Cat Call. While bigger fish were tougher to come by, average sizes were up for catfish on the Red River in and around Grand Forks. DEO Photo by Brad Durick.

By Nick Simonson

Despite all the ups and downs with water levels on the Red River this spring and summer, the resident population of channel catfish remains strong and healthy as the flow cools and the bite wraps for the year.  Grand Forks area catfish guide Brad Durick explains that while the top end of large fish over 20 pounds was a bit tougher to touch this season in his many outings, there were plenty of quality catfish to keep the system in good shape heading into 2025.

“We’re still lacking on the top-top end, meaning the twenty-plus-pounders, and they just have seemed to be down the past three years, and I keep pretty tight track of the twenty-pluses. It was better than last year, and about the same as the year before on the really big fish. But I’m going to go a step further and say compared to last year the average size was considerably better,” Durick details on his tallies of catfish from the Red River in the summer of 2024.

Anglers are also finding more consistency upstream on the Red River, with bigger catfish being caught in the reaches of the Red around Fargo.  In part, the removal of the last low head dam on the main stem of the flow near Drayton, N.D., has allowed for fish movement, and with the higher waters this spring and early summer, catfish likely have more access to upstream habitat heading into winter.  While the river in those areas may not be as wide as the stretches Durick fishes around Grand Forks, the strategies are often similar, and the difference allows anglers to narrow down and fish certain southern reaches more effectively.

“Higher water years they have just as much a shot at big fish as we do.  Typically there’s more smaller fish in the upstream area,” Durick explains, “but it’s about half the width of Grand Forks so where I’m fishing a third of the river to target fish in Grand Forks, if you get anchored in the right spot you’re going to have a hole, you’re going to have a run, and you’re going to have a wood pile, in the width of the river and you can fish the whole river all in one swath if you have enough people and enough lines. So, it’s a lot easier to cover water,” he concludes on the advantages of fishing the Red River in and around the Fargo area.

While the water levels may have been inconsistent throughout the primary catfishing season, the bait selection produced a go-to for Durick and many others throughout the summer in the form of two-to-three days’ dead sucker.  The cut bait outperformed other options including goldeye and even frogs, of which there was a good hatch this season with all the spring and early summer ponding from early rains.

“In 17 years of guiding, this is the first year I never had bait being my biggest headache. It was a matter of just keeping ahead of it and making a call when you needed one,” Durick details of not only sucker availability but productivity as well.

With recent dry conditions, the Red River and its feeder tributaries remain low, and Durick hopes for a winter with enough moisture to raise water levels to clean out grass, brush and other debris ahead of next spring’s start.  

Simonson is the lead writer and editor of Dakota Edge Outdoors.