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Vague topic, but I'll explain. I am curious about how those of you fishing the rivers from a boat are positioning yourselves into the hole and what you are looking for in a good cat hole as well as how you approach the hole. I have been out about 1-2 times per week the last month hell and high water to scout and fish. With the water high on the Stone we have been fishing many slough outlets in the still water between the slough current and the main channel with good results. This is the first summer out on a boat so I will profess my ignorance straight up. When we started we were looking for these holes and when found we would swing from the bottom and come in slow anchoring just feet from the point of the slough outlet off the island. This has been mainly because the boat is large and I am a little sheepish about potentially grounding it. I have no trolling motor to come in silent and deadly as of yet. I am sure though that by coming up from the bottom of the hole we are disturbing any cats lying in wait. I would like to just enter from the main channel and anchor at the bottom of the island however there is great potential to get hung up on the bar as the water goes down this summer. Entering from the top of the slough is another option but I quickly found out that the bottom sometimes has no good outlet. This has forced me to stay on plane running through a forest of small willows and skinny water. I am sure as I get to know my section of the river this will be less of a problem in the future. Next. Yes, I'm not finished yet. When fishing the mouth of a creek, are you anchoring at the mouth and casting into the still water of the creek or do you motor up a ways and anchor fishing back towards the outlet, given that the creek is deep enough for the boat? I have been looking at depths in the backwater pools some of these are 10-15 feet just 5-10 from the bank. Anyone fishing these with good results? As a side note, I cut up about 20 lbs of liver this spring and seasoned it with garlic and onion powder freezing it in Ziplock bags. I was fishing at the diversion dam and caught a nice 7 lb cat with it. The 10-12 year old boys fishing there asked if they could use some bait. I had to chuckle as the portly one said, "Wow, that really smells good". You don't hear that every day when you open a bag of catfish bait. Thanks for the input.