Flathead tactics now?

So fellow IDOer Swollen Goat and I are heading out tomorrow for an all day fishing extravaganza and camp out on the MN near Mankato. We have a pretty good spot at the tail end of an island where slow shallow current dumps into the man current right in front of a sizeable snag. The upstream side of the island is shallow with a huge woodpile built up, should still be mostly submerged.

We will be fishing with large live suckers. We also have the ability to boat around to other spots of interest.

Anybody have any specifics to look out for this time of year?

Of course, we will update the thread with any pics should we catch anything!

Fish the snag during the day where they hold, the travel route in between the snag and shallow feeding area’s during dusk/dawn when they are traveling to the feeding areas and the shallow feeding area’s where they feed once its dark . There are some good area’s on the MN river on the north side of St Peter which I’ve had some good luck at this time of the year back in the day. If the Flats won’t cooperate throw out some cutbait for some big Channels.

The southern 2/3 stretch of the Minnesota River is so over rated, wouldn’t want a bunch of people driving all the way down here only to go away disappointed.

Quote:

---

If the Flats won’t cooperate throw out some cutbait for some big Channels.

---

What T said. As your suckers die, cut them in half leaving some guts in the back half. Diagonal cut works well.

Score the sides of the bait. Crush the head using your foot.

I would try to have at least one large piece of cut out at every anchor in the deeper side of the snag.

Good Luck!

Quote:

---

Quote:

---

If the Flats won’t cooperate throw out some cutbait for some big Channels.

---

What T said. As your suckers die, cut them in half leaving some guts in the back half. Diagonal cut works well.

Score the sides of the bait. Crush the head using your foot.

I would try to have at least one large piece of cut out at every anchor in the deeper side of the snag.

Good Luck!

---

Bit of a vilonent side, this cut baiting

We give each sucker a small yet tasteful funeral.

I figure with stink bait, crawlers, cut bait and live suckers we should be able to catch something.

As promised, here are the results of the trip! We got out on the river and started fishing around 2:30PM and we fished until about 3AM.

Using a mix of live creek chubs, sucker minnows, stink bait, and some crawlers we caught a variety of fish. Here are some highlights:

The last pic is Swollen Goat’s new PB flathead at 18lbs. Hit on a large sucker next to a cut bank that transitioned into some really shallow backwater. Also my buddy Geo’s PB buffalo!