‘Mama Cat’ is master of the Red River By Larry Myhre
Holly Chow, Winnipeg, a full-time guide for Cats
on the Red at Lockport, Manitoba, nets a catfish for a client. (Submitted photo)
Reprinted from the Sioux City Journal
LOCKPORT, Manitoba — When Holly Chow steps into her guide boat, she has to catch fish.
After all, anyone with the nickname, “Mama Cat” has to live up to her reputation.
And she does. A lifetime of experience in waters throughout the country sees to that.
But she didn’t really begin to fish for catfish until last spring. That’s when she began guiding full time for Stu McKay’s “Cats on the Red” resort.
“A typical day would be eight guys standing at the dock and they’d see two boats there and they’d see the girl and they’d go, ‘Oh, god, somebody’s got to fish with the girl,’” she said. “Then we’d come in with 24 fish and they’d go, “We were with ‘Mama Cat!’”
The Red River below the Lockport dam is recognized worldwide as a premier big catfish river in the summertime.
“The average size channel cat is about 20 pounds,” Holly said. “I would be ashamed if I took you out and we didn’t get three over 36 inches weighing between 24 and 26 pounds.”… Continue reading
Red River monster ‘eyes By Larry Myhre
Dan Rowe, holds a 31-inch walleye. (Submitted photo)
Reprinted from the Sioux City Journal
SELKIRK, Manitoba — The mighty Red River spills out of the Lockport Dam and rushes north to massive Lake Winnipeg, about 14 miles away.
Below this dam exists a fishery unlike any, anywhere in the world.
The stretch of river from the dam to the north is called “The Miracle Mile.”
It is along this stretch that miraculous catches of big fish have long been routine.
The area draws hundreds, if not thousands of fishermen each fall in pursuit of massive walleyes which come in from Lake Winnipeg and mill below the dam.… Continue reading