Temporary NE Flathead/Catfish Forum

I didn’t want to take over the picture post…as I have a habit of getting off topic.

fishhunter44,

WATERDOGS!??? I never gave them a thought! I don’t know of any baitshops around here that carry them anymore. Although I heard Bob Moore talk about getting one in his order of suckers once and made a paniced phone call to find out “what the ‘ell was that!”

Our WI friends can use gills legally and I’ve heard very good reports from them (size and numbers of fish caught). Here in MN any game fish as bait is a no no.

Early, pre and post spawn bullheads seem to be the number one bait. When the water slows on the sippi, suckers and creek chubs become the favorite. With the flow on the sippi being down to 3500 cfs, cut sucker, chubs and shad are all producers…and seemingly better than a live bullhead.

Where is the Tri County Cannal that you speak of? I want to take a looky see at that area.

What’s the rigging your using…beside beef jerky I mean.

And the last question of the day…What do you guys do when the flow drops that the river becomes a lake and the flats aren’t in predictable locations any longer?

PS…I’m sure if there’s enough interest in cats in your area someone from the wonderful land of Oz will take notice…

Brian does that mean you want me to ask James for a Nebraska catfish forum??

Well, I was going to wait to see if there’s any cat guys in NE before I came to you.

But I can see you are THE go to guy to get forums open!

James ????

Ben isn’t there anymore cat guys in NE?

Or have all the eye guys hijack them??

There’s more catfishermen in Neb than anything. The channel cat is our state fish. We’ll have to see if we can get some of them to speak up.

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The channel cat is our state fish.

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LOOK OUT! I’m moving to NE!

It’s the weekend. I’m sure the whisker hunters are all on the banks of the river soaking chichen livers and roasting the extras for snacks on a small fire.

Yup, waterdogs, man. They do work real well. The only bad thing about them is if they’re suspended (which is how we catch our flatheads), they will crawl up the line sometimes and tangle the whole mess up. But they do work well. Here’s another flathead that I caught on a waterdog:

Obviously, this one wasn’t released, but we now do release ALL our bigger flats, which usually means anything over 20lbs.

There are lots of catfishermen in NE, but I’m guessing most of them are’t on here very much. Maybe it’ll catch on at this site….could get interesting!

Brian, you would love the tri county canal. It’s a catfisherman’s paradise, pretty much. You have current in the summer, but not real swift. Lots of backwaters and eddies, lots of snags, lots of deep water, lots of everything. You should really come out and see it sometime!

If I wanted to look for it on a map…what would I look for?

Ok…anything that can climb up line is a target and NOT bait!

So are you using floats?

I’m not sure if you’re framiliar with the terminal tackle that most us around here in MN/WI…just wondering if it’s the same down that way?

We don’t use floats….but we do suspend our baits. If I were using a rod/reel, I would definitely be using floats, though, I can tell you that much.

If you’re looking on a map for the canal system, look at Lake McConaughy, in the western part of the state. The canal comes out of that lake, and then goes down to Sutherland Res. Then there’s a whole long line of reservoirs on the canal system, like Sutherland, Maloney, Jeffrey, Midway, Gallagher’s, Plum Creek, and then Johnson and Phillips. Then it goes back into the river only about 7 miles or so from my house. You can check it out a bit more at http://www.cnppid.com.

Map Link

fishhunter- Are most areas of the canal accessible by boat?

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We don’t use floats….but we do suspend our baits. If I were using a rod/reel, I would definitely be using floats, though, I can tell you that much.

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Are you using set line, limb lines or jugging? None of these techniques are legal up here in MN so most guys are stuck using 1 – 2 rods only. Commercial fishing of any kind for gamefish (cats included) has been stopped for decades so our fisheries and the way we fish them is going to be a little different. I for one know I’m looking forward to learning from the differences in approach.

I’m guessing trot lines…

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I for one know I’m looking forward to learning from the differences in approach.

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Exactly!

Which is one of the reasons I started this thread…to see the differances in techniques.

You’ve peaked my interest already with the suspended bait. I would bet 98% of the cat guys up here fish on the bottom. LarryFlatCaster uses floats between his sinker and hook/bait. Whiskerkev uses floats to fish for monster channels along weedlines….

And I just started using the Gamakatsu lighted 10″ float this year. Only two fish on it, but I think i’m looking for love in all the wrong places!

So…I’m going to spit it out and go to bed (I was going to write a report tonight)…if it’s legal in the state in which you are fishing…it’s legal to talk about.

By the way, if I could get my butt out of this state for a road trip, I would love to see all the differant ways to fish cats…as we are…”kinda” restricted up here.

Fishhunter, why would you suspend your bait?

And it looks like that cannal system would keep a guy busy for weeks!

Ben & Brian,
First of all, jug lines and trot lines are illegal in NE, so you gotta go with something different. You can run 15 hooks in the canal, and I believe it says you can run them all individually (which is what we do), or you can run 5 lines with 3 hooks each. It might be the other way around (3 lines with 5 hooks), not sure on that one. But anyway, we do suspend our baits. The reason we do this is because we’re targeting the actively feeding flats during the night, when they’re out and about. The biggest key is LIVELY bait that will ring the dinner bell and let them know there’s a free meal involved. Plus, look at a flat’s head….you can just see that it’s easy for them to ‘feed up’. Also, we catch most of our fish in shallow water, but we’re fishing near the deep holes where they hang out.

And there are lots of places that are accessible by boat in the canal. Not all of it is, but there is quite a bit. Mostly Plum Creek, Gallagher’s, and Midway, but there’s also a boat ramp straight south of G’burg that you can use to get up the canal a few miles there too. They just tore all the good stuff down this spring and rip-rapped it all, so that’s ruined, in my opinion. But there are lots of places to drive around in a boat. And you’re right Brian….it’ll keep you busy for a long time!