Baits for Sturgeons and Flatheads

Are there baits other than crawlers and live baits that will work for sturgeons and flatheads?

I am a long time angler that has always preferred fishing with artificial plugs and spoons etc. I would like to target sturgeons and flatheads without having to use either live baits or something that was once alive. Is there anything out there in this category or am I just SOL?
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You might be SOL. There are some stink baits that might work for flatheads. But my experience and others I have heard from say they don’t work well for flats.

There are several baits that have been popular but they were once live. Fatheads(throw a couple on the hook) Shad works great. Cut suckers, Shrimp, Shinners and smelt.

There are others maybe someone else will chime in with there favorites.

It is possible to target flatheads with lures.. jigs, etc. They are a preditor fish and are caugt regularly by accident.

I dont know of anyone who has purposely caught a flathead on a lure, but they are caught regularly. Very few people have ever tried targeting them with lures.

Strgeon.. you are definately SOL. They dont like the bait to be moving at all. They like their bait to be very fresh… shad, fatheads, sucker fillets, crawlers, shrimp, etc.

You would have to have an incredibly desireable smelling/tasting offering just sitting motionless on the bottom to trigger a strike. The odds would be greatly against you.

I know I got my new PB flathead last night (29 lbs) on a pile of shad hooked on a #4 circle hook.
As for artificial, have not heard/read anything consistantly working, I have a jar of Berkley worms, but they are for when I run out of shad and luckily have not needed them yet.
Good luck!

I just talked to a guy fishing for muskies and had a 40 some inch sturgeon hit a plug on the surface. But I think it is a rare thing. As for flatheads you need to almost hit their face with a jig or other lure then they will bite for sure. I have targeted them with atificial and got a couple that day. It is doable but there are much easier ways.

Good luck much of the fun is trying new things!
Aaron

There were some articles a few years ago about catching flatheads in the middle of winter on big rubber body jigs (reapers,I think). Kinda questionable as a tactic though as some were concerned that big ones were being disturbed while they were holed up and almost dormant in the winter.

They are two different things. You’ll catch 10 to one flatheads fishing with live fish for bait over an artificial. You might catch both on a wad of crawlers but bigger cats like a full meal that is alive and swimming. I often pull out a musky jig when fishing cats below dams and in other places where I feel a vertical presentation is best. The jig is tipped with a live fish though most of the time. I have hung lots of stink bait out there and have never caught a flattie on it in my 20 years of catfishing.