By Robert H. Cleveland

My 17-foot aluminum bass boat slid up on the sandbar, producing a grating sound that sparked a smile on Sidney Montgomery's face. His bare feet landed in the wet, white sand before I could kill the engine, and his eagerness was just as apparent in his words.

"If there's a better place to be than a sandbar on the Mississippi River, with good friends, rods, reels, a full ice chest and a summer day, I don't know where it is," he said. "I just love the sound of a boat sliding up on a sandbar."

The anchor was set on the bar, which, because the river was high, was now the low end of an island in the middle of the channel. Then a few minutes were spent unloading our gear.

And that's all there was time for before Montgomery grabbed his ultralight rod and headed for the river. We could set up camp later - bait had to be caught, and hours of catfishing to be done.

"See that run-out?" Montgomery said, pointing to a break in the bar through which a small stream had cut a path from a backwater area to empty into the river. Thousands of small shad were flicking the surface of the stream. "Right where it hits the river will be full of skipjack. First thing we need to do is catch about a dozen of them for bait, which shouldn't take long. We'll start with 12 and catch more as we need them."

The author displays the kind of cat that jug-fishing in the summer months can bring you. Photo courtesy of Robert H. Cleveland

Casting 2-inch curlytailed pearl grubs, the three of us quickly had a half-dozen skipjacks, each about 10 inches in length, flopping on the sand, not long for this world. Montgomery tossed them in a bucket and instructed us to catch about six more before joining him at the boat.

"I'll start cleaning these and cutting them for bait while y'all get the rest," he said. "Then we have fun."

In his 50s, Montgomery is like an adolescent when he's on the Mississippi River and catfishing is on the agenda. He often waxes poetic about being a modern Tom Sawyer, standing barefoot on a sandbar, wearing cutoff jeans and emptying his brain of all thoughts except angling.

With the skipjack cut, it was time to fish. "We're going to fish right below these run-outs," Montgomery said, explaining how he had found the spots during a reconnaissance mission the day before. "This bar has three run-outs, and two of them empty into the river just above a deep hole. Catfish are holding in the deep hole."

By casting upriver with a 2-ounce sinker, Montgomery demonstrated how to feel the weight and the bait slide down the drop until it found the bottom in 20 feet of water a mere 10 feet off the bank. As soon as his first cast settled, we could see his line start flicking. A catfish had already found his chunk of skipjack.

"He's got it," Montgomery said, setting the hook and bowing up his rod against a catfish. "Feels pretty good - not a giant, but big enough that we won't starve tonight."

A minute later, a 4-pound blue catfish was put into the ice chest.

"Just right," he said. "Y'all get ready. We're going to fill those chests."

We did, too: Two 48-quart ice chests were full of channel and blue cats weighing between 2 and 8 pounds before we stopped to set up camp for the night. Tents pitched, a fire was started and oil heated for the catfish fillets.

The sun set behind us across the backwater toward Louisiana; stars were already visible over Mississippi. I was absorbing it all, and wondering why modern humans have made fishing so much harder than it needs to be, when I heard the first fillet sizzle in the frying pan.

"If a man doesn't like catfishing," Montgomery said (courting abuse of his own prohibition on discussing philosophy), "then there's something wrong with him. He just ain't right."

We spent the night with our lines in the water until our third ice chest was filled; we then went to sleep to dream about doing it again the next day.

It doesn't take an overnight excursion on the Mississippi River to fall in love with catfishing. True, it's the Magnolia State's best catfish trip, but it's but one of many. From Pickwick Lake in the northeast to the Pascagoula River system on the Gulf Coast, Mississippi is loaded with catfish destinations. Choose one of these and plan a trip today. And pack a frying pan: If you've never enjoyed fresh-fried catfish on the banks of the water that fostered them, you need to.

No discussion of catfishing in Mississippi can start anywhere other than the Mississippi River. Its entire length down the western border has more holes than an angler could discover in a lifetime.

"The key is picking an area of the river that you can get to the easiest and most often from home and learning that particular stretch," said Harry Gibson of Vicksburg, a longtime angler on the Big Muddy. "There's not a five-mile stretch of the river that won't have at least 10 or 20 good catfish holes."

