Cats trolling for walleye

Caught this flat heat while tolling for waleye. Have caught small ones in the past but nothing this big. My biggest cat ever. 40″ and 33.5 lbs

Nice fish. I imagine catching a big flathead while walleye fishing would make your pursuit of walleye seem kind of pointless.

au contrair!!….. not to offend you died in the wool cat guys… but I find little excitement in the hooking of flatheads while walleye fishing… to me the best description I can find is trying to bring an anchor off the bottom using 6# line… it may take up to 30 seconds to realize your NOT snagged…. when your in a moving boat you can follow the fish.. Ive never had any snags around when Ive hooked them… so you just stay over the top of them and eventually lift them off the bottom…… unless you tire of the ordeal and just bust them off… which Ive deliberatly done on occasion…. if the eyes are biting good why just stay hung on the bottom? check out the post on willow cats in the walleye line and you will see that there are times that flatheads are a nuisance….
its all in what you like… some guys love flatheads… some guys love walleyes…. neither one of them is wrong….. they just like what they like……

take that back to the walleye board….. you take your walleyrod catfishing in the snags with me sometime and you will come back thinking different….. I know that you are a big catch and release guy rivereyes which is fantastic!! so I know that you enjoy a fight with a fish.. How many times had you had a 6pd flathead on and had it trick you into thinking you had a 12 pd walleye…. remember everyone, cathing flats in late fall and winter is a whole different sport than in summer..

There is a walleye board on here some place? Where?

now guys!…. of course I did not mean to anger you!…. just point out that catching a cat dont make me stop walleye fishing!… and I KNOW the poor fish are very sluggish in the winter… cats are a warm water species…. and my walleye tackle wont handle them if there are snags around… I know that… Ive had big fish just head south on me (down river) when Ive been bank fishing for walleyes…. dont know what they were… but since I had been getting cats all day I can guess….. no stopping them with 6# line if you cant follow em….. its funny what ever speicies Im targeting I just seem to have tunnel vision for… Ive been a bass man, pike man, musky man, trout man, Walleye man… and yes… even a cat man!…..

Yep, “Jack of all trades, Mastah of no…………..” Did I type that out loud?

I’m still looking for the… What did you call it? Oh yeah wallNOT board.

Bowfinhunter

Haha that’s the funniest thing I’ve read here. Walleyes over flatheads? Are you kidding me? Walleyes fight like a paper bag. By the way hi bowfinhunter, haven’t seen you in a while.

Ive never had a paper bag break my line…. but big walleyes have on a number of occasions…. perhaps youve not caught any of the larger river specimens? though certainly Im not holding walleye up as a fighting fish of special note… they are however better fighters then some species…. they are tougher to catch on a consistant basis then MOST species… they are better to eat then MOST species….. they bite pretty much year around….. and they are a cool water species native to our area and inhabit some of the most beautiful waters of our state……they will bite in the day, and at twilight AND for those catfisherman of you who dont know….. guess what?… if you want you can fish walleyes at night…. they also are successful night predators and I suspect most of the larger ones pretty much ONLY feed at night….. I can understand loving to fish at night when the river is beautiful and at peace…… I can understand it as only someone who has done it before…. Ive fished cats with trot lines, jugs, ditty poles, even pulled them out of holes with my hands…. and of course Ive also used fishing rods (most of the time in fact)….. so I think I can undestand the love of fishing all night.. from a boat, or from a beach, from rocks, even from trees…… with bugs, without bugs, with moon, without… raining, clear, hot and muggy, cold and breezy…. been there done that……
but even if Im the only one whos going to defend walleyes…. I will!… if your basing a species worth soley on size….. then flatheads are STILL not the king of our freshwater world….. if your basing it on fight.. then flatheads are STILL not the king of the feshwater world…. if your basing it on challenge they are STILL not king of the freshwater world….. if your basing it on food chain, then they share top predator spot with other species, and are still not king!…….. which is NOT to say they have no merrit in each of those CATagories….. I think a species worth is based on more than one thing….. and its the mix of traits that endears each species to each angler……. when you have found the mix that trips your trigger then your happy…. and for me the walleye is that species…. and I have fished for and caught nearly all species found in this state….. so I have experiece that has proven to me what I like….. now the good news for you guys.. and the bad news for me… is that most anglers prefer fishing walleyes….. and very few prefer fishing cats….. you guys are LUCKY!!!….. your competition is light, you have your spots almost to yourselves…… count your blessings and dont promote your species…. just let those anglers target walleyes and keep your secrets safe!!!…….. your resource is strong, there are many trophies out there and its very underexplored and underfished…. you can pioneer it….. Im sure there are still secrets to learn in fishing for cats….. the way flatheads respond to jigging or trolling sometimes makes me wonder if flathead or channel tackle could be developed to allow for casting, jigging and trolling for these fish….. that would put you ahead of anchoring and fishing a spot for extended periods of time….. I remember the “old” days fishing walleyes…. and guess what? we anchored and fished bait for them at night….. geee….. it turned out there were MANY better ways to go……

