Your touching on a fairly controversial subject. Flatheads are in their wintering holes now and if you know were those holes are you can catch serious numbers of fish. I dont fish for them during this time because they are so vulnerable. People claim that with the correct presentation you can get them to bite during the winter months. This may be the case but the later into winter it gets the more dormant they become. I suspect many fish caught December-February are snagged. Just ask Steve Vick. We’ve hit em in the head with a aqua view lens and they barely move. They also have silt on their backs from not moving. The In-Fish did some articles on it mavybe 3 years ago if you want to get some presentation tips. I believe large plastics and jigging spoons are popular but I’m not too sure.
Absoultely Dirk! I have purposely dropped that heavy camera lens on their heads and they don’t so much as move. However…one interesting thing I have noticed is that the channel cats are a few feet above the flatheads and they are swimming around actively and are scared of the camera. I would like to try and target them with some cutbait, drifted 2-4 feet off the bottom. I have had some channels absoultely crush a jig while walleye fishing in the dead of winter, so I know they will feed aggressively all year long.
As far as the flatheads, I have yet to be convinced that they feed with any agression during the cold months. I could be wrong, but what I have witnessed many times with the aqua vu, tells me they don’t.
so most of the ones i see getting caught durning the winter are snagged??
I’ve read that despite the dormancy of these big flatheads…if a bait is stuck on their nose, they will sometimes take it down….I’d say if you get a hookset in the mouth, that he willingly struck the bait. my .02
Both. Sometimes they bite. Sometimes they are snagged. Dont forget these fish are lying face first into the current. The first spot the hook hits is the mouth “area”. Here is a link that views fishing for these fish at this time negatively. http://www.procats.com/page2/page3/flatcontro/flatcontro.html
Dirk,
That was an EXCELLENT article!! 
I guess I’m not sure where I stand on this issue 
, and definately would like to know some more facts. What stress levels are put onto these great fish by pulling them out of their winter coma 
? Do they just settle back down in the silt or become confused?? I doubt there have been many studies on this? Don’t get me wrong, There is nothing better than catching a monster flathead, but if it is harmful to the fishery, I say close the season for those who intentionally fish for these giants. If one is “snagged” on accident…so be it, and i’m sure it will continue to happen, but make them be released. 
Anyone else’s thoughts?
i agree, good article. i had no idea that this was such a controversial subject.
…what i didn’t really find in the article was a good explination of how or why it is harmfull to the fish to be caught during the winter. i don’t think i’m buying the “they don’t even put up a fight” argument. i’ve watched em pull people all over the place when hooked during the winter months. and besides, don’t they have to eat sometime?? or are they in sort of a hibernating stage like a bear or something??
if any one can point me to that in-fishermans article i would love to read that to see what they have to say.
still not quite sure where i stand on this subject yet 
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If I were King….
I always try to error on the safe side. Great artical. It just seems to me that with all the other kinds of fish out there, why would we have to target a fish that you know is just lying there? Snag or not? But then I don’t understand why people shoot ducks on the ground or on the water either.
I think it would be cheaper (and more sporting) to leave the boat dry, make a run to Star Prairie, WI an pay to fish in the “over 2 lbs” trout pond. Money ahead and you know you’re not hurting the fishery.
I guess what surprised me the most was that flathead fishing is a “over pressured” fishery.
Jake, Everybody is somebody, so you can’t be nobody. I’m sorry to say…you are not perfect…but hey! Keep trying…. I am!
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Everybody is somebody, so you can’t be nobody. I’m sorry to say…you are not perfect…
thanks for pointin that out B.B. but i don’t no whether i should be happy that i’m somebody or sad that i’m not nobody. 
…and as far as your other comments go….i don’t think i agree . wouldn’t it be more sporting to try and catch (not snag) a fish that is in a lathargic state and not willing to bite than it would be to catch fish that are on a suicide mission. some places in canada come to mind, where you can catch walleye after walleye on cigarette butts…..or when the white bass are going crazy on the top of the water and you know exactly where they are and you can throw anything with a hook out there and catch em…or when the big momma sunnies are up shallow on their beds. i consider these situations to be “un-sporting”, not giving the fish a fair chance. trying to figure out a pattern that will make a fish bite, even when they’re not hungry or whatever, is what fishing is all about.
now if it hurts the fish in any way shape or form, i say don’t do it. but if you can legitimately catch these fish, i say go for it. 
Jake
there is merit in what your saying in my opinion but we must accept that most people out there catching these cats intentionally are without a doubt, snagging. I watch them fishing big blade baits and mongo spoons with huge trebles and it just seems rediculous to me. It is not sport to drag a meat hook along the bottom, yank every so often and call a face hooked cat a legal fish.
We are going to agree to disagree here.
