“Catching Big Cats in Kansas with Danny Payne and Mister Twister”

Part 4: Wade-Fishing for Big Flathead Cats

Editor’s Note: Danny Payne from Emporia, Kansas, has been fishing with Mister Twister products for about 20 years. He’s come up with a really-unique way to catch catfish with Mister Twister.

Question: How many flatheads do you think you’ve caught since you caught your first flathead on Mother’s Day weekend in May?

Payne: I’ve caught close to 400 pounds of catfish, however, I’ve turned them all back except one. I kept a 28-pounder about 2 weeks ago. I filleted it out for a fish fry on Independence Day.

Question: Do most of the fishermen who fish below the spillway keep the cats they catch, or do they release them?

Payne: I would say we’re about half and half. Half of the guys keep their fish, and half of the guys release them.

Question: In an afternoon of fishing, how many anglers will catch catfish below the spillway?

Payne: First of all, this spillway isn’t heavily fished, because there aren’t a lot of places to fish if you don’t wade, like I do. Most of the fishermen up here don’t like to wade-fish. If the water’s moving well, and the fish are biting, I’ll usually see one to four fish caught in the afternoon.

Question: How deep is the water where these catfish are holding?

Payne: I don’t know for sure, but I’ve been told that the middle of the channel is somewhere between 10 and 15 feet. When we get a lot of rain, and the water rises, the channel may be 20- to 25-feet deep.

Question: You said you wade-fish. How deeply are you wading?

Payne: I go out until the water’s about midway up my thigh.

Question: Why did you decide to start wading for these catfish?

Payne: I started wading to reach the channel where I thought the flatheads were holding. I’ve also found that there are some rocks that I get hung-up on fairly frequently that seem to break the current out in the middle of the channel. So by wading out, I try and get to a spot where I can cast upstream where I think the catfish are holding. I’ve found one spot where I’ve caught 90 percent of the big flathead cats that I’ve caught. The cats seem to be lying behind a big boulder and off to the side of an eddy pool.

Question: How are you working the jigs to make the flatheads bite?

Payne: Sometimes I’ll bounce the jigs on the bottom, but most of the time I use a steady retrieve and troll those two jigs across the current as slowly as I can and as closely to the bottom as I can get them without getting hung-up.

Question: How many jigs and Mister Twister Curly Tail Grubs do you usually lose in a day of fishing?

Payne: I can lose 5 to 10 double-jig rigs a day. But if I’m not losing jigs, I’m not fishing where the catfish are holding.

Question: Have you ever hooked a catfish that you haven’t been able to turn?

Payne: Oh, yeah. I’ve had them break my line. I hooked one catfish that instead of running downstream, ran across the river and started heading up toward the spillway. Another angler had cast out from the other side of the river. Somehow the catfish got around his line. He thought that he had a big catfish, and so he set the hook really hard and broke me off.

I know that was a monster flathead, because I never could get it close to me. That catfish just kept taking line off my spool. I’ve gotten some 40-pound catfish in really close, but I couldn’t budge this cat. I believe that cat would have weighed 45 pounds or more. I’ve seen a picture of a 68-pound flathead that was caught here at the spillway. So I know there are some really-big ones in here.