King Of the Cats

Well, after a pretty slow April here at the King of the Cats, the Month of May sure made up for it!   It was a full month of big fish action. Not only were a lot of nice fish caught but we also hit a couple of milestones.  The biggest documented Flathead in the history of KOTC was entered not only once…but twice!  Josh Moe and Jake Robinson both entered the same size fish on the same day.  They both measured 49 x 33.5 and estimated at 60-65lbs!   Spectacular fish guys and a real testament to the to the benefits of catch and release.  It was such a cool thing to see those fish released to fight another day.     The other milestone was Daris McKinnon breaking the all-time total score for Channel Cats.  The old record was 180 and Daris surpassed that and is currently at 182!    With the new expanded boundaries of North America I can’t wait to see where that Channel Cat score ends up.    I expect another solid month and many more big fish in June.  The contest will really start to take shape.  Up until now on the Flathead side it has pretty much been the Josh, Jake show.  I would guess upgrades will be much harder to come by for them, and the pack will creep up slowly and on the Channel Cat side a nice battle has formed between the Red River and Colorado.   The Whisker Run is scheduled for this coming weekend on the MN river and we have a full 25 boats signed up and ready to do battle.  I would bet we will see some nice KOTC entries come in during that event.   Good luck to everyone in June and I look forward to seeing all your entries!   As always be sure to like and follow the King of the Cats Facebook page for up to date info, pictures, and real time entries.   Here are just some of the many nice fish entered in May.

Hey everyone, here is your update for April. We have started off pretty slow here this year, especially compared to the last couple of years. However there have been some nice fish entered and it’s only going to get better from here on out. The weather and conditions are looking fantastic for the next several days and I expect to see a bunch of nice fish being caught. The Whisker Run event scheduled for June is already sold out and I’m looking forward to that. Good luck to everyone in May and be sure to keep an eye on the leaderboard as it is being updated constantly and also Like and Follow King of the Cats on Facebook to see up to the minute entries and pictures. Now let’s go get em!

The 2016 season has come to an end.  What a great year it was!  Lots of great catches and a lot of good times.   I want to thank all of you for your participation, great pictures, and entries.  Like I’ve always said, without great contestants you cannot have a great contest.  I hope those of you that joined for the first time this year will continue to participate next year.   I also want to take a moment and thank those that kindly donated prizes this year.  Please remember to support those that support us.  Plano/Frabill   Tomcat Custom Rods and Team Catfish .

With that said, here are your 2016 Champions:

The flathead division was highly competitive this year and we had much higher scores than average to win. We had 18 fish entered that were 45 inches or bigger this year!   It was definitely a great year for Flatheads.  Congrats to all of you.

With 230.5pts and 2nd highest score of all time is Josh Moe.  This is Josh’s 1st Flathead KOTC win.

With 229pts and 3rd highest score of all time is Jake Robinson.  This is Jake’s 6th Flathead KOTC win.

With 224.5pts is Justin Severin.  This is Justin’s 2nd Flathead KOTC win

With 220pts is Steve DeMars.  This is Steve’s 5th Flathead KOTC win.

and last but not least with 220pts is John Kimble.  This is also John’s 5th Flathead KOTC win.

The Channel Cat Division was also highly competitive this year.  We had 34 fish entered that were 32″ or bigger, and also a new biggest fish of all time entered that was 40 x 23!  Congrats to all the winners in the Channel Cat division.

With 179pts and 2nd highest score of all time is Jake Robinson (Jake also caught the 40 x 23 mentioned above).  This is Jake’s 7th Channel Cat KOTC win.

With 177pts and 4th highest score of all time is Jesse Kiggins.  This is Jesse’s 1st Channel Cat KOTC win.

With 176pts is Brad Doerr.  This is Brad’s 1st Channel Cat KOTC win.

With 174pts is Kent Hollands.   This is Kent’s 4th Channel Cat KOTC win.

and also with 174pts Billy Brazier. This is Billy’s 4th Channel Cat KOTC win.

In the Youth Division, this year’s winner was Isaak Mather with 171.5pts.  This is Isaak’s first KOTC Youth win.

Awesome fish guys and truly an accomplishment to be proud of!    For a reward to the guys that finished with the top score in each division.  Tommy @ Tomcat Custom Rods has kindly donated a Custom Rod to each of you Josh Moe and Jake Robinson.  I’m sure you will put the rods to good use next year!  Congrats to both of you.   Big Big thanks to Tomcat Rods with a nice gesture.  If any of you are looking for sweet catfish rod, be sure to check out the Tomcat FB Page.

Finally, at the end of the year we like to crown the Ultimate Premier Superior Grand Master Champion of both divisions.  This year with 408 total points is Jake Robinson.  Congrats Jake, great year!

Thanks again to all of you and I look forward to doing it all over again next spring.  Have a great winter, be safe, and be well.