IF it’s proven that dragging the fish off the bottom in thier “state” doesn’t hurt the fish, I could care less what you or anyone else does. What’s sportsman like behavior to me, may not be to you, But until then, error on the side of safety. 20 years = 60lbs of flathead.
There are hunters (is that hunting?) that shoot pheasents on the ground too!
I guess that on this issue, I must stand against snag fishing for big cats. It reminds me of when I was a little kid and we would go to where the carp spawned in this little stream and we would “fish” for them with sticks. There was no line on these sticks, but those carp still never stood a chance. It sounds to me like a hollow victory to catch a cat in the state thats described in the article. Especiallly when it was stated that you could basically set a camera right on their heads and then snag them. Sounds like how I “fish” at the grocery store. There ya go.
P.S. We bashed the carp on the head because it was so easy. 
The mortality rate on these fish is high. The WDNR tagged a bunch of Flatz that were holed up on the wisconsin river and 90% died. They had divers go down and bring’em up slow so they could work’em up. The season is closed around this particular dam from Nov 15 to the first sat in May, to try and protect this resource.
Anymore info on that study? That would be an interesting one to read. Thanks.
I say, let them sleep! Flatheads are the kings of their world when the water is warm. Let them rest up so we can catch them when they are at their best in the summer. Plenty of other cold water active fish to chase after.
Interesting article and discussion. Why doesn’t the state just close the season during this time? We close seasons for walleye and pike. The Flat Head Cat deserves better treatment than to be left vulnerable to snagging. This is an incredible fish and should be treated as such.
I say this with a bit of sarcasm… but rules are already in place to protect these fish. Snagging is illegal and this problem would all but vanish if enforcement was made a priority. A couple enforcement oficials with a mandate and a weekend in March and we could catch a good number of the guys doing this. It’s pretty hard to hide muskie gear and slab spoons or jigs with 5/0 – 8/0 hooks… especially when they’re doing the “drag n’ rip” through the deep holes where these fish huddle. Most all cats snagged are caught from a few small areas that would be VERY easy to monitor with a couple bodies.
The same thing could be said of guys keeping snagged walleye and sauger. It’s rampant. I’ve gone to pulling up to the offenders and demanding the fish they just boxed be released and explaining the law they’ve violated and my intentions to make sure it is followed… and so far this seems to work well but it’s not a true solution as they just come back next weekend or later in the day when I’ve left the area and go back to business as usual.
I guess protecting this resource would just come down to money… as many things do. If the money was available to enforce the no snagging laws in place these fish would be adequately protected. Follow this up with signs at landings stating that catfish snagging is illegal and this practice is monitored and violations are enforced and we’d be a long way toward dealing with the issue. Unfortunately most states are dealing with budget cuts right now… fewer agents on the water to deal with this and other issues and no money for education. I think the best we can do is to call our local CO’s or the TIPS hotline and spotlight the abuses we see out there to help focus the efforts of the CO’s.
Snagging would still occur. I would estimate that my boat snags a couple – 3 of this big buggers in a winter season on walleye gear. Some boats intentionally targeting them will state daily “catches” in excess of 20 – 30 fish daily. I have NEVER had a flathead hit a bait in the winter. Maybe others have. Most are snagged “in front of the ears” and would likely be considered by those doing the snagging intentionally as a “fish that hit” based purely on the part of the body snagged. Given the size of the heads and mouths on these fish and that they lie on the bottom facing upstream as boats drift downstream through the holes, this is not to be too surprising.
Recently there was some info / study about winter angling of smallmouth and the potential detrimental effects on populations due to high mortality rates following release. Apparently much needed fat stores were depleted and high levels of stress were placed on these fish. I can see parallels between winter angling of smallmouth and these snagged flatheads. I do not have access to or know the location of this study done on winter smallmouth angling. Maybe someone else does and can share that info here.
My suggestion is to keep the TIPS line number programmed into your cell and when you see the snagging taking place, call. Don’t hesitate. It will focus needed attention on this resource and the way it is being used / abused and hopefully we can get enforcement officials in the right locations at the right times to deal with the handful of people out there that regularly participate in the snagging.
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if any one can point me to that in-fishermans article i would love to read that to see what they have to say.
Jake,
I hold in my hand two different in-fisherman mags that discuss this issue. One is the Multi-species special realease Jan. ’03 titled “Catfish Options When It’s Cold”
The 2nd is the 2003 Catfish Insider (not sure on release date) but the whole magazine is targeted towards cats and it has a good article called “Top Tactics for COLDWATER CATS”.
Both articles have some interesting points on this subject. If i can, i’ll try to put together some cut and pastes of the key points they make.
If you want to fish cats in the winter go down south and fish the big resevoirs. Leave them alone around here. They are so much more fun to catch when they are active and their blood is up. I liken this behavior to shooting a sleeping bear.
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