Sheepshead Cut Bait for Flatheads

It was a beautiful early season night for chasing flatheads. River is back within its banks and the water has warmed back up to 60 degrees. All I had for bait was a half dozen very small bullheads so I decided to catch bait before chasing flatheads. Within 20 minutes I had four big sheepsheads in the livewell. I cut them up into very large bloody chunks and saved the heads as the best chunks. I had hooks in at about 1945 using Zip Tie Bridle Rigs for all the baits. Since I was fishing the Wisconsin side of the river I had 3 rods out. Lots of boat traffic but right at about sundown most were heading to the ramp and the by 2030 I had the river to myself. Water was flat calm and the river was quiet and peaceful. At about 2100 I replaced all my baits with fresh bloody chunks with two rods baited with heavy sheepshead heads. They make a huge splash when they hit the water. At 2115 I heard a rod holder thunk and the rod doubled over and it was fish on. After a good battle I slid the net under a beautiful 41″ X 27.5″ flathead. This is only my 3rd flathead of the year but they have all been nice big fish. I ended up the evening sitting at the top of the King of the Cats Flathead Leaderboard with 212.5 points. Not bad for only 18 May. Must be Global Warming. I’m out again tonight – time to upgrade my KOTC score.

Attachments:

1. 

   18-May-2016-41-X-27.5.jpg
   

Nice work! I’m hopefully going to give the cats a try Fri/Sat night.
Gotta say I’ve never really thought about cut bait for flatheads,good to know they like the taste of sheepies!

Curious, do you work or retired?
Or, just don’t sleep much

Sleep is a winter time activity. I’m an old retired fart who doesn’t sleep much when its flathead chasing time. Plenty of time to sleep when the flatheads move to wintering holes at the end of the season. I’m retired so I have a lot of time to fish – I usually fish 4 to 5 days a week. I normally take Friday and Saturday nights off and let the weekend folks have the St Croix. Sunday through Thursday I’m usually out most nights weather permitting.

With the twins doing so well this year Steve, how do you stay awake in your pontoon?

Cut bait was talked about long ago in the In-Fish magazines Craig.
I generally start using in at the end of July/August but as you can see with Steve’s fish, it works now as well.

When you guys are using currant , do you have problems with channel cats messing with the bait? How big do you cut it?

Mike Martine wrote:

When you guys are using currant , do you have problems with channel cats messing with the bait? How big do you cut it?

. Sorry , cutbait, not currant

Attachments:

1. 

   Bridled-Bait-3.jpg
   

When I’m fishing cutbait for flatheads I use very big chunks. I seldom have a channel cat bother with the BIG chunks. I cut out the gut pocket and discard it. I end up with the head and two or three large chunks from the rest of the fish. They are big as or bigger than your fist. The head I caught this flathead on probably weighed well over a lb. You have to be patient when fishing large cut baits – most times nothing touches them but then that big flat comes along and it makes all the waiting worth it. To give you an idea of the size of the baits here is a picture of the size of the head pieces I like to use.

I don’t use this hook set up you see in the picture anymore. When fishing large cut bait the hook will have a tendency to rotate back into the bait on the hook set. That is why I like to bridle rig the bait. I only use circle hooks and have not had any problems if I am patient and let the fish load up the rod in the rod holder.

Attachments:

1. 

   Bridled-Bait-3-1.jpg
   

Nice flattie Steve. I just retired myself. Maybe I could head your way sometime and if you have room in your pontoon, we could try for some flatties together. I’d be sure to head up during the week too. I am a true believer in letting the masses have the weekends as well…I usually have the river here to myself during the week.

I used to be that guy that thought you absolutely had to use live bait for flatties. But I have changed. I catch as many with cut baits and I do with live baits. It is hard to be live greenies or live shad though. But if it’s slow with live bait, a fresh cut, bloody fish chunk will get them activated I believe.

L8R…Ken

Ken – You’ve got an open invitation. I’ll PM you my contact information.