-Darren

Congratulations to Jake Robinson on the new MN official unofficial catch and release Channel Cat record!   He caught this fish over the weekend on the Red River on the lower stretch between Drayton and the Canadian border.  The fish measured 39.75 x 23     Currently MN does not recognize catch and release records for Channel Cats so until that happens, we will continue to do that here at King of the Cats.   Awesome fish Jake and I think this is going to be a tough one to beat!   Wow, what a fish!

1 month remains for the 2016 King of the Cats Contest. August started off pretty slow, but started to pick up nicely towards the end. The entries really fall off in August due to the fact that it takes such larger fish to upgrade what you have already caught earlier in the year, but the nice thing about that is I can usually expect a pretty big fish when I see an entry was made! We also had another successful Whisker Run contest on Pool 3 of the Mississippi River. A lot of nice fish and good times as always. I have been seeing a lot of really nice fish caught lately and I’m hoping to see some movement in the leaderboards for September before we crown all the KOTC winners for 2016. Don’t forget, there will be a winner of a TomCat Custom catfish rod in each category! Good luck to everyone in the final weeks I hope to see a few big fish before the end of the Month. Here are some pictures from August.

As predicted, July brought a typical slowdown in the entry dept here at KOTC. Still lot of great fish caught and some very nice upgrades with some movement in the top 5 for each specie. Now that we are post spawn and rolling into August I expect some more great fish to be caught! Thanks for all the entries and congrats on the big fish caught in July. Get on out there and wet a line, still lots of time to put some points on the board. Good Luck and be sure to check out the current leaderboards and like and follow us on Facebook for up to date entries, contests, and general info. Here are the pics from July.

June 2016 will go down as one of the greatest months in King of the Cats history! Big fish after big fish after big fish was entered and just when I thought the leaderboard was pretty stable, BOOM another big fish would shake things up. Congrats to everyone on all the great catches in June. We are now at 57 flats 40″ or bigger and 16 45″ or bigger. WOW I would suggest taking a moment to check out the full leaderboard to see where everyone currently stands. Those top 5 green scores are super impressive! The only question remains is who is going to be able to upgrade these big fish? Historically things slow down quite a bit in July around here, but I do expect to see more nice fish. Have a great July and see ya back here in a month. As always, be sure to check out the King of the Cats facebook page and give it a like and follow to see up to date entries, live streams, and giveaways. Now check out these pics!!!!

Wow, what a May it’s been!  Some very nice fish caught this month.   I know May isn’t quite over yet, but with the long weekend coming up and many anticipated entries I thought it would be a good time to do an update.   May 2016 has been sort of an odd month.  We have had pretty good weather and river conditions.   In the Flathead category, Steve D is holding 1^st  and already at a crazy 212 pts, but even crazier than that is the fact that those are the only 3 fish he has caught all year long, meanwhile John K who is in third place hit 200pts faster than any other contestant in the 8 years we have been doing this and is having many multiple fish nights and is probably close to 40 or 50 fish boated already, yet he never broke 200pts the entire year last year. Right behind John is Josh M who is also already over 200pts and having a great year as well.   We’ve already seen (3) 50lb class fish (Josh M, Steve D, and Larry H).  Over on the Channel Cat side Jesse K has already put up a point total greater than last year’s winner!  177pts and it’s not even June yet.  177pts would currently be enough to be in the green on the Flathead board @ 5^th place. Congrats on the great catches Jesse!    Right on Jesse’s tail though is Wayne O and Billy B, also with some great catches up on the board!    Good luck to everyone in June and I’m really looking forward to seeing a lot of you at the Whisker Run contest in a couple of weeks.   As always be sure to check the King of the Cats Facebook page for up to the minute updates, announcements, live videos and giveaways.   If you would like to receive FB notifications, you will want to hit the Like and Follow button on the KOTC page.   Have a great and safe Memorial Weekend!

Hey everyone!  Here is your April update.   As with the past years, April was a roller coaster dictated mostly by Mother Nature.   When she gave us favorable conditions with some sun, fish were being caught, and when things cooled down and the water came up, it seemed to shut it down for a bit.  Still lots of great fish caught in April!  Congrats to Andrew, Blaze, Brad, Isaak, Jake, John, and Josh for ending the month in the green.   I’m looking forward to a great May and can’t wait to see all your entries.  Good luck to everyone and be sure to like and follow us on Facebook for up to date entries, important information and big fish catches!   Also I got word from a few companies such as Team Catfish, Frabill, and Tomcat Custom Rods about some great prize donations headed my way.  Hopefully I’ll have some fun stuff to give away, but just remember you can’t win if you don’t play, so get those entries in and join the fun.  🙂

As in past years, when we get a warm stretch here in MN I like to get things started early. Flatheads will still be held off until April 1st, but the Channel division is now open and ready for submissions!   Here is your first entry of the year. Brad D with a nice fatty. 29 x 18.5