c.c. Greetings how you doing nice to hear from you also, and good luck fishing.

RiverEyes, dude calm down we know how lucky we are that there are not a lot of people that fish for Cats and that is a part of the reason we fish for Catfish!
I do not promote anyone else fishing for Cats please look on the Red River board and read my posts there.
And hey dude its ok with me that you juged, dittied, trotlined and noodled. And if you like to fish at night live it up.
Personaly I am glad you fish for wallnots better you then me but Ihave only three points for you to consider.
1. Most people do fish for wallnots around here and we get to here about it all the time. ( forgive us for being testy but I here about wallnots ALL the time, your not alone defending them you may be alone on this board but seldom, if ever anywhere else)
2. This is a Cat board (I still can’t find the wallnot board)
3. You said something about breaking off on purpose earlier I would not do that even to a Wallnot.
Thanks for your time.

Bowfinhunter

I’m curious, Rivereyes, but have you always been a died-in-the-wool walleye fisherman? I have only recently taken up the pursuit of walleyes, and I think it’s just a reaction to all the hype.

About 1/2 of what I read in magazines and online centers on walleye fishing, not because there aren’t other fish, but because that’s what people are focusing on right now. Walleye fishing right now is what bass fishing was 20 years ago. Everyone wants a piece of the pie, and all the big manufacturers are helping promote the hype with big tournaments and publicity events so that they can continue to capitalize. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s a great thing that major industries are catering to the walleye crowd, and it will ultimately do great things for the sport. Just look at what happened to Bass fishing throughout the 70’s and 80’s. People went from fishing tournaments in flat-bottoms with 10hp motors to the ultra-tuned super-rigs they fish today. None of that would have been possible without massive promotion, investment, and poplurization of the sport.

I think one of the reasons I have taken up walleye fishing is simply because there are so many cool gadgets out there right now. Let’s face it – when I’m catfishing, all I need is a stout rod, some hooks, some weight (a rusty bolt will do!) and the time out of the house. Catfishermen do not feel the same excitement when the new BPS or Cabela’s catalogue hits the front doorstep. We don’t get to go to the marine shop every year and drool over the new boats. We can’t daydream about winning the RCL or the Classic. I think you get the point.

It seems so strange to me, especially down here, that catfish get so little attention. How can people look down on a fish that provides a “fishing staple” for better than 1/2 the country?

One other thing that you might consider: How many of us have seen some big-city doctor or lawyer get out of his $60K SUV parked next to our favorite stream in his $700 Orvis waders with matching shirt and flyrod just to give him a nod and laugh silently to ourselves? Would it be hypocritical if we were to then get into our ‘glass walleye rig with five motors and three livewells, pull nine rods out of the locker, turn on all three fish-finders, and start pitching for ‘eyes? Cats and walleyes are different breeds, as are the people who pursue them.

