Can anyone help me with catching flatheads in the summer months? I have never fished for them in the summer time and would like to get into it. I think that it would be a lot of fun to try it anyway. Thanks everyone
Where do you live, by what river or reservior etc. What part of the state do you live in, I need more info. to help you out.
I live in north east Iowa and fish the Mississippi pool 10
Beings all the rivers are too small to hold large populations of flatheads in your area, you can fish the mouths of each river and see what happpens there, if theres flatheads in the Mississippi by those mouths there should be atleast a few near those mouths. Try the deep holes during the day and at night along the shorelines in shallower water at night near those holes. Use big bluegills, chubbs or bullheads for bait, the bigger the bait the bigger the flathead. Flatheads like deep water so fish that water or near that water, especially any areas that hold baitfish. If you have a boat thats even better, get right on top of that deep water near shoreline snags. Fish above the snags and let your bait drift down into the bottom of the snags, you’ll loose some hooks and sinkers but thats where the flatheads lay. Good luck
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Try the deep holes during the day and at night along the shorelines in shallower water at night near those holes. Use big bluegills, chubbs or bullheads for bait, the bigger the bait the bigger the flathead.
What he said, except you don’t necessarily need large baits to catch big fish, imho. Big fish can still eat small prey.
Keep the bait as lively as possible with a good aeration system and good fresh water. This is really helpful, as flatheads locate prey using motion more than scent and a livlier bait emits much more vibration which attracts flatheads.
An ideal spot would be wood cover in or near a deeper area (than surrounding spots) with current. Try to place baits at varying depths near the cover/hole as Mossydan suggested above.
What do you use for rigs? We use 3oz jigheads up by the locks during spawn.
Jigs for flatheads? depending on the current just enough weight to hold the bait on the bottom if I’m fishing the bottom. I use a no. 3 stainless hook at the biggest but bigger hooks do have thier advantage if you want to use one.
Ever try ditty poles stuck into the bank? thier deadly and they fish all the time thier in the water. Depending on the water I’m fishing I use one about 6′ long for channels. If it looks like a good flathead hole or area I use one about 8′ too 10′. I shove them back in the bank as far back as I can get it too go, from the boat and then tie my line to the ditty pole. When you cut the pole leave the last limb split on the end and tie your line there so the fish doesen’t pull it off. I then put the hook on the other end of the line so that the bluegill or live bait is within 5″ of the surface of the water, thier deadly on flatheads and channels. In Iowa waters you can fish 5 poles with your liscense, 2 guys and its 10 poles. If the fish are hitting even fair you can catch 50 pounds in a weekend fishing channel catfish. Its a good way to fish flatheads because you never know what time of night they will feed so it ups the chances. If you use them for flatheads fish the slow or calm water around deadfalls near deeper water.
Each dittypole requires your name and address on it so the DNR knows whos fishing it.
I’d like to catch some cats on pool 4 this evening…anyone have a suggestion as to where to start? They don’t have to be huge fish, prefer numbers! 
I’ll shoot you a pm shortly.
ya everyone here run jigs with bluegills or chub in the spring early summer. We fish up next to the dam in ruff water so you got to go heavy or go home. We have caught up to 40 pounders fishing that way but I would like to get them all summer long.I’ve never used ditty poles but i have a buddy that runs them sometimes, lots of channels not many flats. Thanks for the help. Ill give it a shot
Channel catfish water is diffrent then flathead water although they may border eachother. Channel catfish are the biters and they bite more then flatheads do, mainly because theres more of them, so you can catch them in many more diffrent places. They are through out the river system from 3″, even 2″, to the bottom of 15′ too 20′ holes in a deep spot in the river at almost anytime the waters warm. I’ve caught many channels in water so shallow that you could hardly get your chins wet, big ones too up to 12 pounds. Thier there with thier fins out of the water looking for nightcrawlers and crawfish that are following the riseing water. Flat heads just don’t do that, thier wired for deeper water because of thier ability to swollow bigger foods. They can stay fairly deep when young and still eat fish that only a channel twice their size could eat. They don’t have to go as shallow to eat, they can stay in deeper water and still find a meal.
Bigger flatheads around here will lay in water from 3′ too the bottom of deep holes and leave those holes anytime of day or night when they are hungry. They don’t feed all the time like channels do. Younger fish of both species do feed all the time because thier growing but the bigger ones don’t, they feed when thier hungry. if something does come across them they do feed but they don’t go searching for food until they are about to get hungry.
We have fished log jams, deep holes and deep river cuts and bridge pilings and didn’t get a bite. A week later they are biting in those same spots because they are hungry again, I’ve had too many reports of guys I knew and talked too that fished the same holes and areas that I did. I wouldn’t get a bite with the guy I was with and a few days later they were biting in those same holes and areas that I had just fished, and the opposit was true, thats why ditty poles are so effective.
It is key, very key, to fish those slow spots with no current next too deeper water. If you have a boat get right in the logjams and look for those key spots with no current or very little, those are the spots you want to pole fish or dittypole. Why? because the bigger flatheads are only feet away laying out of the current in the logjams, and will soon come to feed in those slow water spots right next to where they were just laying all day, take my word for it, thats where they feed.
In faster water like below a dam, thier there and they feed in any slower water close to the faster water more readily then the faster water. BUT they also feed right in water so fast you’d think they would wear themselves out looking for 4 a meal, but they don’t feed there all day.
If you have a boat and know a couple of these areas or spot them in log jams all you have to do is hang your line from a deadfall in the logjamb, do not tie it off or its called limb lineing and thats illegal, with a bluegill on it and just sit and wait, they will find your bait and its almost always better at night. When they hit the bait the line is pulled off the limb and you just let them run until you think its time to set the hook. Theres more then one way to fish flatheads effectively but it takes a deep water area or one close by to fish them and get them. A 3′ foot deep water shallow in and near snags and logjams with a bluegill and you will get them there too.
Get right in the logjams and fish there and you will get flatheads. Experiment with ditty poles on tips of banks next too shallow areas, and any area, and you will find where they feed most of the time. Not all water is the same but there is common water areas in all of them where flatheads feed. Flathead fishing is a waiting game and sometimes its many days or weeks waiting, befor a good bite materializes, sometimes its right now and they hit your bait befor it hits bottom. Any area where there is baitfish close to and area where they lay and I’d fish that area, especially at night when the sun goes down and all night long.
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