Don Caldwell of Moss Bluff holds a large blue catfish that he wrested from a Cameron Parish canal. Photo by John Felsher

Louisiana's rivers contain some of the nation's best catfish populations. Early settlers along the Mississippi told of pulling blue catfish weighing more than 300 pounds from the big river. Today, "the Father of Waters" produces many 40- to 80-pound blues, and some topping 100 pounds.

Joseph Wiggins leads the list with a 105-pounder caught in June 1997. Arthur Pierre's second with a 98-pounder he caught in August 1987. In July 2002, Jon Michael Fortenberry pulled an 87-pound blue from the Mississippi near Transylvania in extreme northeast Louisiana. Horace D. Gibson landed a 60-pound Mississippi blue cat in November 1992.

The Red River flows down from the Great Plains between Texas and Oklahoma, across Louisiana and into the Mississippi River through a series of managed channels in the Three Rivers area near Simmesport. The Atchafalaya actually breaks off from the Red at the Lower Old River channel. The Mississippi wants to change course to flow down the Atchafalaya to the Gulf of Mexico.

A series of water-control structures and canals keeps the three rivers, all of which hold huge catfish populations, in their respective beds. Near the Old River Control Structure, Tommy P. Soileau landed an 84-pound blue cat in January 1981. In August 1980, Ed Deshotels landed a 78-pounder in the Atchafalaya River.

"Louisiana has some of the best catfishing in the world," said Mike Walker, a Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries biologist from New Iberia. "I've seen a 100-pound flathead come out of the Atchafalaya River. When we sampled in the Atchafalaya River, we saw hundreds of blue catfish up to 15 pounds everywhere. I've collected blue catfish as large as 60 pounds in Lake Verret and Lake Palourde."

In the 1990s, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers completed a project that added five water-control structures to the Red River between Shreveport and Simmesport, creating impoundment-like pools where catfish thrive. In July 1998, Harley Rakes landed the record flathead, a 66-pounder, near Shreveport. Michael L. Guimbellot landed a 52.04-pound flathead near Poland on the Red River in February 2000.

"On a good day, an angler on the Red River might catch 30 or more catfish provided he or she knows where to go," said James Seales, a LDWF biologist in Minden. "They might catch a 40-pound flathead. The average would be much less than that on other water bodies."

Wing dams redirect the channel to maintain the Red River at a minimum of 9 feet. These jetties also create eddies and scour holes that attract fish. Big cats wait near these rocks to grab baits drifting downstream.

"Blues congregate at the end of wing jetties where current creates an eddy and digs a deep hole," said Gary Hood of Red River Catfish Guide Service in Bossier City. "Around that hole, I fish three to five rods with different types of bait. I put two baits in front of the hole. Feeding catfish find a comfortable spot and face upstream looking for food to come to them. Inactive fish rest in the bottom of the hole. I put another bait in the bottom of the hole and one or two behind the hole. Sometimes, I won't get a bite in the bottom of the hole, but I can't keep them off on the upstream side."

The Cane River near Natchitoches produced two Top 10 flathead catfish. In April 1998, Ricky Gauthier caught the third-largest flathead ever seen in Louisiana, a 50.44-pounder. In June 1994, Bill Dickinson landed a 38-pounder for sixth place. Now just a long oxbow lake off the Red River, the Cane once formed the main channel of the Red River before that river changed course in the 19th century.