John K. Flores: Even in the city, catfish aren't far away

Since the long Memorial Day weekend, the recreational catfish anglers have been starting to gather just south of the railroad bridge in front of the Mr. Charlie rig museum. It’s an annual affair around this time of year, where catfish make their late spring/early summer run in Berwick Bay.
One of my co-workers just this week made the case for his uncle’s prowess as a cat fisherman by jokingly saying, “My uncle always does good. He knows the exact time to go and loads the boat with catfish. You know when?”
I answered, “When the boats are lined up in the river by the sea wall near the Mr. Charlie?”
To which he nodded and replied, “Yep!”
Essentially, if you’ve lived in St. Mary Parish for any length of time, particularly the Tri-City area, this seasonal catfish run up and down the Atchafalaya River always comes at a good time. The kids are out of school for the summer, the weather at first light isn’t super-hot yet, and the fish are typically biting.
There are boat ramps galore in our parish that allows super easy access to the river. What’s more, catfish are one of the easier fish to catch.
When I’m checking tides and selecting special gear to fish redfish and bass, my wife regularly reminds me, “You can always count on a catfish.”
It’s her way of letting me know not to go to so much trouble when we can simply set on anchor in the river with our boat’s top up providing plenty of shade and catch pan size catfish. No doubt, wise advice.
However, getting to the nitty-gritty of fishing for catfish, it basically requires a simple drop rig, 1/0 j-hook, 1 to 4 oz. pyramid weight, and some dead shrimp or cut up mullet for bait.
Blue, flathead and channel cats are all local catfish that can be caught in the river, bayous and small tributaries that make up this region.
Depending on which species you’re targeting, there are some habitat differences that should be considered.
Channel catfish don’t tolerate higher salinity brackish water and therefore are found in fresher water than their blue catfish cousins. They also prefer small or skinnier waters, where blue catfish prefer deeper water. Flathead, like blue catfish, prefer big rivers and reservoirs.
Though most anglers prefer catching smaller blue and channel catfish in the 12- to 16-inch range, there are fishermen that like to catch the big ones.
Morgan City resident Ernie Roe is one of those guys who chases big catfish. Roe even won the 2023 Morgan City Oilfield Fishing Rodeo’s catfish category last year when he weighed in a 33.35 pound flathead catfish caught in the river near Berwick Bay.
The retired boat engineer regularly fishes for catfish in 50 feet of water and, as the summer advances, goes deeper.
Roe said, “I often fish in 70 to 90 foot depths and sometimes even 100 feet. Essentially, big catfish look for cooler temperatures in the summer where the deeper thermocline is more to their liking. They’re also lazy and like to sit on the bottom and find locations that’s more or less out of the main current. It might be a hump or hill on the bottom. What happens is the bait swims over that hump with the current and these big catfish are there waiting to ambush it.”
I fished catfish with Roe a couple weeks back on the Berwick side of the river near some riprap that provided spawning catfish plenty of holes to lay eggs in.
It didn’t take us long to catch a few good ones.
Speaking of good ones, the Morgan City Oilfield Fishing Rodeo takes place Saturday. The event is open to the public with weigh-in starting at 2 p.m. Onlookers are welcome and what they’ll see is nothing but big fish — catfish being one of them.
Fishing catfish in Berwick Bay is a late spring thing and only gets better as summer progresses. Hot spots along the river worth checking out is Fools Point not far from the Jesse Fontenot Memorial Boat Landing and Chicken Island Pass further down river.
No boat? You can fish from the wharves on both sides of Berwick Bay and also along the bank by the boat launch at Jesse Fontenot Memorial Boat Landing.
John Flores is the Morgan City Review’s outdoor writer. He can be contacted at gowiththeflo@cox.net(link sends e-mail).