Flathead bath

[Bigby]

Well I took a break from crappie fishing this weekend and decided to trotline for some flathead catfish after talking to stumpthumper80 about where he was catching them. Caught nine flathead from 10 to 40 pounds and several large white cat and smaller fish. I have a old deep freeze with an aerator pump I fill with water to throw the flatheads in for a couple of days before I clean them and was down to my last fish I had to clean today, a 40 pounder that done broke the net I use to pull them out of the freezer with so I reached down and tried to grab him by the gills about arms length at the bottom of the freezer he rolled on me and all I remember seeing is his tail coming out of the water SMACK! He gave me the tail smack with a wall of water filling my open mouth full of water and totally drenching me. After gaging a couple of minutes and taking my wet shirt off I finally got the bright idea of pumping the water out then catching him. My wife and kids plus the kid down the street got a pretty good laugh, I hate doing stupid things like this with so many witnesses.

[WantinCrappie]

Only thing better would have been if you had it on video for all of us to see.

[DMW1960]

Well Last Friday I Had To Go Get My Neighbor To Show Him That I Had Caught As Many Fish As The Wife! Only Time He Shows Up Is When Wife As Caught The Largest Fish Or The Most Fish!

But I Am Also Like Chris I Would Have Enjoyed Seeing A Video Of You And The Flathead Bath!

[Jigging15]

Sound like you took it well. Just do not know how a big ol boy like you let a 40 lb fish get the best of you. I guess you got him in the end. Glad to have you on here and posting. Did you ever get on any good fish in the slack water this year? I never heard any reports other than lots of small fish. So I never went done and gave it a try. I talked to Steve harms today and he recently caught a 15" crappie at the park. May have to drag the boat over next time I go to mom and dads.

[Bigby]

Yep the flathead got it in the end, he his dinner tonight. I had to laugh at my self after I swallowed what seemed like a gallon of the nasty water. I caught several limits in the slack water but nothing like the year before, picked up a few walleye and caught several white cat on jigs also. Well hope to see ya around the lake. I'm going to try Widsor Crossing this weekend.

[Jigging15]

Hit it on Friday for a couple hours. Biggest was 12". They were scattered everywhere. Just dip all the trees but leave the bait in the water from one tree to the next. Caught most all of our fish between the trees. Sun was shining bright and they were still not on the trees.

[DMW1960]

Hey Bigby,

I Have Always Wanted To Set Out Some Jugs For Catfish And Watch Them In A Cove While I Was Doing A Little Crappie Fishing. But I Have Never Rigged Up One And I Don't Know What I Need. I Have Seen Those Prerigged Jugs At Bp. Would You Mind Giving Me Some Ideas Please?

Dan

[Bigby]

The flathead I was catching were in the back of the cove and pretty shallow about 4 feet deep using perch for bait. Jugging is pretty easy it is usually done on the the mud flats around 10 to 15 feet of water and the bait about 4 to 5 foot deep, if your using live bait I would use a sinker on the line to keep the bait at the right depth. Using jugs in coves works pretty well on cut shad but when using live bait they will find the nearest tree to wrap your line around and get snagged. Hope this helps, anymore stuff you want to know you can PM me. Have a nice day!