I wanted to hold off on this until I had a big ol flathead picture to show off…but I might be out of luck for this year…maybe not?
A few months ago, I was talking with Jeremy99 out in Ohio about how they troll for cats. Because the Healing Waters of the St Croix are more like a lake than a river, the cats don’t have a predictable place to hide or feed….at least in my stretch of the river. I was getting very frustrated with sitting in a half dozen spots soaking my little bullhead and suckers without a nibble.
His methods sounded promising.
He starts off with a #5 Kahle hook with a small crushed creek chub, then another chub hooked through the lips. Actually it’s more through the head, just behind the lips. I’ve been using large suckers. Then a about a 5 foot leader to a three way swivel. Dropping from the three way is a 3 oz bottom bouncer. A bouncer is used because it’s less likely to get caught in the rocks. I’m sure a pencil weight or something similar would work too. The crushed chub helps the cats locate the live bait. Personally, I think it helps attract channel cats too.
On the Croix if your from MN, you are allowed two rods. Placing this set up in your rod holders makes it easy on your hands and arms. My favorite set up is to have one rod in the holder with the bait mentioned above, then hold my rod with a massive amount of cut bait on the hook. As much as I can get on without covering the business end. This should give me a chance at a large flathead or a bigger channel cat. With the cut bait, I have experienced many “peckers” which are small channels and other small fish trying to get a piece of the “meat”.
The most action I’ve found comes from an flat that’s about 12 feet deep and has a 25 foot “trench” in the middle of it. Using my trolling motor, I try to cover all areas as slow as I can go to drag my cut bait and let my sucker swim as naturally as possible. On windy days, I use my trolling motor to slip along with the wind. If the wind is light, I’ll actually just drift using the trolling motor to control the drift.
With the live bait rod, the drag is set tight but a large fish will be able to still take out line. Many times the rod doesn’t bend when you have a fish on…the line just starts moving the wrong way….WHACK’EM!
The bite on the cut bait rod in my hand is the best in my opinion. I free spool with my thumb on the spool. When you feel the tug, I turn the boat towards the fish to allow time for him to get the pile of meat into his mouth. When you feel the tug has turned into a “run” , lock the reel down, press hard with your thumb on the spool so there isn’t any slip and WHACK’EM.
To keep my hands from tiring, I use a Garcia 6500 with 80 pound Power Pro and a relatively short 6 foot musky rod for the cut bait. You may say 80# test is over kill because there’s not many snags in the Croix. I say “use the heaviest line you can get a way with…you never know when Big Louie will be looking at the end of your line.
In fact, when I first started trolling I felt a different tug than normal…almost a chop…it’s the only way I can describe it. Gave her some line and then whacked her. At the time, I was using a Big Iron reel with the drag tightened down enough that wrapping the line around your hand and pulling would give you some line…but it hurt like heck. This fish was taking line out like the drag was broke…pulling my boat around like the Jaws movie. I figured it to be a big sturgeon because this was the biggest/heaviest fish I have ever felt and they were in the area….
The fight was on for less then 10 minutes. I had my rod doubled over trying to get SOME line back and out came the hook. Since the rod was loaded REAL good, I came as close as I ever want to get to going in the drink. (Reason # 3 for always having your PDF ON). It was BIG LOUIE, my line had gobs of slime for the last two feet.
The picture above is from Friday 10/15 around 5 pm in between the rain. I was out for all of a half hour before I figured I was going to get cold and wet if I stayed out any longer. Friday at 5…on the Croix…only three boats to be seen…fall is a great time of year!
This method should work on lakes as well as the Croix. Give it a try and let us know how you do!
