By Brad Durick

On the Red River temperature is holding for the time being in the mid-60s and the channel catfish are holding on the inside corners near deeper drop offs that also have a shallow shelves near them. Set up on these areas and put a couple lines on the shelf and a couple in the deeper part of the off-current seam.

Give the fish an honest 20-minute timer and they should start biting after that. Some mornings they are sitting on the shelf and others just off of that drop off. The bites are coming faster than they have most of the summer so let the fun begin!  Other places to look are mid-river holes with slower current running on them.

Recent rains have the Red’s flow up a little and that seems to have made the fish more active and aggressive. Cut sucker has been by far the best bait this week but if you still have some frogs around, they can be awesome too.

With the cooler days setting in, my catfish season is winding down and this will be the last report for 2023. Thanks for reading and I will be back for 2024 with more great catfishing action from the Red River!

Brad Durick is a Dakota Edge Outdoors contributing writer and a licensed ND fishing guide specializing in trophy catfish on the Red River in and around Grand Forks.

Featured Photo: So Long!  Big catfish are biting as the author’s guiding season comes to an end on the Red River, look for more great reports in 2024. DEO Photo by Brad Durick.