“The bottom of the ditch is around 22 feet and you’re most likely to find fish in the 20- to 22-foot range at the bottom of the drop.”Barton further describes the area as a 100-yard stretch that he’ll fish along the drop while slow trolling. “I’ve never been able to identify the structure but what I think happened is the current goes down the river and the water hits this rock ledge and has scoured it out, which makes it a super hot spot to catch catfish in the springtime.”Barton targets this spot in one of two ways.
He then pitches the bait using 8-pound test on spinning tackle up against these bluffs, targeting the cracks and crevices he sees above the waterline.“During late March and into April, channel cats come into the banks to spawn,” he said. Barton describes the feature as an area where the main river channel has 50- to 55-feet of water coming up on a hump that tops out at 19 feet, and then it drops into a trough, which has a depth of about 36 or 37 feet at it’s bottom. But we also catch trophies that go up to 50 and 60 pounds.”Barton fishes Pickwick for catfish throughout the year but is particularly fond of early spring fishing when blue cats can be found hugging the edges of deep channel drop-offs in search of schools of baitfish. However, the largest catfish in North America are blue cats, and the world record blue catfish caught in North Carolina in 2011 weighed 143 pounds. Barton parlayed his experience as a mass producer into a new career, becoming a one-at-a-timer, and hosting clients as a recreational catfish guide.When the name Pickwick is heard in general sport-fishing conversation, it’s generally in context with the great bass and crappie fisheries associated with the lake. “Just work that area back and forth, real slow by slow trolling or bumping the bottom.”The guide’s baits of choice are cut herring, shrimp, cheese baits and commercial stink baits.Moving a few miles downstream from the Bear Creek area, The Gap lies in the mouth of Indian Creek. Fortunately, it does not feature a lot of stumps or structure to hang on so he prefers to fish it using a controlled drift or a slow troll along any part or the entire ditch.Spot No. “My theory is bait gets pushed into these areas and schools up on them and the catfish follow them in there.“Anytime you see a decent-sized indentation in the channel in an area where the bottom contour rises up, you want to check to see if it’s holding fish.”Back to the mouth of Bear Creek, the largest tributary on Pickwick Lake, hot spot No. It’s a lot of fun and a different way to catch catfish.”Barton describes hot spot No. The majority of the lake is in Alabama. He later returned and found it held good numbers of catfish.“Normally, they’ll be on the drop,” he said. Guys like Brian Barton are a rare find. If there’s strong current in the hole, he’ll go upstream of the hole and just slowly drift downstream, walking bait, bumping it across the bottom. “Pickwick has a healthy population of several species of catfish — most importantly channels, flatheads, and blues,” said Barton. “You’re within 4 to 5 miles of the farthest coordinates we talked about and it’s a really good ramp with plenty of water to put in here year round.”The nearest Mississippi town to East Port Ramp is Iuka.
Phillip Gentry is a freelance outdoor writer and photographer who says that if it swims, walks, hops, flies or crawls he’s usually not too far behind. These spots are more common the further you travel north toward Pickwick Dam and are responsible for most of the channel cat production that made the lake famous.Barton uses a somewhat non-traditional method in cat fishing circles.He said that in the spring, channel cats will hold along and in the cracks and crevices along the wall. “It’s about 11 feet on top of the mound, dropping off to about 30 feet over probably a 40- or 50-foot area. During early spring, around the first of March, this is a great place to search for catfish starting to migrate in.”Barton said he starts the spring catfish season as soon as he can locate fish in this type of area. He drop’s his baits to the bottom, pulls up 3 cranks to put the bait about 12 to 15 inches off the bottom, and follows the contour line, using the autopilot function on his trolling motor to troll .1 to .3 miles per hour over the structure.Located a half mile upstream on the south side of the mouth of Bear Creek, hot spot No.