Hi Guys!..
Im back!…. Nice to hear from you guys again… Bowfinhunter!… sorry I was “wound up”… Im kind of like a few other guys on the board…. I love a debate and will jump in with enthusiasm…. but never anger!….
and Gianni!…. (a debate man for sure!)…… ya caught me…. it DOES depend on what STATE and even what AREA of the STATE you fish for what is the most pursued….. last I checked it was Walleye #1 in most areas…. but that is NOT the reason I pursue them? Was I always died in the wool walleyes? NOPE…. wouldnt give ya the time of day to fish them for years…. found it very boring….. I much perfered bass and pike when fishing up north…. and Cats and Carp fishing Iowa (where I lived for 35 years)….. Ive also ardently pursued Trout and even Salmon…. Musky… panfish of course….. loved Ice Fishing too…. ok… basically Im a fishing freak… I love to fish, will fish for anything…. but have been mostly stuck on Walldogs? for about 10 years…… Im nearly 50 and Ive been fishing since I was 5….. the first fish I caught, that was IT….. every since then I was CRAZY to fish…. In Iowa I had no ready release for that as a kid…. so I lived not far from Indian Creek and would fish it daily to catch Chubs, Shiners, suckers (if I was lucky!) and bullheads on rare occasion….. my fish were all small but it did not matter to me… I fished and fished and fished!…. I wanted to be a pro fisherman…. changed that to fisheries management…. and later dropped that dream too when it was obvious that money was going to be a problem and politics just sucked…..
(yep… Im pretty talkative! ask one question, get my life history!!)…… anyway heres the deal….. Ive fished for EVERYTHING I can…. ANY chance I get to fish for something new I take…. completely open mind… and what I understand more than anything is almost EVERYONE has their ‘favorite” fish…… and I dont rip on that!!! cuz no matter what fish it is, it DOES have its merrits….. you can find something good about everything… I often join the ripping on the hapless sheephead but there are days when thats ALL I caught….. and I would rather catch ANYTHING, instead of NOTHING…. fishing is more a passion then a passtime for me…. and yep…. I get wound up about it…. in a good way though…. anger is something I try to stay away from totally….. life is to short to get mad, well… anyway… this is not much in the way of an apology…. but Im always ready to say Im sorry!….. so Im sorry! for taking so much time and space in the catfish area about something that doesnt interest most of you….. (or maybe any of you!)…..
I will make it up to you by finding details of our local catfish tourney so I can post it up here on the board so you can participate next year if you wish…. Ive heards its WAY fun… and yeah.. there are even confirmed walleye fishermen that enter it!! and bass and musky….. pretty much anyone and everyone…… the same team has won 2 years in a row…. bet they are cat guys!! they got a 17 and an 18# channel this year…. nice fish Im thinking…..
ok.. I will be quiet now!…. shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…… *sorry*

In reply to:

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and I would rather catch ANYTHING, instead of NOTHING

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You said it, bro.

Keep the rod tip bouncin’ – JW

Riveryes,

Nice story! I know where you are coming from when you want to defend your favorite fish.. I get a lot of hazing from poeple because I catfish, especially up here in the north. Many people think of it as a “Trailer Trash” sport. I love to walleye fish or catch any other fish as well. (they make great biate)! People think that it is no problem to go out and catch all sorts of cats, like it is a no brainer. Or they think that you sit out in front of a snag for hours and sit back and drink beer/soda and watch your poles… that is not catfishing in my book.. I have cought cats vertical jigging, with floats, slip rigs w/ livebaite/ dead baite/ there is more to it than people think.
ya, you don;t need much to catch a catfish. but you don;t need all that [censored] to catch walleye’s either… You have seen me personally catch a 29 inch walleye without any help from depth/fish finder, or electronics or even a friggin net…. just a 17 doller rod and a 20 doller reel. YOu can have all the fancy [censored] in the world and that won’t catch you fish. ( It helps) but anyone can go up to the dam and vertical jig sauger NO BRAINER. when they are biting… especially in the fall/spring
Go out an CONSISTENTLY catch flatheads in the summer. or big walleye’s that takes skill.
ALSO there was a poll conducted NATIONWIDE on the most popular fish to catch and it WAS the catfish, second was bass, the reason Bass, walleye, trout get all the ink comes down to money.. EQUIPMENT>

“Ive never had a paper bag break my line…. but big walleyes have on a number of occasions…. perhaps youve not caught any of the larger river specimens?”

that must have been some walleye, were you using sewing thread? How do you know it was a walleye? And yes I have caught “big” walleyes, I caught an 8 pounder a few years back. It fought like a paper bag, I just pulled it up to the boat and it came in without a fight. Kind of anti-climactic don’t you think? Not only that but the thing tasted like sh*t.

