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For anglers in New England and elsewhere, fishing tidewater rivers for white cats is one of the best ways to enjoy a day on the water Technique and the proper lures make a difference if you're itching to catch some cats in tidewater rivers. (Photo courtesy of Duane Raver/USFWS) White catfish range from California to Florida, but despite being widespread and abundant in many waters, these fish are largely ignored by anglers. That’s not the case in southern New England, however. In the waters of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Connecticut, white cats often are the best thing going. Channel   catfish   inhabit this region, too, but in most areas, white cats are more abundant and catchable. Bullheads also swim in local waters, but they don’t reach sizes that endear them to hard-core catfishing fanatics. There are no flatheads or blues within hundreds of miles. That leaves white cats as the whiskerfish of choice for many anglers. Before introductions...

With catfishing noodling gaining in popularity, hand-fishing will become legal in West Virginia Just 20 years ago, almost no one had heard about noodling for catfish. Now everyone has, and the sport is being legalized where once it was banned. (Photo courtesy of Keith "Catfish" Sutton) It’s official. In 2019, hand-fishing for   catfish   – noodling – will be legal in West Virginia. A vote in early 2018 by members of the state Natural Resources Commission established a season and regulations for the practice. The action came in response to Mountain State anglers’ desire to join legions of people in the South and Midwest who get their thrills by wrestling catfish from underwater hidey-holes using their bare hands. According to Wikipedia, noodling in some form was already legal in 15 states: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin. West Virginia...

Put your day off to good use and go on that relaxing fishing trip you know you deserve Labor Day is a great time for a fishing getaway on waters like Grenada Lake in Mississippi where these slab crappie were caught. (Photo courtesy of Grenada Lake Crappie Fishing Guides) Labor Day rolls around on September 3 this year. This annual celebration is a day set aside to pay tribute to working men and women. It has been celebrated as a national holiday in the United States and Canada since 1894. For many of us, Labor Day also means a day off from work, and if we’re lucky, a three-day weekend full of fun fishing opportunities. If you’re among these people, you may be trying to decide where to go and what to fish for. Here are some ideas that might help. Grenada Lake, Mississippi: Crappie As one avid crappie angler said when I asked him where most of his favorite honeyholes are, “There’s Mississippi and then there’s everywhere else. The Magnolia State is its own   crappie plane...