Another Wissota whiskered beast

I was joined today by several IDO members (whittsend, Joe Winter, and their friend Ryan) on a Lake Wissota walleye hunt. We had a so-so walleye day…a molasses slow morning followed by a reasonable afternoon. Decent afternoon numbers of slot fish and shorts, although the “overs” eluded us today.

Some of the trip highlights included the two 40″-class fish we had boatside. Mike (whittsend) hooked a small walleye about 5 minutes into the trip, which was promptly torpedoed by a 40″-class Wissota musky. Everyone had a chance to see it wallow and roll a few times before spitting out the tattered, quivering walleye and swimming away.

A few hours later, Ryan hooked a big rock that started to move. Well, 10-15 minutes later, we slid the Beckman under this Wissota supertanker flathead. 40″ long and just shy of 35 pounds, this is the biggest cat that this walleye guy has been around in a long time. A few quick snaps with Ryan and the gang, and back she went.

Ryan didn’t muscle this fish in with a crankbait and trolling gear. Rather, this Wissota flathead took a 1/8 oz Draggin Jig and a half-crawler, dragged over shallow rock in moderate current. Our ability to land this fish is a testament to the quality of the B-Fish-N tackle Draggin Jig (check out the cat slime still on the line!), the strength of the Cortland 8 lb hi-vis mono we’re spooled up with (thanks Dean!), the quality of our St. Croix Legend Tournament 68MXF rods, and the smooth drags on our Shimano Symetre reels. Everything must work PERFECTLY to have a chance to land such an oversized, under-tackled fish, and all of this equipment performed flawlessly for us this afternoon.

And Ryan did a good job fighting her, too!

Congrats on your Wissota PB flathead Ryan….we’ll shoot for a PB walleye next time out.

That’s actually a good looking cat. As cats go.

Holy Moley! Neat looking cat, Very dark in color.

Did the hook bend come from the cat’s weight or from the pliers to remove it?

Regardless, Congrats Ryan on a very unique Wissota beast!

Pete

Nice kitty….

Hoping to make it out to Wissotta this fall after tounament season for some smallmouth fishing. Sure I will be coming eye to eye with a few of those sota skis I have heard about.

Great report Jason

Nice report. Sounds like you had a great day on the lake.

That fish will be sure to have created a memory!

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Holy Moley! Neat looking cat, Very dark in color.

Did the hook bend come from the cat’s weight or from the pliers to remove it?

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Mostly from the hook removal process. Those big cats have some pretty tough beaks!

I laugh when I think about what a standard ball-head jig’s hook would have looked like after that type of encounter….stick-straight, I imagine!

Thanks for a great day on the water, Jason. After a little ominous start (early morning thunderstorms), things cleared up nicely.

I’m sure we’ll all be talking about that monster Wissota cat for many years to come – quite the highlight, thats for sure!! And that ‘ski was no slouch either.

For those of you who might be thinking about a guide trip but haven’t done so yet, give Jason a call….We fished with 4 guys – Jason and my group of 3. Even though two of the guys live over 1.5 hours away, they still wanted to make the trip mostly for the educational experience. (the added bonus of a PB 34lb cat was awesome, too.) We all learned a lot yesterday – many of the tactics learned are certainly not specific to Wissota. For guys who think a guide trip is only about catching fish I would argue that is only part of it… Keep your eyes and ears open to what Jason does/shows you/tells you. Tons of information that is applicable to sooo many waters and situations. Think of the guide fee as “tuition” for an educational experience vs a fee just to go catch fish – after all, Jason is a professor!! (or is it “Dr. Halfen”??) We all caught fish, had a great time, AND learned a ton yesterday… Definately worth it!!

Anyway, thanks again Jason – Did you mention something about a Pepin trip?? Might have to save the pennies for an upcoming trip… Sounds good to me!!

Mike

One more pic….

MEOW….

The pictures don’t even do it justice.. The mouth and head on that thing was huge.. After a long battle with the rod and because the fish was so heavy, he couldn’t even really hold the fish out very far for the pictures. HUGE!

GREAT net job, too. Jason got right under the fish at the first opportunity. I couldn’t even see the fish, and thought the fish had gotten off.. Then up comes the net, with fish and all. Nice work Professor!!

Wow, NICE cat! Makes me not want to let the kids swim in Wissota anymore! LOL

Great post, Jason. On Friday night I was anchored up on the St Croix with two bullhead rods out in a traditional catfish approach to catching flatheads. I had two walleye guys slow trolling upstream dragging leeches and they caught a nice 14 lb flathead not 30 feet away from me. At the time I thought it was a message to change up tactics.

I’ve been struggling the last week to find flatheads on the St Croix and after watching one caught right in front of me and then reading this post I’ve decided it is time to change up tactics a bit. I’m going to drag some jigs with a nice piece of cut bait and see if I can find some St Croix cats. I’ve been wanting to try this for some time now and it looks like it is working on the Wissota and on the St Croix so I will be out tonight dragging for cats. I pulled up your articles off the In-Depth Outdoors Article Forum and I’ll put the information to work. Thanks for the report and the great articles.

Steve

Sweeeet lookin Kitty! It seems we are seeing the bigger cats with more regularity on Wissota using traditional Walleye tactics.I bet it took more than just a couple mins to put that 1 in the boat! Its kind of like dragging a barn door off the bottom of the lake & just when you think you have it allmost topside it goes right back to the depths. We had a large Kitty in the 38″ class crush a crank while I was pumping a 8’trolling rod over some large marks tues eve,which I had hoped to be of the golden variety & that was a good 10-15 min fire drill .I know from previous encounters that catching a large Flattie on traditional spinning tackle can be nothing short of being a breathtaking & sore arm experience.Everything has got to work flawless to get them big girls on board.Great job gents! This reminds me its time for a new net as that 38″ fish & 2K’s expert 1 pass land & straight lift method raised heck with my now noodle looking walleye net. I just gave Kevin heck about his folding butterfly net & now this happens. Any recommendations on a good Beckman multi-specie – trollin shovel ? Keep up the good reports Jason & hope to see you on the homepond soon. WHITE TIP