QUESTIONS

What To Expect With Blue Cat Guide Service

I’m Bob Crosby from blue cat guide service. I guide on the Mississippi River for catfish with rod and reel. We specialize in big catfish and target what I call the trophy catfish. Of course, all sizes of catfish are caught but we try to catch the big catfish on our guided catfish trips. 

We fish up and down the river from Vicksburg Mississippi. Vicksburg is a real nice tourist destination. They have the civil war military park, they have the Blues trail in downtown Vicksburg. I didn’t realize what a popular attraction the Blues Trail was. We get people from Europe all the time over here going through the Blues trail. People come to Vicksburg on their trip with a family for a vacation and they’re always looking for something else to do. Everybody wants to go out on the Mississippi River.

There are three things that we emphasize on the boat when going out on the Mississippi River in Vicksburg.

1. We emphasize safety. I’ve got a big nice big boat for stability and comfort and we never take any chances. If it’s bad weather like or a thunderstorm or high winds, we don’t go out. We wait until the weather passes 
2. The emphasis is on fun. If you’ll watch these videos you’ll see everybody’s having fun. If you catch a big fish or a lot of fish and you’re not having fun then you’re not going to have a good experience. 
3. Blue Cat Guide Service emphasizes fishing. We take our fishing for big trophy catfish very seriously. Our goal is for you to have fun fishing the Mississippi River but we also want you to catch fish. We do everything we can and we fish hard. Blue Cat Guide Service knows how to fish the river. 

Equipment We Use To Catch Trophy Catfish On The Mississippi River

Here at Blue Cat Guide Service, we always use B’n’M poles. B’n’M has a great lineup of catfish rods. Everybody knows B’n’M for their crappie poles, but they also have a new line of catfish rods that are excellent. B’n’M Poles has a rod specifically made for bottom bouncing, drift fishing, and anchor fishing. I highly recommend the B’n’M catfish rods for catching big catfish on the Mississippi River.  You can visit their website at BnMpoles.com.

Three different methods we use for fishing here on the Mississippi River.

1. Bottom bounce 
2. Drift 
3. Anchor fish

Techniques We Use To Catch Our Trophy Catfish On The Mississippi

Drifting For Trophy Catfish 

When we are drift-fishing, what we do is use the rod holders on the side of the boat. We use the BnM ten-foot rods in the side rod holders. With the Mississippi River current, we put on 2 to 8-ounce weights or as high as a pound of weight to keep the line straight down. We turn the i-Pilot trolling motor around to slow the boat’s drift down. Most of the time we use skipjack herring for big catfish bait on the Mississippi. The skipjack is caught right here on the river by us so they are fresh. We bait our lines up with skipjack herring and drift down the river.

Bottom Bouncing For Trophy Mississippi Catfish

Another very effective technique we use is bottom bouncing for catfish. Bottom bouncing takes a smaller B’n’M rod because you’re holding it all day long as you drift down the river. Like bottom-bouncing, we will slow the drift down with i-Pilot trolling motor. Your lines will be going down behind the boat at about a 45-degree angle. You’re constantly filling for the bottom. As soon as you feel that bottom you ease it up filling for the bottom. If you do it correctly you can walk over logs and rocks. It takes a little time to learn the technique, but it’s very effective for catching trophy catfish with us here at Blue Cat Guide Service. The vertical drifting and the bottom bouncing are really effective when the catfish are scattered.

Anchoring On The Mississippi River For Big Catfish

Our last method of catfishing is to anchor. Anchoring for catfish on the Mississippi is mostly done in the winter. In the winter when it gets cold the water gets below 50 degrees the fish will tend to congregate in the deep holes. We will anchor in those deep holes and just wait them out. If we catch fish we’ll stay there. If we don’t catch a catfish we just run and gun until we locate them. We’ll give them 30 to 45 minutes. We don’t wait for the fish to come to us we go to them so after 30 or 45 minutes if we don’t catch a fish we go to another hole. 

These might be some new methods you guys haven’t seen so if you’d like to learn these techniques come on down here to Vicksburg Mississippi and try it with blue cat guide service. 

Questions & Answers

If you don’t find an answer to your question below, please contact me. Thanks!

1. Do you guarantee that we will catch fish?

​We are dealing with mother nature and an unpredictable river. I will not insult you by guaranteeing that every trip will produce fish or even a trophy fish. My gallery proves I know how to fish the river. I truly want you to be satisfied and come back and promise to give each client 100%. I have caught fish when the river rises and falls. But when it gets unstable – fast rise or fast fall – they slow down.

2. When is the best time?

​I catch fish year-round, weather-permitting. The slowest time is during the spawn. Depending on water temperature, this usually occurs mid-May, June, sometimes into early July. They are just hard to catch at that time. I love fishing in the summer and fall around mid-July to mid-November.  That is when we bottom bounce.  Bottom bouncing is like bass fishing with a worm except you are fishing for catfish. We drift down the river fishing out of the back of the boat bouncing the bait up and down off the bottom as the boat drifts down the river.  The catfish pick up the bait just like a bass picks up a plastic worm.  You set the hook and hold on.  Those big blues will try to rip the rod out of your hand. 

Fall and Winter-time can be outstanding fishing as well. It may be cold but the big blues are biting. The blue cats congregate in the deep holes, making them easier to locate. They feed heavily to prepare for the spawn. This is the best time to catch a trophy blue. Usually in the fall the water clears up and drops to fishable levels. Late winter, January, and February, can be fantastic as well. The blues are still schooled up and feeding. If you can locate them, hold on! However, it is difficult to plan ahead this time of year. High water can raise the river quickly. Cold weather and rain can cancel a trip. 

3. What do you furnish and what do I need to bring.

6. Where do we meet?

Take Exit 4B, Clay St West from I-20 stay on Clay till you dead-end into a concrete seawall (corner Levee Stand Clay) The ramp is on the other side of the seawall.