Gibson and Montgomery both use electronic depthfinders to locate fishing holes. "They're essential, but it's also important to learn to read the river," Montgomery said. "If you can see the current and know what it's doing, you can tell where the holes and flats are going to be."

Generally, in late May and June, the Mississippi River is up, carrying a lot of run-off from its northern tributaries, the Ohio, Missouri and Arkansas rivers. It can be a prime time for catfishing if you can catch the river when it's on a slow or moderate fall.

"When the water is falling and being pulled out of the connected oxbows, that's magic," observed Gibson. "You can see the clear water coming out of the backwaters and mixing with the muddy river. You get on the edge of one of those mixings, especially one with a deep hole, and you will be in catfish. Count on it."

Just as dependable as that kind of hole is on the Mississippi River, the bluff banks of Pickwick Lake provide anglers a sure bet in extreme northeast Mississippi. Pickwick ranks No. 2 behind the Mississippi River as a catfish destination.

STATE-RECORD CATFISH BLUE Carrol Peason Mississippi River 93 pounds Feb. 12, 1997 CHANNEL Tom Edwards Lake Tom Bailey 51 pounds, 12 ounces May 31, 1997 FLATHEAD Wade Arnold Pickwick Lake 65 pounds, 8 ounces March 21, 1987

"The big fish will already be back out in the river channel by June, but you can catch as many keeper-sized catfish as you want by fishing the rock bluffs," reported Tupelo's Harry Thomas, a Pickwick regular. "The fish move up on the rock shelves below those bluffs to spawn in May, and there's a lot of them left throughout June. All you need to have fun is some light tackle, a cork and some night crawlers."

According to Thomas, the key to finding catfish is finding a bluff bank that has an extended shelf providing a depth of between 6 and 10 feet for about 10 to 20 yards off the bank. He doesn't anchor, but he says that it's OK if you do.

"I prefer to get downcurrent and use my trolling motor to hold the boat and fish my way slowly up the shelf," he said. "Thing is, when it's right, you don't have to wait long. If there's a fish around, he'll hit it right away. If he doesn't, I like to be mobile so I can just move on up the bank and make another cast.

"With three people in a boat, you're covering a lot of water. We fish with our baits about a foot off the bottom, and if one of our corks doesn't go down within a minute, we move."

J.P. Coleman State Park is a perfect place to use as a headquarters for a Pickwick catfishing trip. Cabin reservations should be made in advance, but plenty of lakeside campsites are available.

South of Pickwick, the long Tenn-Tom Waterway starts its run toward the Gulf of Mexico. Along the way is some noteworthy river-fishing for cats.

"Outstanding," is the word that Larry Pugh, District 1 fisheries biologist for the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks, uses for this venue. "The Tenn-Tom is known best for its bass fishing, but truth is, the catfishing is as good if not better in most of the pools." Pugh ranks Aberdeen and Columbus as the two top pools, and recommends fishing the old river runs in June, especially below any feeder creeks.

"Most of the catfishing pressure is concentrated in the tailraces below the locks and dams, as you would expect," said Harry Thomas, who often fishes at Aberdeen. "But if you've got a boat and can get away from those areas, you'd be surprised at how good the Tenn-Tom can be. It's just like any other river system, in that finding the right deep holes, cuts and bars takes some work. But once you've located the hot ones, you can load the boat."

Across to the west in north Mississippi, Arkabutla Lake, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers flood-control reservoir on the Coldwater River, is another top choice. Known for its crappie angling during the late-April/ early-May spawn, it's also great for the whiskered fish.

"The thing you need to know about Arkabutla is that in May and June, after the crappie are through spawning, it's time to get busy with the catfish," said Jim Wilson of Southaven. "Arkabutla catfish start to move up on the rocks - anywhere there's riprap or a boat ramp or anything - to spawn in May and are there throughout June. I use my crappie jig poles, but I replace the line with 14-pound-test for catfish.

"I enjoy the way catfish fight on the jig poles. I use a slip-cork so I can adjust my depth quickly and I use nothing but night crawlers. I get on a riprap bank - even the dam - and move along slowly, staying out in 5 or 6 feet of water, fishing shallower. It's a hoot. You get a 5-pound channel or blue cat on a jig pole, you've got your hands full. Then, when the fun's over, you've got a great dinner."

