Looks like you had a heck of a night. Just think what could have happend if you stayed longer. Ya you’re right she would have never got back in the boat if you would have broke you deal.

Welcome guys hope you have fun here. Hope we can help out and hopefully we can learn something from you guys too.
http://www.tanglingwithcatfish.com

Thanks for the information guys. How’s the water temp doing up there? We’re at 60 degrees now and are starting to catch some small flats. I believe anytime they’re going to start putting the pre spawn gut on. I’m going to give the bull heads a shot this weekend. I’ll let you all know how they do. Hopefully I be able to post a good picture or two. I fishing a fun tournament this weekend with my wife it ought to be a treat.

Nice fish. The camera can be your best friend when you want it to and it can also be your worse. All of us cat guys know the certain ways to take pictures of these flats to make them look bigger right? I would have to agree with everyone though by the picture I would have said it was a mid 30lb fish too. Congradulation though and hope she got back in the water ok.
Jeremy99
http://www.tanglingwithcatfish.com

Nice channel Jet. Did you guys catch many or just that one. That’s a good sign though that season for you guys is just around the corner. We’re catching flats right now. The water hit 56 degrees over the weekend and the smaller ones are on the move.

Mile 832 Our local Wal-Mart usually have them also. That is the only place we have to buy them. Hope that helps. If not Dark30’s right you can order it off the net also.
Jeremy
http://www.tanglingwithcatfish.com

Thanks a lot for all the information fishhead. That is what I was looking for.

My boat is a 20 foot SeaArk with a 175hp Evinrude motor. It will run about 55mph Lots of room and good to fish out of.

Thanks for that info. How big was the one you were in and was it a HiPro? How do they handle on the water? Thanks for all the info.

We’re in Indiana. On the Ohio river.

http://www.tanglingwithcatfish.com

I personally don’t like them for the money. I use nothing but 7000C3 reels. I bought a lever drag when they first came out and didn’t like it. For one I thought the casting of it was a lor rougher then a regualer reel. It would take a while to get into the habbit of pushing the drag lever back up after you casted also. Not only that but they’re a lot of money. I’ll stick to my 7000C3 reels for now. How about those 10000 reels. Has anyone tryed them out yet? I haven’t heard anything on them really. I would think that they would be to big.
Jeremy
http://www.tanglingwithcatfish.com

DARK30, you are right that is Doc Lang holding the 56lb blue. He knows how to catch the big boys on C-land river this time of the year. I wouldn’t had minded to start my year of like that.

Jack, These cats are a blast to catch this time of the year on rod and reels because the current is blazing around here in the winter because of all the rain and snow. I’ll keep posting the pics being I know how to place them now. Good luck on the water too.

http://www.tanglingwithcatfish.com

This is prime time right now for for big blue. I’ve had my boat getting redone this winter so I didn’t get a chance to do a lot of fishing. I’m hitting the water hard now though. If you ever get down this way give me a yell and we’ll go catten.

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“to many lakes have stunted blue gills in them.” One of the reasons that blue gills get stunted is because there are to many in the area and they must fight for servival. From where I’m from we are able to use any size blue gills and bull heads we want. When fishing for big fish I would much rather use big baits to keep the smaller ones away. Yes I’ve caught big fish on small bait but from experience when you target big fish you catch a lot more of them. In my eyes the main factor to targeting big fish is big baits. Keep up the good work Brian, and Dirk hopefully it will pay off sooner or later. I just wish we had all the big flatheads that you guys have in the upper Mississippi River. Just my opinion. LOL

sounds like a plan to me. You should still have my e-mail address and my phone number so just let me know when.

I fish the Louisville area a lot. The fishing is better for me about 40 miles up river. Are you going to have any free time when you come to Louisville? If you do we should plan a trip. The blues will be bitting real well then too. As long as the water and weather is right. Let me know the dates and if you have time and we can set something up. I guess I will have to start posting some pictures so I can start getting all that hate mail.

Sounds like it’s working pretty good for you brian. The flatheads will really tear this method up in the late spring. We catch a lot of blues down here and it works really well right now for us. Channels will definitly tear this up too. I have tried the circle hoohs before and they don’t always run away from the boat while trolling. It made us lose a lot of fish that we could have caught if we were setting the hook. I’m not saying that it wouldn’t work but we had better luck with kahl hooks. Good luck and everyone should give this a try it works really well in low current areas.

That looks like a dam I was at about 3 weeks ago. You weren’t at Keokuk were you? I fished there during the big classic but didn’t do any good. You are right about the fight. From were I’m from we catch blues as much as we do flatheads and the flats definitly fight better. Sounds like you had a good time though.

I read the post 9-11. Sounds like you done ok. Keep trying everything I told you it should pay off compared to the old way. atleast I know it did with us. Keep me up to date and good luck.

Hey Dirk I’m not laughing. We have been trollong all year and doing pretty good. I put a post out a while back about trolling for cats. I’m doing to on the Ohio river. if you haveany suggestion please let me know.

Huck, would you mind sending me your e-mail address so we could chat more about pool 19? Maybe we could even hook up and go fishing when I come down to fish. I will be in town for 1 hole week and doing nothing but fishing. I will be staying at Fort Madison. We can fish anywhere. I heard below lock 19 was good also which would put us in pool 20. Just let me know. And thanks again to everyone for the help.

Thanks for all the help guys. I really appreciate it. I will let you know how I do. I will be pre fishing for about 1 week so hopefully I will have time to find some fish.

I sure wish I could attend so I could show Dirk a few things about catching big cats. LOL

we don’t fish as much during the spawn because the bite slows down so much. We are forced to fish the spawn during tournaments so we do get out some and try to figure out how to get the flatheads to bite while they’re spawning. I would rather leave the fish alone while they’re spawning. That is our future seed. Let the be mommy and daddy’s for a few weeks to help the future of catfishing. That’s my opinion take it for what it’s worth.

Jason,
Thanks for the information. I am going to check it out. I think it would really help me out from the way you guys are talking. I will call SeaArk first and see what they have to say about them. I have a local dealer here in town where I could got some. Thanks again Jason for the helpfull info.

thanks for all the info guys. That makes me fill a lot better now. Maybe when I come over to fish some of us good hook up and go fishing. I am going to be there for 1 hole week.

Hey guys What are pods? I have never heard of anything like that from were I am from. I have a heavy (175 hp evinrude) on the back of my boat. My back end sets really low in the water do to the weight. Will pods help that out. Do they heart the speed of the boat any? Were can a person get these pods like you are talking about?

I use live blue gills to catch a lot of my big flatheads. I also use live creek chubs and bull heads when I can get my hands on them. Cut bait works good for blue cats and channels you will have better luck using live bait for flatheads though.

I have heard of people drifting live bait on the rivers before too. This is something that I am definitly going to try soon also. I will let everyone know how I do.

Whiskerkev,
What kind of hooks do you use when you drift. I was using circle hooks and regualr shank hooks just to try to find out which one was better.

I net just about everything I put in the boat. My hands are still pretty tore up though. That is a good problem thought, right? I have to use my hands to get them out of the live well at the end of the night. I have found that that 5-12 lb. fish tear up your hands worse then the big boys. The smaller fish tend to flip and turn around on me. Now when I grab a big blue cat then I definitly use a leather glove. They can just about take your hand off. Good topic Dirk.