Things are different in Iowa

I found a spot the limbliners missed! I’m pretty stoked as everyone jokes about. Usually at 2am I get tired. Tonight it was like someone flipped that giant switch. All of my success was accidental though, I tried a new spot and it was dead the first time I tried it except for some smushed bait. I tossed some worms in to see if the hole was full of channels. It’s fun to catch something and if the place is full of weenies, we can move on.

About 11, the pole with a big gill on it bent over. I felt the fish but the circle pulled out. I didn’t let it pull hard enough? Or the problem is the big bait. When I set the pole down the other rod was bent over. I got the fish up but leading it to an easy spot to reach down the hook pulled out again! Speechless. It was easy a 15# flat that bit on the worms.

I went through maybe 4 sunnies and they all got smashed or stolen but I hooked up A few more times ON THE WORM POLE WITH AN 8/0. I got one in and got a pic. It doesn’t have warts, that’s a little gravel sticking to it.

I hooked one that felt quite a bit bigger but the snags around this place are unreal. One spot cuts through line like it’s nothing. It cut through 40# mono and 65 or 80 spectra in one pass. Another spot maybe rebar? If you get close to it, you don’t see any fish although you can feel it until you go too far. Hooking into more than one in a night is really a high point for me. The river here isn’t a mile wide, it’s more like 40 yards.

nice

dave

nice fish! I have been running into a ton of flatheads, and channels hitting my walleye rigs lately.

I am curious about your headlamp though, did that thing cost as much as I think it did? What kind is it?

That’s a nice looking fish. I like your attitude with the worms. Underrated early in the season.

I used to think chese, dip, and cut-baits were the only options for channel cats, and worms were for bullheads, carp, and suckers. Someone finally drilled it into my head – Location, Location, Location. If you’re in the right spot, you will catch cats, and not the other fish.

I also agree with the tactic of using the bait like worms or cheese to check if a spot is full of fiddlers, or if there’s nice fish like the one you caught.

I’ve heard of guys doing the same with dip bait on flathead spots.. if there’s a bunch of channel cats, there’s usually not flathead. I haven’t tried that test a lot, what do y’all think?

Shawn

Sweet fish. Are you fishing the cedar river?

Luke, yeah it was that expensive. http://www.zebralight.com/ I ordered the biggest one in a package deal with batteries and it was $99 or so. But it’s made out of aluminum and the interface is great. Output is about 5x old 2 cell mag lites worth on high and the beam is a big cone not a little laser beam. The cool part is you can go into high mode at a click or super low mode if you just hold the button for a second. They also have an AA battery model that I’d like to check out some time it’s smaller, lighter and closer to $50. I know some people think it’s kind of excessive but I get a ton of use out of my lights and $50 or 100 doesn’t go that far in the world of fish finders, nice poles, etc.

AAnderud, no I’m by Des Moines. The river is tiny and these bulletin board things stay up forever. I’d glady tell you more in private if you want specifics. People around here will hog my spot and eat em all if they catch on. That’s why I like talkin to you guys on here.

Shawn, I think the idea is from old Otis Smith articles. I used to know a guy who went fishing with him back in the day. I think the idea might hold up in small rivers for a while when the fish are territorial?

The thing that suprised me was that the flats took the worms when the bluegill was 20′ away. They’d even kill it and then eat the worms? I’m not saying it’s the best new thing in flatting but I’ll try it again. I’d think it was a fluke if it didn’t happen more than once.

Thanks guys for being out there. I’m happy to get my one picture for the year!

Nice fish Josh, did you get a weight on him. We went bobber fishing where we set our dittypoles. We use the smaller bluegills to fish with under our bobbers and still lost a few because the smaller channels were taking them, running with with them and after about 30 seconds when we set the hook we still missed them. We did this just incase the catfish was just big enough to crush it and get it into his mouth when we set the hook. We got all our nicer fish on bigger bluegills. Im a firm believer in the bigger the bluegill the bigger the fish because the smaller channels can’t get it into thier mouths, they try but can’t pull it off the hook, the bigger ones just hit it and go.

When pole fishing with bluegills I let them run a little so they can get it into thier mouth and position it so when they try to swollow it the hooks more apt to set in thier mouth. I think most of time when thier marginal sized they take the bluegill in thier mouth and they crush it and turn it so they can swollow it head first, this is why I let them run some so they can do this so the hooks more apt to be in a position for a hookset. Both George and I are using 2 and 3 OT. hooks for our dittypoles and were getting alot of hookups. The bare hooks with nothing on them is probably smaller fish stealing the bait, they want the bluegill but they have to work at crushing it to get it small enough to get it into thier mouths to swollow it. The bigger ones just hit it and go. Both of us and other guys we know say you can catch a big fish on a big bait but its hard to get the smaller ones on a big bait. I know if we had a choice we’d use 1 1/2″ to 2″ bluegills all the time on our dittypoles but when your setting alot of poles its hard to find that size and not spend hours sorting them to get that size, so we just use them all.