My friend has caught walleyes while catfishing on the bottom w/crawlers, funny on both occasions we didn’t get a single cat. One day last year little walleyes were biting so fast they became a nuisance (when aren’t they though). I’m not saying walleyes are always easy, but that has been my experience.

Flatheads are the second biggest fish in the northern states and you don’t have to worry about whether they’re in season. They fight harder pound for pound than any fish except maybe sturgeon, they may not be as difficult to catch as some species but that isn’t a bad thing!

Anyways, whatever floats your boat. I just don’t see why someone would brag about walleyes in the cat forum, you don’t see any of us bragging about cats in the walleye forum…

Hey River Eyes, I just read your last reply, it’s cool that you have fished for all species, unlike 99% of the walleye snobs. I misjudged you, based on your first posts. I just wanted to respond to your comment about the king of the food chain, I think flatheads definitely are the top, they have the biggest mouths and the biggest capacity (look at their huge guts). They can eat 1/3 their own weight, I don’t know any other fish that can do that. Take a fairly common 30 pound flat snd do the math.

Sheepshead are under appreciated, they eat zebra mussels and actually make the water cleaner. Put up a heck of a fight too.

Hey Carp Chaser!!…
Im not going to brag about walleyes… not in this forum or in the other one either…. I just wanted to point out that everyone has their favorite fish….. as for pound for pound fight… maybe Ive not caught enough flatheads… probably only around 50….. most of them smaller than 20#… (only caught 10 or so 20+)…… they all seem powerful but slow even the smaller ones, and even in warm weather…. channels seem to have a lot more zip…. even the bigger ones…. though Ive never caught a channel bigger then 15#….
as for mouth size I think musky have larger ones, though this is only an estimate from looking at them, I never measured them…. Ive handled flatheads up to almost 50# (working for the Iowa DNR) and they have very wide mouths… but they dont open as high as a musky…. a 40# musky could proabably come close to swallowing a soccer ball….(at least it looks like it!)……
but they are entirely different predators then flatheads….. also dont blue cats get larger than flatheads? World Record fish shows blue at 111#, King Salmon at 97#, lake Sturgeon at 167#, white sturgeon at 468# (OMG!!), flathead at 91#, and last but for sure not least Alligator Gar at 279#, I guess since we dont have alligator gar around here we forget all about them behemoths… now THERE is something Ive never fished for!! HOLY COW!! what a BEAST!… I guess it has to win the predator king battle before there was even a skirmish!! *YIKES*… we need to get some alligator gar fisherman on the board…. that could be interesting!!……
oh… and Im pretty sure a musky or northern can eat 1/3 of their weight… heck…. maybe 1/2 for that matter (but you would think that would kill just about anything!)…. of course I guess it dont count if the tail is still sticking out of their mouth? There was an aquarium in park rapids for years.. maybe its still there… but in the 60′ when I was going there they had a 30# pike in there….. it used to eat trout that weighted from 8-12 pounds…. and it ate a 12# musky that shared its tank as well…. those fish are nothing but tubes…. all mouth and stomach…….
for fight the two most explosive fish Ive caught were King Salmon and Sturgeon…. then Musky and Northern….. for sheer pull a flathead is quite a force… its kind of like comparing a race car to a tractor… put them in a race the tractor is gonna lose…. put them in a tug of war and the flatheads lower gear will pull the other fish around….. its all what your looking for in a fight…
as for walleyes… well… they are in the middle of the pack in the fight arena….. Im not sure why an 8# (that you caught) fish wouldnt fight… all I can say is that isnt always true…. sometimes walleyes fight like northerns…… or even channel cats…… the only thing you can count on is you wont see them up on the surface tail dancing…. but then few fish will…..
anyway… Im not going to argue the merits of walleyes over any other species…. I still say it all depends on what you like…. there are lots of walleye fisherman around the northern midwest… outside of here though as I think Mavzer pointed out… in a great deal of area catfish is king…. I remember doing creel census in Iowa and back then bullhead was by far the most sought after fish… guys used to drive all the way to southern Mn just to catch bullheads…. and I remember how excited my Uncle was when he found out that Lower Bottle Lake by park rapids had some BIG Bullheads and he could catch them off the dock at night…. we would go out walleye fishing.. he would sit on the dock and fish for bullheads!!!… funny…. but then he caught more fish then we did.. and probably bigger too!… so I guess maybe HE was the smart one…… I know as a Kid I sure thought you should fish for anything that you could catch.. and the more you could catch the better!!……
well… enough of this banter…. its been a fun debate….. maybe we should have it in the general discusion forum so everyone can pile in with THEIR favorite fish….. one of these days were going to have enough different areas involved that we will get salmon fisherman, Gar Fisherman, Striper Fisherman, as well as catfisherman and maybe even some carp fisherman since some of them get pretty big too…. still you can only talk about what you know….. and most people have not caught examples of many species….. I guess I must be fickle I seem to switch around quite a bit….. in a couple of years who knows… maybe I will be fishing something else?
have a good one guys….. or maybe I should say.. catch a good one….

