.

"There are almost no bad spots on the river, if you know anything about fishing for catfish," said Pitlo. "Just find some rocks, a logjam or some other structure that breaks the current, and you'll find channel cats."

During high water, when islands or the front yards of riverside cottages are flooded, Pitlo uses night crawlers to catch channel cats grazing in shallow floodwaters. "They'll be up on the lawns grazing like cattle, or in shallow water around flooded trees on islands," he said. "Forget deep water when the Mississippi River is at flood stage. (The catfish) will be shallow and feeding like crazy."

Cats spawn in June, and Pitlo follows catfish to rocky or riprapped areas. Catfish are cavity spawners, and are thus attracted to the crevices of riprapped shorelines. He drifts his bait - night crawlers, dip bait, minnows - beneath a bobber along riprapped shorelines. Hormone-crazed cats lurking along the rocks often pull the bobber beneath the water so ferociously that, he reports, it makes a plunking sound as it disappears from sight.

Photo by Ron Sinfelt

Through the summer, Pitlo looks for catfish around logjams on mid-river islands and along main channels. He recommends fishing the upstream side of logjams on the upper ends of islands, or the upstream end of logjams along the sides of islands.

"The most aggressive cats - the ones that are feeding - will generally be on the upstream side of any brushpile, rockpile or other habitat," he said. "I don't mean to dodge the question of where are the best places to catch catfish in the Mississippi, but it's really just a matter of getting your line in the water almost anywhere. The population of 1- to 5-pound channel catfish is just exceptional."

Farther inland, Coralville Lake, north of Iowa City, gets the nod from IDNR fisheries technician John Christensen, and also earns a No. 1 rating. "That lake is a catfish factory," he said. "There's a huge population of 12- to 20-inch channel cats in Coralville - some big flatheads, too."

Coralville's channel catfish spend early spring feeding on winterkilled shad in the shallows around the lake's edges, but by mid-May they're moving toward spawning areas. Long-recognized spawning areas include rocky shorelines near the Mehaffey Bridge, the face of the dam, the spillway below Lake McBride and the rock walls in the lower lake.

"The rock ledges in the lower lake are some of the places we know we'll always find catfish when we're electrofishing," said Christensen. "During the spawn, cats love all those nooks and crannies in the ledges. Just drop a good catfish bait down right next to the walls, and you'll probably get bit."

There's a significant population of flathead catfish in Coralville. Christensen noted that commercial fishing for rough fish is allowed at Coralville, and that commercial anglers routinely catch (and must release) flatheads in nets.

"One of the commercial fishermen told me that if the IDNR ever opens up commercial fishing at Coralville to allow the taking of flatheads, he was going to be first in line to get a permit," said Christensen. "He said there are a lot of flatheads in there. I believe him. We see quite a few 20- to 30-pounders in our nets during surveys, and I don't doubt that there are a few 50 pounders in there."

Christensen revealed that it's not difficult for him and coworkers on the surveys to shock up a Coralville flathead if they need one of the big fish for a display or research. "They're always in certain spots in the lake," he said. "I hate to say exactly where those spots are, but they always seem to be in or near the deepest water and around rock."

Lake McBride, Pleasant Creek Lake and the Iowa, Cedar and Wapsipinicon rivers also rate well in the IDNR 's surveys for catfish and earn No. 2 ratings. "After we finished our renovation at Lake McBride - before it even completely refilled - they were taking lots of cats off the rock reefs we added," Christensen said. "I think a lot of catfish guys focus so much on fishing logs and wood that they miss how good it can be to fish for catfish around rocks."

An angler reported to Christensen that he regularly catches 1- to 5- pound channel catfish from Pleasant Creek Lake, in Linn County, and confided that he had taken several 20 pounders from that lake. "He wouldn't say exactly where he was catching them, but I think the area around the dam would be a good place to start looking," said Christensen.

The Cedar, Iowa and Wapsipinicon rivers earn only a No. 2 or No. 3 rating because of their up-and-down tendencies. Fishing can be red-hot one week and, depending on water levels and conditions, stone-cold the next.

"It's traditional Iowa catfishing," said Christensen. "Find a logjam, fish the upper end or sides, and you'll generally catch catfish. The area below the 5-in-1 dam at Cedar Rapids is especially good, but don't stay up right close to the dam. The best fishing is a mile or so below the dam."

"There are places on the East Fork of the Des Moines where there are brush piles every 75 yards," said Frank Swanson, a Fort Dodge catfishing fanatic. "From Fort Dodge north, the catfishing in both forks of the Des Moines River can be so good it's almost unbelievable."

Swanson and a cadre of fellow catfishing fanatics - Don Brand, Rick Longnecker, Ron Ulstadt, Russ Clark and Swanson's wife, Karen - start fishing each spring for catfish while ice floes are still moving down the river. They don't give up on cats until freeze-up the next fall.

"We start right after ice-out using night crawlers, and keep using them until around the middle of May, when we switch to cut bait," said Swanson. "The best cut bait is 1-inch-thick sections of green sunfish. They're oily, and catfish go nuts for them. Second choice for cut bait is chunks of suckers or quillbacks. I never use carp - they're not oily enough. Gobbing dead shiners on a hook is OK, but only if you're out of other bait."

That doesn't happen very often. Swanson keeps between 500 and 1,000 frozen night crawlers in his freezer at all times, along with dozens of frozen, pre-cut green sunfish.

