Flathead Fishing & High Water

All,

I’ve been reading all kinds of posts regarding MN/WI’s River Flathead behavior. This is a two parter..

1) Can anyone definitively say when the majority of the Flathead spawn & do not feed?

2) Any high water shore fishing tips? How deep should I be fishing? How heavy of weight do you use in such fast/high water?

I was thinking of trying a sandy beach on the main channel but have never had anything but channel cats & walleye from there. I’ve also read to try eddies & underwater trees but have not had any luck or snag in the rocks constantly.

Use as much weight that’s required to keep the bait still. Once I learned to go heavier than lighter my snags have lessened significantly, but still happens, alot, especially from shore. If you are using a #6 hook with crawler you will need to use a lot less weight than a 6/0 hook with a 6″ bullie. My rule if I cast out, and the bait moves at all, more weight, otherwise it will keep falling down river slowly until it does find a snag.

Here where I live in Iowa you have to fish snags for a decent bite. Their out on the bottom sometimes wheres theres no cover but most of the time their on snags and anything you wouldn’t normally fish. Big fish eat shallow too, like 2′ of water and less. Fish snags and with big bait on the downside of logjams, you can fish above them but its better below them. If a place looks like it may not be good take the time too rethink it, it may be good. My place of choice is below logjams and with big bait within 10′ of shore, just sit and wait, flatheads are a waiting game with 3 or 4 ozs. of lead, give it time.