Congratulations Steve on a very nice flathead. Even if you were targeting walleye it is a fish you will remember.

Congratulations Jakob on the trophy sturgeon.The length to girth chart shows a 62×24 sturgeon weighs 60lbs.
I bet that he gave you a real good fight. What bait did this monster hit?

Congratulation Jakob on a fine sturgeon season. The pictures look like you don’t mind loosing a little sleep to catch a sturgeon.
One of these years I want to try the sturgeon excursion if I can get someone to go along.

Its amazing what will fit in their mouth when they are hungry.

Yes many of them jumped and danced completely out of the water when first hooked.When you got them close to the boat
they would hug the bottom and go on several drag screaming runs before giving up to the net.We could here sturgeon surface and splash throughout the night.

Nice fish, congratulations to Nutzy. An 18 pounder in these water conditions isn’t too shabby.

This is one big flathead anywhere. It was caught on a bank pole. There was a picture in the Dubuque paper last Sun. Too
bad that it isn’t still swimming.The lower Wisconsin is fished heavy with bank poles and they get some big ones every year.
I know of one over 80lbs caught in a hoop net two years ago here on pool 11. Even if these fish were butchered, it lets us know that there are some big one out there.

That is one pig of a flathead Matt.Nice to hear that you guys are on them so early in the season.
My pursuit of a monster flathad had a setback. I had open heart surgery three weeks ago today. My recovery is coming along I think in a couple more weeks I may try fishing, as long as my son-in-law pulls up the anchors.
Dave

That is a very nice crappie Well deserving to be mounted.
I would love to catch one that big.

That is a nice looking bunch of fish Kevin. I got out yesterday and had a nice mixture of crappie and blue gill.
The ice fishing season is going to be short if the weather stays this warm. There was 9 inches of ice on the Miss. backwaters yesterday, but it is getting soft around the shorelines already.

I do it both ways. If I have enough room to let the fish run a bit I use the clicker. I love the sound and it does wake you up from a short nap.
If I am fishing very close to the snag or strait up and down I tight line them. I have had some success both ways.
Dave

Matt I think your right. They are not a native species to Florida. There are a lot of native species to Florida that we would not want to get started in Wi or Minn.
Dave

Brian that is a very interesting article. I hate to hear flatheads considered an invasive species. To me they are the
ultimate sport fish and should be treated with respect.
As for ugly I think they are as good looking as any of the scaled species. They are much more handsome than a halibut.
For giving you a good fight they are as strong as any fish.
For you guys that winter or vacation in Florida, you have another place to fish for Flatheads.
Dave

Steve
Thanks for the post on the bullhead trap last Aug. I set out a standard minnow trap last evening. Mine has an extension in the middle that makes it longer. I baited with dry dog food and a gob of secret 7. I ran the trap this morning and had 28 bullhead between 6 and 7 inches long.I put the bait in a fine mesh bag and hung it inside the trap.
I hope that small bullhead are still a good bait for fall flathead.
We went out last night fished until 10 PM had a few good bites but did not hook up on anything.
Dave

New PB caught Sept23 2011 39 in 32 lb

Here is another picture of the same fish. It was a fun night.

Congratulations Matt that is truly a monster flathead.
That is one of the best flathead photos I have seen, he truly looks huge.
Dave

Congratulations on joining the 50 lb club. I hope some day I
can catch one that big. I think the guys that put in a lot of hours eventually lad a big one.
Dave

Thanks Kev for taking my brother Jerry out and showing him a few new tricks. He e-mailed me yesterday and was excited that
he was going cat-fishing with Whiskerkev.
Looks like you guys had a pretty good trip.
Thanks for the pictures
Dave

I would concentrate above submerged wood piles with some
moving current. The older wood seems better than new fallen trees.If you can find snags that hold bait-fish they can be good.
I fish pool 11 and the river dropped 2 and 1/2 ft this week. I have not been out in awhile so I can’t tell you how bad the floating grass is.

Good luck
Dave

Congratulations Kev those are some giant channel cats.
I got to fish lake Mendota in April with my brother Jerry
and we had nonstop action on big channels.We released all of the big ones and kept four small ones to eat.You have a great lake for big cats.
Dave

Shawn
Thanks for the video, it was pretty neat. Good to hear you had some luck on the Flatheads.
Dave

I too watched the In Fisherman show this morning.It was fun
seeing some open water action were the fish didn’t have scales.Did you notice all of the bugs flying around that were attracted to their lights.I don’t like bugs but it beats 20
below zero, that we saw this week.
Dave

Brian
Looks like you guys had another great night of Sturgeon fishing.It isn’t to often when we get 80 deg. days and 50 deg. nights in Oct.
It looks like you have Ray hooked on Sturgeon fishing. Thanks for the pictures and the report.

Dave Ho

Brian
Sounds like you guys had one hell of a night chasing sturgeon.
Congratulations Ray on catching a PB sturgeon, and on landing one hand lining.
Ray is my brother and I would have asked to go along but I knew I had to work this weekend. I think you guys are going out again tonight. Take advantage of this great weather. Thanks for the great pictures. keep us posted on tonight’s results.
Dave Ho

About five years ago my brother in-law had an opportunity to go lake sturgeon spearing on lake Winnebago. He came home with an 87 lb sturgeon. The locals told him to take it to the car wash and pressure wash it with just water to remove the blood and slime, which he did.
He brought it to my house to clean. It was like butchering a hog. We cut off the head then the tail. Then I split it in half using a heavy duty butcher knife. The spinal cord was easily removed by pulling out with a pliers. Then I used a fillet knife to remove the shell from each half. The outside of the fish had about 3/4 of an inch of gray fat just under the shell. All of this fat was remove using a sharp fillet knife. We then cut it up into smoke-able size chunks. We had 3 five gallon buckets full of meat.
I soaked it in a salt and brown sugar brine over night.
The next day I smoked it using maple and apple wood. The meat turned out golden brown on the outside and pure white on the inside. It was some of the most delicious smoked fish I have ever eaten.

Dave Ho

Tim
I have never seen the grass this bad. I think it is solid grass from Saint Paul to Saint Louis. The last two days the river has dropped over a foot here and is starting to clear up. My last trip out was Aug the 16th and if you let your bait set for ten min. it was solid grass. I still think we are going to have some good fishing yet this fall.
Dave

I bought 6 of the two position Driftmaster rod holders with a variety of bases, this spring. I am very happy with them. They are very strong and quality made.
Dave

That is one big catfish. Thanks for sharing the video.
I wonder what the length and girth measurements are?
Dave

Shawn
Congratulations on the PB for your boat. I have as much fun when others in my boat catch a good one, as when I catch it myself.
June has been slow for me also. Mainly we have been gone someplace every weekend and you can’t catch them with the boat tied up to the dock. The river here is 5ft over normal stage and very muddy. I hope to get out more in July and Aug.

Dave