DUCK RIVER
Moving east to the central part of the state, the Duck River is absolutely loaded with catfish, according to Frank Fiss, a TWRA stream biologist. Last year, TWRA actually did some targeted catfish sampling in a few Middle Tennessee streams, including the Duck, and they found very high cat densities. Channel cats brought up in samples averaged about 2 pounds, but Fiss saw plenty of fish up to about 10 pounds and is confident there are bigger channel catfish in the river.

The Duck River almost certainly supports some flatheads as well, Fiss noted. However, no flatheads showed up in the samples, and he does not believe there is a major population of really large flathead catfish.

Cats can be found throughout the Duck River, which rises near Manchester and flows west across a big swath of Middle Tennessee before eventually backing up to form a major arm of Kentucky Lake. However, Fiss suspects that the middle part of the river offers the best overall prospects for fishermen. The upper reaches are swift and shallow and contain less quality cat habitat. Through the lower river, fishing is good, but access is somewhat limited.

A city dam in Columbia creates a wider, deeper river than otherwise is the case for several miles upstream of the dam. Downstream of Columbia, numerous stretches in the next 30 or so miles of river can be floated in johnboats to reach prime catfish holes.

A cartop johnboat is the ideal craft for the Duck. The river contains some shallow sandbars and gentle shoals throughout its course, and it is accessible mostly at bridge crossings and pull-offs along road rights of way where there are no formal ramps. Lightly fished and winding through a largely undeveloped part of Tennessee, the Duck is a really nice river to float, Fiss said.

The Duck is generally turbid and somewhat lazy. It doesn't twist nearly as much as the Hatchie, so anglers must consider areas other than river bends to fish. Tangles of timber along the banks probably hold the most cats. Deep ruts form as current washes around the treetops and cats hold among the branches waiting for food to get swept past. Other good areas are holes at the lower ends of chutes that wrap around islands and pools downstream of shoals. Of course, river-bend holes also hold plenty of catfish. They just aren't as prevalent or as defined as those along the Hatchie River and some other rivers.

Again, anglers who hope to tangle with flatheads need to concentrate on the deepest water and thickest cover they can find, fish with live bait and generally look toward the lower reaches of the river.

BUFFALO RIVER
Along with sampling the Duck, TWRA biologists also surveyed catfish populations of the Buffalo River, which flows into the Duck just upstream of the Duck's confluence with the Tennessee River. The Buffalo, like the Duck, supports a terrific channel catfish population and gets very little pressure from serious catfish anglers.

The Buffalo likely contains a few flatheads, but it is essentially a channel catfish stream and most anglers would consider it a bonus if they were to catch a flathead. Anglers can find plenty of action in the Buffalo with night crawlers or chicken livers fished on the bottoms of deep runs. Crawfish also will work very well and are apt to produce a fair number of other fish, including various sunfish and black bass species.