Fishing riprap is a popular pattern for spawning catfish, which makes Lake Charlie Capps between Cleveland and Rosedale a much-favored spot in June. The 550-acre state-owned lake is positively loaded with channel catfish.

Capps (formerly Bolivar County Lake) is nothing more than a large catfish farm-type pond. Shallow, with an average depth of 4 feet, it's a bowl with riprap banks all around it. "That's what makes it easy for catfishing," said Ron Garavelli, chief of fisheries for the MDWFP. "You can catch a lot of keepers just right for eating right off the banks a few feet. We also draw them up to the piers."

While all of the catfish holes previously mentioned require boats, Capps and several other lakes in the MDWFP's state lake and state parks systems do not. One such, near Starkville in northeast Mississippi, is a must-visit in June: 479-acre Oktibbeha Lake, which, Pugh says, is brimming with catfish.

"Last June was exceptional," Pugh added. "Oktibbeha has a channel that flows through a stumpfield on the west end, and that was a good place for catfish when they moved up into the shallows. The northern arm is also good, with a channel and a lot of brush."

After the fish move back deep, casting from the dam is a smart tactic. "I spent a lot of time out there last summer when I was in summer school," said Joe Johnson of Jackson, referring to his time off between classes at Mississippi State University in Starkville. "My girlfriend and I would take our books and a blanket and go sit on the dam and make long casts and study between bites. We caught five or six apiece every time we went. That's when I found out she could cook."

Bank-fishing for cats is above average at most all of the lakes in the MDWFP systems. Other worthwhile picks include Lake Lamar Bruce at Saltillo, Kemper County Lake near DeKalb, Lake Lincoln State Park near Wesson, Lake Ross Barnett near Mize, Johnson State Park near Hattiesburg and Lake Perry near Beaumont.

"You can list some of them as being better than others, but people need to know that we stock and maintain healthy populations of channel catfish at all of our state lakes and state parks," the MDWFP's Garavelli said. "At most of them, all you need is a rod and reel and some bait and you can catch them from the banks. These places shouldn't be overlooked. They all have picnic areas, and most have camping areas. You can catch your lunch and cook at it, if you want to."

While health advisories are in effect for consumption of catfish from many Delta rivers and lakes, some of them are too productive not to mention - like, for instance, Lake Washington, an old oxbow now outside the Mississippi River levee at Glen Allan, that's one of the best catfish lakes anywhere. And June is a peak month there: Catfish go shallow to spawn and find the many bluegill beds too good to leave.

Eagle Lake north of Vicksburg is another. In June, fishing the shallow banks between the piers and boathouses can yield a lot of catfish.

The Yazoo River and its tributaries (like the Coldwater, Yalobusha and Sunflower rivers) are full of catfish. They're fun to catch, but advisories warning against consumption must be heeded. Remember: The bigger the fish, the more the toxins will have built up in its body. Smaller fish are always safer to eat.

River systems south of Jackson are also outstanding. The Pearl River, from Barnett Reservoir dam south to the Gulf of Mexico, is one of the best. A lot of big cats come from the deep holes around Columbia.

"We park our trucks at deer camp near the river and hike in, but it takes a four-wheeler to get back out because we're usually hauling a few ice chests full of fish," said O.T. Sutton of Columbia. "In June and July, once the river is down, those deep holes are full of fish."

The Pascagoula River and its many tributaries from the Bowie and Leaf rivers to Black and Red creeks are also worth a visit. "I would recommend a three- or four-day float trip to fully appreciate the Pascagoula system," said Hattiesburg's Ken Hill. "I like to put in on Black Creek and fish my way down to the river. You can do the same thing on the Red and on the Leaf River. In the summer, you simply target the deep holes in the bends of the rivers and creeks and you will catch catfish."

Since catfish are considered non-game fish at most Mississippi lakes, there is no limit. The exceptions are the lakes in the MDWFP state lake and state park systems. There, the limit is 10 per day or as posted.

For more information on fishing for catfish and other species, visit the MDWFP Web site at www. mdwfp.com.