King's bait is standard for most trophy cat anglers who fish the Mississippi -- a big, fresh skipjack herring. He prepares this bait in a form he refers to as a "catfish sandwich." This is simply the innards of the skipjack sandwiched between two side fillets from the same baitfish. The size of the bait -- a pound or more --is very attractive to giant blues that want a big meal.

King presents the rig in deep river holes, some dropping below 70 feet, using either a 7- or 7.5-foot, heavy-action Cabela's Phil King Signature Series King Kat casting rod. He starts at the head of a hole and drifts through after the bait rig has been lowered to the bottom. Most cats hold beside river-bottom timber and rocks, which "telegraph" signals through the braided line to the angler above. The angler must be attentive at all times, raising or lowering the rig with the rod tip so he maintains feel with the rig below and keeps it bouncing across the pieces of cover and structure without hanging.

While drifting, King watches a fish finder, looking for signals indicating cats holding near structures below. If he spies good fish that fail to take the bait on the first drift, he may drift through the hole again, targeting those spots once more that appeared to hold catfish.

Fishing With Patterson And Dance
Another good teacher when it comes to monster blue cat tactics on the Mississippi is James Patterson of Mississippi River Guide Service (901-383-8674, www.bigcatfishing. com). One of country's foremost catfish guides, Patterson knows the Memphis stretch as well as any man alive. Many of his clients catch the fish of a lifetime on an outing with him.

I recently fished the Mississippi with Patterson and his regular catfishing companion Bill Dance, who also is a big-river blue cat expert. This duo is on the river near Memphis year 'round, and they've put dozens of monster blues in the boat that would make any angler envious.

On past trips with Patterson, we drift-fished for big blues or dropped baits in eddies at the ends of the river's big rock wing dikes -- excellent tactics that produced some really nice blues. On this day, however, we anchored the boat and cast baits into deep holes adjacent to smaller dikes beneath the water's surface. These structures were more subtle and hard to find than the huge, clearly visible rock dikes we usually fish.

"No bait works better on big Mississippi River blue cats than skipjack herring," Patterson said as he sliced a 2-pounder into big chunks of cut bait. "And few places you can fish are better than holes between these shorter, older wing dikes. A good depthfinder is needed to locate them, but once you do, you can expect to enjoy some good action for really nice blues."