Wheeler Reservoir is noted for producing big blue catfish, but not quite as big as the one that Ohio anglers Carl Morris Jr. and Rob Parsons brought to weigh-in at last weekend’s Cabela’s King Kat tournament out of Decatur.

The giant 114.96-pounder was the largest ever weighed in anywhere in a King Kat tournament.

Catfishing is one form of angling not much impacted by murky water, flooding and high current. In fact, catfish often bite best under those conditions because they give an advantage to scent feeders. Bass and crappie anglers, on the other hand, have tough fishing during prolonged muddy water periods as we’ve had across much of the state this spring because their quarry species are sight feeders.

In fact, the bite at Wheeler was exceptional. The Morris/Parsons giant, along with a few smaller fish, only earned them second place in the tournament according to King Kat chief Darrell Van Vactor. Top spot went to Texas anglers Jerry and Noah Ishcomer and Stacey Gaston, from Greenville, who brought 156.9 pounds to the scales to claim the victory. They weighed only four fish, but one weighed 89.28 pounds.

In fact, every team down through 10th place had over 100 pounds. Only one catfish over 34 inches can be harvested per angler under Alabama law—tournament fish are kept alive and released after weigh-in.

Considering the relatively low number of anglers on the water — 58 teams participated -- the catches were particularly impressive. How do they do it?

Not surprisingly, it’s a natural bait game—while cats are occasionally caught on bass lures, cut shad and skipjack are by far the best baits on the Tennessee River impoundments.

One of the popular tactics on river impoundments where current flow is adequate is what the angler call “bumping,” in which a pencil-type snagless weight of 1 to 6 ounces is trailed on a three-foot dropper below a three-way swivel. A circle hook, size 8/0 to 10/0 is on a second shorter dropper from the swivel, with a 2-inch foam slip cork a foot above the hook. The monofilament line to the sinker is lighter than the monofilament to the hook, allowing the sinker to be popped off if the weight snags. Most anglers use 60-pound-test or heavier braid as running line, on 8- to 10-foot heavy duty catfish rods with either medium baitcasters or heavy duty spinning reels.

The idea is to drift fast enough so that the sinker occasionally taps bottom, while the float suspends the bait a few feet above so that the fish can more readily find it. Those who specialize in catching big cats look for them on big-screen sonar, often on the edge of drops or on flats adjacent to the channels.

While blues are known for eating pretty much anything that will fit into their very large mouths, most experts agree that fresh skipjack, a type of herring found in the river, is their favorite food. Skipjacks can readily be caught on sabiki rigs (a series of small flies on dropper lines) or on crappie jigs in the fast waters below river dams in spring, and they are also stocked frozen by some tackle shops and marinas on rivers where catfishing is popular.

Oddly, though big cats have big mouths, most experts prefer a relatively small chunk of bait, a fillet about 2 inches wide and 4 to 5 inches long, rigged skin-on to flutter slightly as it drifts down-river.

Depths vary with the seasons, and most anglers who scored well in the King Kat event reported fishing at depths of 20 to 30 feet in the lower end of Wheeler. The fish move shallower to spawn, and much deeper during summer heat, sometimes into holes as much as 80 feet deep.

While state law allows harvest of one catfish over 34 inches per angler daily, most who fish them regularly say that cats over 15 pounds should be released—the smaller ones are much better to eat, and the bigger ones are unique freshwater gamefish.

Catfish guides are not numerous in Alabama, but two good ones are Captain Mike Mitchell (www.tnriveroutfitters.net) and Captain Brian Barton (www.brianbartonoutdoors.com). To learn more about the King Kat series, visit www.kingkatusa.com.