"There's no use messing with keeping night crawlers alive," he said. "Freeze 'em alive and thaw 'em as you need them. We call them 'fresh-dead' night crawlers. As long as they're fresh, it doesn't matter to catfish that they're dead. They're still firm and juicy, and that's what counts."

In midsummer, Swanson matches his bait selection to where he's fishing. If he's fishing around rocks, he likes crawdads. Leopard frogs are a favorite late-summer bait when he can collect them. He uses frogs around logjams or cutbanks on rivers, or off shallow shorelines in lakes.

Swanson said his biggest catfishing challenge is deciding where to fish on a given day. "The Des Moines River from Fort Dodge north is about as sure a thing for catfish as you can get," he said. "I don't fish much south of Fort Dodge on the river because there are too many setlines in that stretch of river.

Brushy Creek Lake, near Fort Dodge, provided Swanson excellent fishing for 1- to 3-pound catfish last fall, and earned a No. 2 to No. 3 rating.

"In mid-October, I was using some of my frozen night crawlers right on the swimming beach, at 10 o'clock in the morning, using two poles," he said. "I couldn't get one pole unhooked and rebaited before I had a bite on the other pole. If you're a catfisherman, never overlook a (deserted) swimming beach."

"There's a tremendous population of channels and flatheads in the Missouri," said Tom Hirtes, a professional catfishing guide from Belleview, Neb. "You just have to use a little more weight to hold your baits in place and know where to put them when there's no logpiles like most catfish guys are used to."

Hirtes fishes for Missouri River flatheads in holes on the tips, or downstream side of the tips, of wing dams. For channel cats, he locates submerged sandbars on the inside bends of the river. "I look for sandbars with their tops 3 to 6 feet underwater. Then I work the dropoffs along the sides or ends of those bars for channel cats," he said. "The channel cat population in the river just keeps getting better and better - and it was pretty good to begin with."

Inland from the Mighty Missouri, Fort Dodge angler Swanson often visits Storm Lake (a No. 1) or North Twin Lake (a No. 2) in search of channel cats when the Des Moines River gets too low to float his boat.

"Any day when the wind is blowing hard out of the south, the north shore of Storm Lake is the place to be if you want channel cats," said Swanson. "On the average, they're not huge - in the 1- to 3-pound range - but there are enough big ones that weigh close to 20 pounds in there to keep you interested every time you get a bite."

Swanson believes that the secrets to catching cats at Storm Lake are crawdads and short casts. "Cats are used to feeding on crawdads along those rocky shorelines," he offered. "They practically inhale crawdads. The other trick is to never cast out more than 10 or 15 feet. The first time I was at Storm Lake, I baited up and was really proud of how far I launched my bait out into that lake. An old guy beside me kind of flipped his bait out 10 feet from shore, and I almost felt sorry for him. Well, it didn't take long for him to show me that in that situation, the cats are in next to shore. He had a stringer of cats before I got my first bite."

North Twin Lake, near Rockwell City, has also filled Swanson's stringer with catfish. "I wait for a day with a strong south wind, then go up to the northwest end where there are some points that stick out into the lake," he said. "The wind blows across those points, and the cats lay along the dropoff on the lee side of those points. They're (in water) so shallow that sometimes I see the water swirl when I set the hook."

Whether he's fishing in the river or on a lake, Swanson is no fan of traditional nighttime catfishing. "I don't need to fish at night," he said. "Why waste good sleeping time? I can catch all the catfish I want during the day."

Swanson also goes against catfishing conventions by using a graphite-based rod. He prefers a 7 1/2-foot medium-heavy action Ugly Stik fitted with a 6600 or 6500 Abu-Garcia baitcasting reel loaded with 60-pound-test Trilene Big Game monofilament line.

"Other guys like fiberglass (rods) for catfish, but the Ugly Stik is a composite rod - graphite and fiberglass. It's lightweight, and it's got some backbone, so you can really stick fish without worrying about breaking it, like my friend does when he uses pure graphite rods."

Terminal tackle for river fishing is a walleye-type walking sinker and a bead slipped onto the line before he ties on a sturdy swivel and, then, a 12- to 20-inch long leader of the same 60-pound-test line. Hooks are 4/0 Eagle Claw wide gaps.

"We used to use 12-pound line but broke off too many times," he said. "Twenty-pound line lets us horse them right out of brushpiles. You really don't have to worry about heavier line spooking catfish. We catch little 6-inch catfish on that heavy line, and if it doesn't spook them and keep them from biting, why would it bother larger fish?"

Swanson offered a couple of final tips to help anglers capitalize on Iowa's bounty of catfishing opportunities.

• "I never fish under a full moon. Don't know why, but they don't bite worth a darn when the moon is full."
• "Catfish bite good in the middle of a thunderstorm, but I don't do it anymore. Lightning hit a tree right behind my boat one time, close enough that my hair stood up, and I felt the heat when it hit. When I finally made it back to shore, I kissed the ground and swore I'd never be on the water in a storm again."
• "A rising river is good, but the best fishing comes a couple of days later, after it drops about a foot and stabilizes. If it stays steady for a couple of days or a week after that, that's the best time to be on the water."
• Finally, and most importantly: "Never stay in one place more than 15 minutes if you're fishing for catfish on a river. Once you catch all the biters out of a hole, move. You can sit in one spot all day and maybe catch two or three cats, or you can go with me, move every 15 minutes, and we'll get our 15-fish limits in a couple of hours or less."