I picked up a beautiful 46# flathead on the 22nd of May and it totally slimed my favorite yellow catfishing sweatshirt. My wife washed it all up and had it looking new again. I went out tonight and just slimed it all up again. When she wakes up in the morning and sees that sweatshirt in the wash she may just throw it away this time.
The St Croix is in perfect shape right now for catfishing. Water is stable and almost at normal summer time pool elevation. Water temp tonight was 66 degrees. There is a light to moderate current in the main channel and the water is clear. Lots of baitfish showing up and the cat bite for channels and flats is going good.
I’ve been catching flatheads on bullheads and the bite has been very aggressive with long clicker screaming runs. I picked up both of tonights fish early with a small fish at 1930 and the big fish at 2040. There was very little boat traffic tonight which was a surprise as there were tons of big boats and cruisers out last week and over the weekend.
This fish felt very heavy so I weighed him on my digital scale but he only came up as 40 lbs. I was expecting him to be in the high 40’s close to 50 lbs because he felt so heavy and hard to lift. Boy did he have some bad breath issues. Smelled like he had been eating some pretty ripe sheepshead lately.
I’m out again tomorrow night. You have to chase this pre-spawn bite while it lasts because as soon as they start spawning they become hard to find again. This is the earliest I have ever found big fish and I’m after them now.
