‘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.”
In the fall, big walleyes (locally known as ‘greenbacks’) move up the river from Lake Winnipeg.
“In October the greenbacks begin coming in and life gets good,” she said. “The biggest in my boat was really big. It was three days after I had my hand surgery, I had 30 stitches in my hand, and I was fishing with my beautiful daughter,” she said.
“I passed her the rod and she set the hook into a walleye that went 31 1/2-inches.
“It was a great walleye fall,” she said. “And catfishing was good all summer long. It was so consistent. It’s all catch-and-release, but you can keep one under 24 inches. We supply all the equipment, all you bring is a smile.”
Holly’s outdoor background is extensive.
She grew up in Riding Mountain National park in southwest Manitoba. She was rodeoing full time at the age of 14, had her own half ton truck at 16 and a racing car.
When the family moved to Falcon Lake, located in the Whiteshell Provincial Park in southeastern Manitoba, she pursued the walleyes the lake is noted for.
“I’d spend literally 15 hours a day on the water,” she said. “I guided a little, fished a few little tournaments in the area and was placing high in them. If I was not working, I was out on the lake.
Then she began fishing tournaments seriously.
“I’d be home on Sunday night, work Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, and pull out for a tournament. I did that for 18 years,” she said.
She fished both walleye and bass tournaments including the PWT trail down south and bass circuit up north as well as a bunch of unsanctioned tournaments.
“I think the first year I fished 18 tournaments,” she said.
Then came a stint with Bass Pro Shop.
“I was the first woman on the Red Head Pro Hunting Team,” she said. “I was treated very well by that company and was able to hunt Africa and around the world with bow and occasionally the muzzleloader.
She did a lot of competition shooting with the bow representing the Red Head team.
“But I found targets were boring and they were so hard to cook,” she smiled.
She really enjoys promoting women in the outdoors.
“It’s not really as tough as many women might think,” she said. “The worst thing you can do is give a woman men’s used equipment or take her out to a place that is cold, wet and nasty.”
With the right equipment anyone can be comfortable in the outdoors.
“And it’s a whole lot of laughs,” she said.