Are all the fishing spots for sturgeon that crowded?

Oct 24
Thought I would give it another try.

Fished a few hours during daylight. Such a
nice day I couldn’t stay inside.

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Nice catch Robby, Did you get those on limblines and bluegills.

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All my fish are caught on rod and reel.
Whatever bait we could get. Mostly bluegill.
This time of year it is an adventure just
to get bluegills.

video of releasing 9 flathead

2 weeks ago two of my buddies caught 15 flathead before running out of bait.

Oct6, 2012

Brian,
Fished the bay I spoke of last night.

I lost one on a stump.

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Robbie, around here that spot is normally reserved for walleyes.

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Brian
Years ago my lake had stocked walleye. They didn’t do well so Ohio began stocking saugeye.

I took several older gentlemen fishing with me in the Fall.
We were catching flathead and among them was a fish with a tail of another fish hanging out it’s mouth. They asked what kind of fish it was and I replied I didn’t know.

They played around with the 39 pound flathead until they retrieved the large (17 inch) saugeye from the flathead.
I am sure if walleye had flourished they would also be on the flathead’s menu

DaveHo

How about this?

Tried for flathead
Caught a channel cat
It caught a flathead!

No live fish are safe in flathead waters

Brian
You already know that submerged brush is prime cover.
If the area lacks that you must search for some structure
that provides overhead cover. Flathead spend most of their
time innactive in their home. They seek something over their head.

I find that areas with very little structure like this make finding the flathead easy. Stretches of river with logjam after logjam take exhaustive trial and error to locate which ones hold trophy flats.

I have caught reclusive flathead from small spots. These big females security cover were docks in 2 feet of water.
Waiting out those flathead is a painful operation.

Right now our flathead are ready to start migration and we are targetting submerged channels that they use as pathways.

I have a lake where the flathead stage from a huge shallow bay into another big bay with deeper water. I may catch these flathead till Nov as the roam the bay searching for food before continuing to their winterring holes.

I normally advise folks to analyze stomach contents when
they have trouble finding channel cats or finding what they are eating.

Since channel cats are opportunistic they feed when they can. Yours seems to have found another dead channel cat.
But discoverring the food source often leads to channel cat location as well as the best bait.

In lean years fish will not lay eggs and reabsorb their eggs to survive. A liver enzyme controls if the eggs mature
(and get laid) or not. Stressed females do not have enough fat to produce the enzyme and absorb the eggs instead of laying.

Saturday night a greedy channel cat ate a flathead bait and was later eaten by a 44 pound flathead. The channel cats here have been aggressive all summer.

Brian
I am still looking for a biggun.

Seems like I have to sort through the smaller ones this year.

Maybe I should stay out of this because I don’t fish for sturgeon.

I snell my hooks because a snell is always stronger than any knot. This is not my opinion–it is a fact. I have proved this many times by snelling a hook on the disbelievers line and having him tie his favarite knot on the other. Hook a bucket on either end and pour water till one end breaks.

To their surprise the line always breaks at the knot.

Why would anyone want anything but the strongest connection?

Sept 10

I never know the size of flathead
when I set the hook.

This 29 pound female ate a fillet sized bluegill.

Brian

Another little one last night.

I fished alone so I snapped a pic on the

deck before releasing this 38.

aanderud
That sasquatch thing is a touchy subject. When
them boyz at Salt Fork start on bigfoot stories I keep
quiet.
Once I thought they were joking and said
something cute and they got terribly upset. I
been outside at night for over 50 years and
never seen one. I guess that makes us even
since they never seen a 50 lb flathead

Bigfoot hit by car

Jakob
COngratulations on a beautiful fish!!!

Looks like a fine catch and a fun time for all!

Dfresh
If you fish often enough strange things do happen.

My freind Hans and I were fishing an area we knew held submerged brush. We landed 3 flathead one night but another got hung up in the brush and broke off.

3 nights later while fishing the same area I caught this flathead. The placement of the hooks led me to theorize that this fish tended to turn left after swallowing a baitfish.

I have caught 3 rod and reels with fish on them during my career. I caught one flathead 45 minutes after my partner broke it off “adjusting his drag during the fight”.

I agree with Dave. I have problems with channel cats taking my live baits or killing them in an attempt to get them down.

When I toss out little poles with cut shad to keep the kids busy with forkails as I wait on flathead I notice that I lose more baits to the channel cats.

I have offered theories that flathead rely more on their lateral line to locate struggling baits than they do on smell or sight. Seems like they inhale most baits and are prepared to blow unwanted items back out.

But it is also true they will search out winter killed fish for their first meal in the Spring. Maybe they need something slow in cold water or they need something soft to jumpstart a digestive system that has been innactive for several months.

Shawn
You shouldn’t worry about the slow boat.

The man I consider to be the best flathead fisherman ever (Roy Hoops) has fished these lakes for 40 years using a rowboat.

He launches his rowboat (full of gear) at spots near his intended flathead spots. He sets up on shore and catches monster flathead (73 is his best) He has caught more 50+ flathead on rod and reel than anyone else I have heard of.

He excelled at flathead fishing and never worried much about his lack of mobility around the lakes.

Dan
Many of the rivers do indeed have flathead.
Because of many stressors the flathead in rivers
very seldom reach their full potential size.

We can catch numbers of 20-30 pound flathead during
certain times on the rivers but big fish are extremely
rare.

Most of the guys requesting information from me here start in rivers and are frustrated in their quest for 40+ pound flathead. My last 3 partners all had years of river flatheadding experience and asked to fish with me to see if their techniques or baits were wrong. Now they seldom fish the rivers.

You know how it is:

Once you go 50+ you never go back

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LOL Robby is that headstone real?

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I figured to have the only one like it

Preplanning your own funeral has its advantages.

Sometimes I feel like the fish have had lackjaw too long.
Then after a few more skunks I have to reconsider

Love that story. I don’t think I could get all the parts to happen like they did to release the fish.

I do catch most of my flathead at night. I bridle them till morning for better pictures.

Flathead bridle

If I get one in any kind of light I attempt to get videos of the fight but it doesn’t happen often.

60+ flatheads are extremely rare here. I am really proud when I get one.

66 release

61 view

Moose
That fish had an attitude and slapped me at each attempt to handle him. Not sure about him but I am pretty sore.

We didn’t waste much time parting ways.

relase video

Got a good one Aug 15 2012.

He ate a lively bluegill and at 62

pounds he was a handful.

I released him after photos.

Some of the smaller ones.

This one apparently escaped a limbline.

Large flatheads sex determination can be made by observing body shape. Males head are much wider than their body. Females body will equal or exceed the width of their head.

Male flathead

Female flathead

Immature fish must be identified by direct examination of the sex organs. You must open a flap in the anal area. Males have 2 opennings and females have an addition openning for eggs.

Aug 3 2012 I got some more flathead practice on this little female.

This little 32 pound female did not have
a scar or bruise on her. She was fat as a butterball
and smelled like crushed shad.

I released her and hope to see her again in 4 or 5 years.

Stuart

I fished alone and that little ankle biter belonged to a neighbor lady I called to come and take pictures. If I took a dog that size fishing with me the racoons would be playing pitch and catch with it before dark

I don’t know about sexy but I often put “Dancin with fat girls” in my title lines when posting trophy female flathead

56 pound female caught 7-27-2012
This fished released to grow, spawn, and possibly fight again.

It took me a long time to get into quality fish this year but at least they started coming.