I wouldn’t have guessed Kings. When the run, they run – and there’s not much you can do about it. Personally, I would put the smallmouth in the ‘most ferocious swimmer’ category, but that could be because I’m usually fishing them in heavy current, too.

For all around zip, I would pick a forktail as one of the best edible fighting fish; the carp as the strongest non-edible. Cats don’t put forward the jumps that bass do, they don’t run like kings, but they certainly don’t roll over and play dead.

Hey, I don’t know where you got those facts River Eyes, but they are a few years out-dated. The current wr for flathead is 123 pounds (from Kansas), and I believe the blue cat record fell last year (116 maybe?). But… there are stories from the civil war times that told of 200 pound blue cats, and a report of a 350 pounder. Who knows what the biggest one ever was. The common carp record is always changing, I think it’s 85 or 86 now. Once again there’s a story of a giant, one was caught by Great Lakes commercial fishermen many years ago that supposedly weighed 125 lbs.

As for sturgeon, there’s a lot of debate, there is a picture in a freshwater fishing book at Gander Mt. that shows a 30 foot white weighing over a ton. It is truly massive. I’m not sure what the biggest ever caught is, but I know 1,000 pound fish were common a hundred years ago. The lake sturgeon record was 350 lbs. but for some reason it got disqualified. There’s no doubt that there are 200 pounders in the St. Croix and Rainy Rivers, maybe the Miss. too.(Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong on any of this by the way).

If you look back through the history of MN fishing records you will find many records were disqualified, even the largemouth bass (used to be over 14 pounds I think). I don’t know why they were thrown out. Yeah, those alligator gar are something, I’d like to fish for them some day.

Giani, I’m ashamed I forgot about listing carp as a strong fighter. Those things got speed and huge endurance, I don’t know how they compare to salmon but they’re up there. By the way, they are edible even though I don’t like to discuss it. Go to any Metro area dam sometime and you’ll see many buckets full of carp.. tried them once smoked and fried and they aren’t bad. It’s all in the prep. Cats are better though. I like catching anything big and fiesty.

We since the original post was cats trolling for walleye…this one hit a #7 Firetiger Shad rap on Pool 2. (I really just want to try an attachment-so humor me).

Carp chaser,

No need to be bashfule I have ate many smoked carp in my day! It is how it is prepared!!!!

I have also had smoked carp… (Im from Iowa ya know!, its quite common down there… or was in the “old” days)…. and also fried too… my grandfather was a big time carp fisherman… and it was pretty good fried….. if you prepared it right….
as for where I got those numbers… well there was a site… lets see… I will attach it….
http://www.schoolofflyfishing.com/resources/worldfreshrecords.htm
thats where I got it… just a quick search…… thanks for the corrected #s….. kind of fun talking about huge fish….

Smoked carp is still pretty common down here, especially in the small towns. There was a lady at work who claimed that “Carp Patties” were excellent. She said her dad would behead, scale, and gut carp, grind them bones and all, and then cook them up like salmon patties. Never tried one myself… where’s StillaKid?

My dad used to “can” carp all the time. Ground it up and put it in fruit jars in a pressure cooker. All the bones cooked up. It was edible but I’d rather have pan fried crappie or walleye.

LOL@Gianni!!!! Have her send up one of those patties……………I’ll have swany put some of his magic into it!

Nice fish there DaveB!!!

That’s no lie. A good cook can make a dandy meal out of duct tape and broke tree limbs in a pinch. Given some of the stuff that I like, I’m in no position to turn my nose at what anyone’s eating.

Hey DaveB nice fish