Jul 15, 2014 - Keith Sutton is a veteran Arkansas catfisher and a renowned outdoor writer. In this post from Bass Pro, he shares tips for catching monster river cats around wing dikes.

A sample:

The rock walls known as wing dikes (or wing dams) are placed in strategic locations to help maintain ship channel depth and lessen shoreline erosion. They are most numerous in hydropower and navigation dam tailwaters but may be scattered along the entire length of a big river. They fulfill their intended functions by diverting current. They usually lay perpendicular to shore, and when moving water strikes one, it swirls back on itself. The force of the current then moves outward, toward the middle of the river.

The water velocity slows, allowing suspended sediments to fall and accumulate on the river bottom. Over a period of years, the spaces between wing dikes will fill with these sediments. This narrows the river, creating more forceful current in the main channel that sweeps the bottom clean so little dredging is needed to maintain adequate depth for barge traffic.  

Inactive catfish typically stay on a wing dike's downstream side, lying on bottom, usually near inshore reaches. Current is minimal here so rest is possible.

Most feeding catfish, especially the more numerous small cats, hold near the river's bottom on a wing dike's upstream side. The reason for this is three-fold. First, water hydraulics here create a "tube" of reduced current near bottom running the length of the dike. Hungry cats can feed here without using excess energy. Also, this is an abundant food zone-crayfish and mussels in the rocks; shad, herring and other baitfish holding in the slower cylinder of water. Finally, when the river is high and the wing dike is submerged, catfish can feed on addled or injured forage animals easily captured in the boil-line directly above the rocks and immediately downstream.  

You should now understand the basics of wing-dike catfishing: to catch lots of eating-size cats, fish the upstream side. Downstream is rarely as productive. 

Good stuff. Read the full story here, and good luck.