By Brad Durick

We just can’t catch a break this season when it comes to conditions on the Red River for catfishing. All that heat got the spawn into full motion early – as we were about 10 to 14 days ahead of normal for that process – then Mother Nature decided to cool things off and brought the water temperature back to the high 60s to slow that spawn down.

As a result of the up-and-down, catfishing is a grind. Numbers are spotty both from my experience and that of the 32 boats that fished in Catfish League on Wednesday. If there is a pattern, it seems to be deeper mid river holes with current but not all of them are giving up fish. Sucker and goldeye are both working with goldeye maybe getting the nod as this week’s bait of choice.

There is some good news being that some post spawn females are starting to show up. The males coming off the nest are looking really skinny so they are almost done as well. I expect if we could get some consistent weather, they will wrap the spawn up soon and maybe we can get into some of the consistent fishing that makes the Red River famous.

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 the Grand Forks area.

Featured Photo: Break Point.  Connecting with bigger catfish has been tougher the past few days, as inconsistent weather and fluctuating water temperatures spurred the spawn and then stalled it. DEO Photo by Brad Durick.