Controlled Drifting Flats

@Comanchero15

I remember this was a fairly new tactic last summer and curious to how this year went for you?

I’ve been playing around with it for flatheads, channels and sturgeon… So far only had luck with channel cats, but haven’t put a ton of time into it. Steve D uses this tactic frequently last time I checked

I do a considerable amount of controlled drifting, or trolling, for catfish and I am quite successful at it. I have won a few tournaments using this method, as a matter of fact, most of the cat fishermen in the tournaments that I fish use this method with a great deal of success. Although most of my trolling is in lakes and reservoirs, I have good luck in rivers as well. I have a friend that trolls the Mississippi in Clinton, Iowa that has had really good success this year. He tells me that he catches most of his biggest channel cats using this method.

I have some friend in Wisconsin that wanted to learn how to troll for cats. We spent a weekend at Petenwell and caught about 60 in two days with two boats. They’ve tried a couple different lakes since then with great success.

I would be glad to answer any questions you might have. Ask away or I could just write up a description of my methods.

And yes, Steve D does it quite successfully as well. He and I have exchanged info as well.

L8R…Ken

I used to frequent a few national catfish boards. I had a lot of fun talking to the southern boys about tactics. I know they control drift for blues mainly and sometimes channels. But have never seen it done for flats. If you are successful in drifting for flats how do you not get hung up constantly? Also is it barely a crawl around the hole? I’d love to hear more.

Maybe I misunderstood the post title. Are you talking about drifting/trolling for flat heads? If so, I have no advice for you. I think it is complete luck when anyone catches a flathead drifting/trolling. Even though I have caught a 32 and a 24 pound flat head while doing so, it was still complete luck.

I believe that flat heads are not as aggressive as blues and channels. I believe flatheads are ambush experts. I do not believe they will chase a cut bait as actively as a blue of channel. Sure they’ll grab a cut bait if it crosses their path or drifts by their nose, but I do not believe they will chase a bait down for any distance.

When I read the title, I assumed you were wondering about drifting/trolling the ‘flats’ between wing dams on the river. There is some good cats to be caught there using this method.

Sorry if I wasted your time…Ken

No waste of time at all Ken, you lead to even more ideas

I did put out the @ for Steve, I believe it was him drifting Pepin last summer following the schools of shad around. And similar to those southern boys with the blues had very good luck for flats.

He wrote a very nice report on it but haven’t mustered up the energy to look for it

Was curious to how it went this year….

Flats will absolutely smash big plastics on jigs. I’m sure there is a way to troll for them, especially in lakes or reservoirs. I’ve caught piles of mid sized flats while pitching for walleyes. Areas of large, deep rip rap or deeper creek mouths/back water cuts.

Sorry I’m no help in actual trolling experience but there’s more ways to catch them than dunk a chub and wait

There are even people who cast musky baits at night to the shorelines to catch flatheads… Sounds expensive but every fishery has its best technique.

I’ve been fishing some pretty deep and mucky bottoms recently and have adapted the drifting Santee Cooper rig into an anchor, cast, and drag retrieve for anything that bites-but mainly trying to find an active way to fish for sturgeon.

I’m never afraid to run suspended live baits for flatheads, even hanging right over the side of the boat, 5′ down in 10fow with success.

It’s getting close to cut bait flathead time. Caught 3 this week on cut.

Sorry for the late response, nhamm. I haven’t been on IDA for a while. The cat bite is still on in the Bayport pool. I’ve been drifting/trolling up in the No Wake Zone with some success. They like fresh shad if you can get it. Find the shad pods and drift in and around them and you should have some success. I’ve been fishing daytime – it is easier to tend the rods and still maintain boat control. Lots of shad along the Wisconsin shoreline from the High Lines south too – watch the gulls and they will point you towards the shad and the cats.

Good luck.

I just noticed the comments about catching flatheads drifting/trolling. This time of year they are just roaming the basin and feeding on shad or whatever they can find. I catch them chasing drifted/trolled baits. Like I said before it is a daytime bite and all in entails is getting a bait down in the bottom 3 feet or so and hanging on. I try to keep my troll at about .3 to .75 mph (the slower the better) – usually I troll into the wind for better boat control – there is little current so going upstream or down doesn’t seem to matter much.
If you want to see how to do it, Steve Douglas has a couple of good YouTube videos out on trolling and drifting. I do both vertical rods and long lined trolling. When I have long lines out I use Santee Cooper rigs. You get hung up sometimes but not that much – I use slinky weights to get the bait down.
When I vertical drift/troll I use about a 4 to 6 ounce weight and keep it as close to straight down as I can. I like to have one rod hanging right under the transducer so I can see it on the sonar. I run a Lowrance Elite 7 CHIRP and I can watch the vertical line right on the sonar – its pretty cool.
Watch the Steve Douglas YouTube videos – it is well worth the time and he explains everything better than I can on here and seeing is believing.