When surfacing skipjacks are sighted, I've found that it's highly likely scores of blue cats are lurking below. They're attracted not only by the prospect of a skipjack entrée, but also by the many dead and crippled shad left behind when skipjacks slash through a school. Sometimes striped or white bass join the feeding frenzy, too, working on skipjacks and shad alike. This increases the number of injured baitfish fluttering about, another drawing card for gluttonous blues.

For the dyed-in-the-wool blue cat angler, this is a setting like no other. A 1/64- to 1/32-ounce silver or white jig cast toward swirling fish will usually garner a strike from a skipjack that can be used for bait. Cut the skippie in small pieces, run a hook through one chunk, and then cast it toward the swirls, letting it fall enticingly to hungry blues waiting below. Better yet, come prepared with a few small shad ready to rig.

Drift-fishing is another method for finding scattered concentrations of Mississippi River blue cats. James Patterson of Mississippi River Guide Service -- (901) 383-8674, www.bigcatfishing.com -- shared this tactic with three of my sons and me on a fishing trip several years ago. After catching shad with a cast net, we baited up three-way-swivel rigs sweetened with chunks of these fresh baitfish.

To make the three-way-swivel rig, Patterson uses leaders of Stren Magnaflex monofilament in a bright fluorescent green color. "The 24- to 32-inch hook leader is 50-pound-test mono," he said. "The 6- to 10-inch sinker leader is 30-pound-test. I use Eagle Claw L-141 Kahle hooks with a black platinum finish, usually in the 7/0 size. Sometimes larger hooks are needed when using large baits. To complete the rig, the two leaders and the main line are each tied to a separate eye on a large three-way swivel."

Sinker size and type will vary according to the amount of current and the area being fished, but in most situations, Patterson uses a 3- or 4-ounce bank-sinker.

After we baited up, Patterson turned his boat perpendicular to the current with the bow and stern pointed toward the banks, and we rode the current past the Pyramid and beneath the Interstate 40 and 55 bridges, and continued downstream. The river bottom at Memphis is clean, hard sand that is roughened like a washboard. We could feel the weight of the rig bouncing across this substrate, but we had no difficulty discerning the hard strikes of blue cats. During a few hours fishing, we landed several nice blues, including one 28-pounder.

Ever since, I've often employed drift-fishing when targeting the big river's blue cats.

FLATHEADS
On another trip with James Patterson, two friends and I got a taste of the Mississippi's astounding propensity for producing jumbo flathead cats. Spring rains had swollen the river, making it high and muddy. Logs and debris were pushed into huge floating mats in the backwaters near Memphis. These mats, Patterson explained, attract flatheads searching for a meal.

To catch our quarry, we baited live shad and sunfish on an egg-sinker bottom rig. The rig was cast so that it sank beneath the moving mats of timber, and within a few minutes, the first flathead was giving one of my friends a run for his money. Several eating-sized flatheads were taken, and one nice fish that pulled the scale to 21 pounds.

Catching a dozen or more small flatheads (from 2 to 10 pounds) happens frequently when fishing in this manner, and though larger fish don't equal Huck's 200-pounder, 20- to 40-pound flatheads come often, and bigger ones are possible.