GLENDO, Wyo. — Like a tango on a tilting deck, the angler danced from one side of the boat to the other, stout rod bent double.
Somewhere in the depths of Glendo Reservoir, a fish peeled 20-pound test line through the drag, mocking a heavy-duty reel. In a different setting, the fish could be a striped bass or a salmon. In salt water, the imagination might run wild.
What eventually poked a whiskered snout through the surface was a channel catfish, the catch of the common man. Exotic it is not. But if it’s industrial-strength angling you seek, then this specimen that pulled a Boga Grip precisely to the 10-pound mark is the fish of dreams.
Catfish rank as the most under-utilized fishing resource — universally available, seldom targeted, little understood.
Channel cats, widely introduced in Colorado and neighboring states, are the most streamlined of a diverse clan, which may be a little like describing the world’s fastest plow horse. What we do have here is a fish with broad shoulders and muscles to match, a deep brawler guaranteed to add length to your arms in the course of a day’s tussling.
Catfish also offer a guilt-free path to a delicious fish dinner. At a time when certain elements of angling society frown on the execution of other species, catfish are politically acceptable table fare. Will fish for food.
Glendo certainly isn’t the only place to acquire a catfish dinner. Channel cats prosper in dozens of Colorado reservoirs, in large part from a Division of Wildlife stocking program that this year will plant 1.2 million fingerlings between 3 and 5 inches.
But Morrison residents Eric and Judi Coe have come to love the Wyoming location for its cold, clean water and the fact that they’ve learned where, and how, to catch them. As Eric Coe tells it, the lesson started two years ago on an unsuccessful walleye trip.
“I called my cousin, who fishes catfish at Lake McConaughy in Nebraska, and asked how to catch them. He told me to use shrimp for bait and to find the dropoff into the river channel.
“We put down in the channel and had a dozen in the first hour and a half.”
Cat man do.
Coe’s rig consists of stout gear anchored by a heavy bell sinker. A separate dropper line suspends the bait just off bottom. The key is to keep the offering in the deepest slot. Drift out of the channel and you’ll find few catfish.
While a powerful sensory mechanism draws Mr. Whiskers to any smelly offering, cats seem unable to resist shrimp. Half a large shrimp skewered on a strong hook seems about right. The beauty of it is, if the cats strangely refuse to cooperate, you always can eat your bait.
Charlie Meyers: 303-954-1609 or cmeyers@denverpost.com