Ever try putting a bluegill under a bobber and let them swim along side the driftwood and snags that are back in the timber right now? The catfish are back under those drifts during the day to keep out of the sun and by letting a bluegills swim close to them the catfish come out and hit them, its working for us. Night times a diffrent story, they hunt everywhere especially around drifts and snags and no current calm areas. The catfish are hitting big time right now around here. If a guy sprays down with repellant and can stand the bugs fishing the snags with bobbers is a good way right now. One night soon were going to fish all night that way just to see how many we get, pole fishing and watching the bobbers fun too. When the bobber goes down it may come up once or twice then it usually stays down, then we set the hook.

We’ve been opening the stomachs to see what they have been eating and found a smallmouth in one and eigther a bullhead or small channel in another. The rest were small flats and it was hard to tell what kind of fish was in those.

I know around here the channels and flatheads are in the same area, same water and were getting both on our dittypoles. I don’t know forsure if there is any water where theres mostly flatheads and not any channels around, maybe there is but I think they both hunt the same areas to eat. A good deep hole I think is more apt to hold bigger fish because the smaller ones are feeding in shallower water to eat things the size that depth of water has to offer. Good fishing everyone!

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It’s fun to catch something and if the place is full of weenies, we can move on.

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I worm fish about every spot I ever flathead fish. A spot full of weenies is a good thing – don’t move on. Big flatheads love fiddlers just like they love bullheads. What you’ll notice is that you’ll stop catching anything when the flatheads are roaming, other than that, they can occupy pretty much the same space.

That’s true on small rivers too – I cut my teeth on a pretty small river. As a rule, bullheads are better if there’s a channel cat population and you want your bait messed with less – they love small bluegills but I haven’t had many channel cats hit bullheads.

Dan, I have a hard time finding bait in a size I like. Last night all I had was the biggest gills in my bait tank around 7″ long. I don’t think the length is a problem but they are really wide and maybe that makes it hard to hookup with my rigs. Maybe it’s just not the right time and place for that bait, one was smushed hard enough to bulge its eyeballs out and scaled but the pole didn’t even wiggle more than 3″ like the current had it. I have channels around a lot but they act different. It was just 20#, 35″. I’ve had the thought of bobbers, I think I tried it before and the thing went out around the snag with the current? I’ll have to try again.

Josh congratulations on that fish. That thing is a beauty

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AAnderud, no I’m by Des Moines. The river is tiny and these bulletin board things stay up forever. I’d glady tell you more in private if you want specifics. People around here will hog my spot and eat em all if they catch on. That’s why I like talkin to you guys on here.

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Josh, no problem on keeping that spot quiet. I do the same thing on small waters. I was just wondering about the cedar river because I used to live in Cedar Rapids. I never fished it, I was too stupid to fish for cats back then I guess.

Now that I’m a cattin addict I wish I had taken advantage, I hear there’s some decent fishing there.

Nice fish Mate!!!!

Aandured the fishing fabulous for channels here right now, lines and poles and theres all kinds of action. I know bait size for the channels were getting has to be under 5″, it dosen’t absolutely have to but we get more hookups useing smaller baits, we like 3″ and under. A 30 pounder will take a 1-1/2″ bluegill just as fast as he will a 6″ bluegill, they aren’t choosy when it comes to eating to keep thier stomachs halfway full.

Josh I’ve had the same thing happen with bigger bluegills. Eyes poped out, and a defined grove in the sides where they clamped down on it and crushed it, scales missing. Alot of guys use bigger hooks to hook a flathead and thats a good thing. Im no expert on flathead fishing but I hook mine through the eye socket so when he swollows it head first the hooks right by his throat or gullet. The only other thing I can think of for better hookups is a hook through the eye socket and one right behind the dorsal fin or farther back just infront of the tail and used as a stinger. Two hooks and I think the hookups would be better but the bait may die sooner so a guy’d have to change his bait more often.

When I put the hook through the very front of the eye socket they don’t bleed and it does very little harm to them. If I was to use a stinger in the rear part around the tail id use maybe a 1 OT. and put it through just enough to hold the hook so it dosen’t kill the bait.

Ive never used a stinger but I think its time to try one. maybe even a no. 1 treble in the dorsal fin or tail area. This type of method is for channels of just about any size, if I were fishing just for flatheads that could break your line id go with a bigger bluegill forsure just to keep the smaller 2 and 3 pounders and under off the line. A stinger may be the trick and Im going to try it, especially while bobber fishing around snags and driftwood, I got a feeling a guy’d get better hookups.