"Forty feet is the magic depth for blue cats at Norman," he said. "I catch cats at that depth fairly consistently."

Edwards said he'd rather anchor than drift-fish unless he encounters stiff winds.

He uses a Carolina rig and a 1 1/2- or 2-ounce egg sinker with a No. 5/0 circle hook at the business end. Upon the hook, he impales large chunks of freshly cut gizzard shad through the toughest part of the bait.

"Live shad are effective, too, but they're hard to keep alive during the winter," he said.

Edwards uses Ambassadeur 6000 and 6500 reels spooled with 30- to 40-pound-test line. He sets out 16 catfish rods around the boat if anchored, six to eight rods if drift-fishing.

Edwards said the catfish biting frenzy triggered by winterkill of shad at some impoundments happens occasionally at Norman but rarely at the part of the lake he fishes.

"The shad at the lower end of the lake can find enough deep oxygenated water to live," he said. "Winterkills sometimes happen at the other end of the lake."

Edwards' biggest Norman blue weighed 32 pounds.

"I haven't hooked a monster blue as yet, but I've caught lots of blues in the 20-pound class," he said.

Norman's two hot holes, the Marshall Steam Station near the Highway 150 bridge and the McGuire Nuclear Station at the lower end of the lake, don't become catfish magnets until shad gather at those areas in February.

Good holes for winter blues are Davidson and Ramsey creeks.

BADIN
While the NCWRC doesn't have any record of stocking blues in Badin, the deep Yadkin River Lake not only has yielded the current state-record blue, but also bigger blues supposedly have been taken on trotlines and jugs.

Badin, with depths over 100 feet, has numerous humps and deep-water channel bends and ledges where blues can dwell. The stretch below Tuckertown Dam to the old railroad trestle near Old Whitney Landing draws plenty of blues because of the current when the lake is being pulled.

Last year's NCCATS points champions, Joe Montaigne of Statesville and Chris Kerley of Troutman, put Badin on a par with Norman for big blues. At Norman, they caught a five-fish stringer of winter blues totaling 130 pounds; at Badin they had a five-fish stringer weighing 93 pounds.

"We've fished both lakes on the NCCATS circuit, and both lakes have produced state-record blues," Montaigne said. "There's little difference from one to the other except that Norman is so big the catfish are more spread out and harder to find, while at Badin, the cats are mostly in the main channel."

Although they rate both lakes equally, Montaigne and Kerley have a special fondness for Badin's blues. At the July 2005 N.C. Catfish Championship tournament at Badin, Kerley caught a 56.90-pound blue, the largest catfish ever caught in the 11-year history of the trail, which folded in January 2006.

"The hook got bent with that fish," Montaigne said.

Montaigne said that in clear, oxygenated waters with current, blues will come in shallower to feed. In the winter, blues like 55-degree water, but later in the year, 68 degrees becomes the "magic number" for catching large numbers of fish.

"We fish the area from the old railroad trestle to the dam, trying points along the way in 15 to 20 feet of water," Montaigne said. "We get most of our bites at breaklines where the points drop off into 10 to 12 feet of water."

The two anglers hold their boat steadfast with 35- and 45-pound anchors while they put out 12 rods -- 6 1/2-foot Eagle Claw rods -- housing Ambassadeur 6500 reels spooled with 30-pound-test line.