flatheads during the day

Has any one had any luck catching flatheads during the day time? I know we all have caught a few during the day, but has anyone caught several at one time? I am going to be fishing a big tourn. in pool 19 and was looking for some good tactics to catch some big fish. From my understanding there is mainly channels and flats in that pool. And we all know the flats get bigger. what are some techniques you guys use to catch them in day light hours. Dirk and Jason I know you all should have some in put on this topic. I have seen some of the flats that you have caught. I will be coming up to fish in August by the way. hours are 6:30 am to 3:30pm. Thanks for all the help guys I really appreciate it. Jeremy

Jeremy,
I have caught Flatheads on purpose during the day…but I don’t find it an easy proposition. The way I was doing it you need to know their daytime holding areas very well. You must visualize the timber underwater, and guess within a few feet where they are sitting. Plop your bait in the “zone” and hang on. In the areas I frequent this means losing a ton of tackle and line…possibly the fish. I have caught a few on the front lip of depressions too. Either way, I prefer night fishing when more fish are more willing to come out of the cover a bit. I would think you would have to know the areas you are fishing pretty well to make this work. I’m not sure this would be the best strategy for fishing a tournament on new waters. It can be done, however.

Jason.

Jetcat is on the money. I have actually had great success during the day. I have several areas that have a nice deep hole. I look for 30 to 45 feet of water. The biggest cat will be sitting in the deepest part of the hole at mid day. The problem is they will sometimes look at your bait for 30 plus minutes before eating them or not bothering to eat them. A good test of daytime flathead hole is if you can drop a night crawler in there and nothing eats it. The cats chase everything out of the hole. You have to hit them right in the head with your bait during the day. I have an advantage as I fish water that has holes but little wood to speak of. Trying to get them out of woodpiles during the day is nearly futile because you have to fish right in them. I sometimes hit the same deep hole several different ways trying to find the spot on the spot. Good places to try this tactic are whenever two sloughs come together where they both have some decent current.

Pool 19 huh, we didnt call them pools when we were kids but, if that consists of the area below L&D 18, then its definitely possible to fish flats during the day, I think thats considered Pool 19. I grew up in Burlington IA and probably spent 75-100 days a year on that section of river before I moved up MN. Everyone is right about sticking to the deep hole for daytime cats. There are some spots specifically right below L&D 18 that hold some huge flats. Just drift around the area checking your depth and find the deep holes that show up out of nowhere and drop a line. I’ve pulled many 10, 20, 30#+ flats out of those holes while walleye fishing. Lots of large channels too. Otherwise look for big snags in the sloughs and bait up with bluegill if possible. Theres also a lot of wingdamns in that area that hold large numbers of fish as well as soem areas below Burlington northern train bridge.

Good luck out there, if you need some more info just let me know.

Welcome to the board Huck! Great first post!

Thanks for the welcome. I havent posted much but that was in my old backyard so I figured I’d try to help out a little.

Also forgot to add in the earlier post if you can get down to the old ISU power plant on the iowa side there are some major cats in their outlet area. You wouldnt believe the size of some of things i’ve seen come out of there. There is also a good population of fat Blue Cats in that pool to that can be caught just about anywhere especially below the damn and they will typically be bigger than the Flats. Good thing is they will eat anything.

Hre is a link to a article. Looks like if your name is “Wassink” flatheads just gravitate to you

http://www.iowagameandfish.com/IA_072002a/

Us walleye guys catch them all the time during the day on wingies pitching cranks and big plastics. Some real horses too. They’re not nearly as dormant during the day as some might think. During guide trips earlier in the month as the water started to stabilize I was getting 1 or 2 a day on cranks or crawlers in side channels. The 8 – 10 lbers fight just like a big walleye and get me hoping every time.

I’d like to see the walleye that fights as hard as a 10 pound flathead in July!

Just how many flathead master Wassinks are there anyway?

Pound for pound, a walleye fighs a lot like a flathead IMO. Now… will a “big” walleye fight like a “big” flathead? No. A big flathead in my book is 30 Lbs +. But an 8 lb flathead in July fights a heck of alot like an 8lb walleye in july.

When I hook up I can tell a sheepshead apart from a walleye almost immediately, regardless of size. Channel cats have a VERY distinctive fight and “show” themselves instantly as well. I’m not trying to take anything away from the flatheads here guys but in my experience, they’re awful darn similar.

But that’s just my opinion. I think much of the knock of the walleye’s fighting ability comes from the fact that very few guys regularly get to experience the 8 – 11 lb walleyes. The fight of a 2 lb walleye and a 2 lb flathead leaves a lot to be desired but a 30 lb flathead is pretty darn awesome!

I guess I’m stuck wishing walleyes grew to 30 lbs.

Thanks for all the help guys. I really appreciate it. I will let you know how I do. I will be pre fishing for about 1 week so hopefully I will have time to find some fish.

Huck, would you mind sending me your e-mail address so we could chat more about pool 19? Maybe we could even hook up and go fishing when I come down to fish. I will be in town for 1 hole week and doing nothing but fishing. I will be staying at Fort Madison. We can fish anywhere. I heard below lock 19 was good also which would put us in pool 20. Just let me know. And thanks again to everyone for the help.

Ummm sorry James…I have to correct you….

Quote:

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But an 8 lb flathead in July fights a heck of alot like an 8lb walleye in july.

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an 8 lb walleye in July fights a heck of alot like an 8 lb flathead in July….

(not that I would know…. )

Unfortunately I live up in Minneapolis now so I wont be able to hook up for some fishing down there but if you need some more info my email is [email protected] and let me know what you need.