Targeting Day Time Flatheads
In almost every article about flathead angling there is no such thing as a flathead lite-bite or non-aggressive hit. Exactly why a good flathead man would need a sturdy-lighter-weight-rod that is sensitive enough to detect a subtle hit from a flat displaying a negative feeding disposition is rarely thought about let alone written about in the mainstream media... until now.
While most flathead chasers spend only the peak months (being the hot summer nights of post-spawn thru the fall till the water cools)...they are missing out on a lot of the flathead season...and especially in the early part of the year when the water temperature is still somewhat cool....a pool-cue type rod will not be a choice that a some of the best flathead anglers would select. This information is a compilation of Denny Halgren`s 30 some years fishing for flats on the Rock River and my experience and intimate knowledge of flathead physiology, behavior, and seasonal patterns...but remember...there are no absolutes to fishing..only insight, trends, experiences, and patterns are conveyed here in hopes that we all can share our findings with each other for the progress of catfishing.
REVELATIONS
At one time I only fished for flatheads from late May till bout September because I hadn't had much success fishing for them any earlier or later because I was still fishing the traditional "aggressive feeding flathead bite". When placing baits in the travel zones that flats use when actively searching for food almost always results in an obvious hard strike...so naturally the traditional pattern is what I concentrated on as well as nearly 100% of the rest of the catfishing population.
I actually first lucked on to the "Day Bite Pattern" while fishing the Kaskaskia River in Illinois. It is a small river with few holes with enough structure for holding flats in the first 10 miles below the dam...so on a whim I decided to target flats during the day by putting the bait in their face so to speak.... To make a long story short, I caught more flatheads that day than I ever had fishing at night ...7 good flats....with the biggest going 42 lbs!!
So after that day I started developing the pattern over the next 12 years with some good sucess..
Then about 5 years ago I met Denny Halrgren and we started fishing together. As it turns out he had been fishing the very same pattern on the rock river for years with unbelievable success!!!
I learned many subtleties about flathead behavior and detecting their "lite-bite" on my own and then learned a huge amount fishing and talking with Denny. More than I could have learned in 10 years..
So here goes....
THE DAY BITE
It is imperative to know your waters bottom structure intimately unless fishing below dams for day-roaming pre-spawn fish.
Learn where one flat holds in a river in the daytime and there are sure to be more there. They probably wont get up and move for the bait very far but if you can pinpoint where the flatheads personal-space is by accurate bait placement your bait will get bit fast! Usually between 5 to 15 minutes. In a particular hole ...cast many different times on the same anchor and you will up your odds by "puttin the bait in their face" and force the flathead to bite out of "territorial aggression".
DAYTIME BITE CHARACTERISTICS
Day bite is very different from the night bite in that most all of the hits that you take will be non-feeding neutral fish who out of territorial aggression strike the bait. The initial hit will usually be the same and also the slow pumping movement of the rod tip...but they will usually not move with the bait very far and for that reason I we don't usually recommend circle hooks for day-flats.
Some times they will not move at all so watch your rods carefully. Sometimes the hit can be very subtle.. Sometimes you can't hardly see the hit.... but if the rod loads up a little and there is no boat sway... and you know that you're not snagged... It's most likely a flathead catfish.
Sometimes they will hit the bait aggressively but only back up with the bait giving you one to three pumps of the rod.
Sometimes it is difficult to tell the difference between the live bait movement and the hit.. but there is a difference that is not explainable here...sometimes just a different frequency of the tip action is closest I can explain it.
SPITTIN THE BAIT AND AIRBALL HOOKSETS.
Day-bite flats will spit the bait on some days after the hit or after the pump ! We have fished day-flats on spots that have many flats grouped in them and get many hits and only boat two or three depending on whether the flats are spittin or holding the bait in their mouth.
Almost every time we day-fish for them a certain percentage of the biters will short-bite the baits only grabbing them halfway and then moving before spittin the bait. You will get airball-hooksets that are frustrating even though you see the hit....pick up the rod...feel the familiar and definite flathead-rod-pump while the fish is moving away from you...set the hook and get nothing but air ..Frustrating but it happens. .
I'm not talking about channel cats biting the baits either. Channel cats almost always crush the sunfish with even a single tap of the rod...A bait that has been killed by a channel cat will have depressions that are matched on both sides...while flathead bitten baits will usually show an under-bite pattern of removed scales on one side of the bait fish and will almost never be crushed.
A flathead is sort of like an alligator only opposite.... flatheads have a ton of jaw power while opening their mouths...but little power closing them.....
DIFFERENCES IN TECNIQUES
Nite-flathead fishing patterns key on intercepting moving and feeding flats while the Day -time flats pattern is tailored towards taking the bait to them kind of like ROOM SERVICE
Remember also that flatheads are extremely structure oriented during the day, but it doesn't mean that the structure you target has to be a big tree or log jamb or even close. Denny told me repeatedly several years ago. .. "Doesn't have to be big structure," he would growl. "Think to yourself, how does a 50 pound flathead know how big he is?" "He doesn't."; answering his own question confidently. He's just looking for something that will enable him to do what he was designed for ...ambush prey while expending as little energy as possible!!! Something that breaks current or helps him disguise himself from being noticed by the little fishes. So find that one stick or log or tree in a flatheads home and most likely he will be right next to it.
That's where precision casting and bait presentation comes in..... pin-pointing the structure in relationship to where your boat is anchored is not easy but the more you practice a particular spot..the easier it will get and you will be able to drop that bait right in front of their nose like a sniper. The whole principle of day patterning flatheads relies on placing your live baits within the flatheads "personal space"......thus irritating him into hitting your baits or making a bait so easily available to him that he cannot pass it up....I have seen that scenario played over and over in my aquariums that I kept flatheads in also.
Hope this tidbit will help some of you catch more flatheads during the day... the season is almost upon us!
Good Fishin,
Tim
This flathead from the Rock hit the bait, moved about two feet with the bait and spit it. Luckily it hit again and I set the hook on her!
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In almost every article about flathead angling there is no such thing as a flathead lite-bite or non-aggressive hit. Exactly why a good flathead man would need a sturdy-lighter-weight-rod that is sensitive enough to detect a subtle hit from a flat displaying a negative feeding disposition is rarely thought about let alone written about in the mainstream media... until now.
While most flathead chasers spend only the peak months (being the hot summer nights of post-spawn thru the fall till the water cools)...they are missing out on a lot of the flathead season...and especially in the early part of the year when the water temperature is still somewhat cool....a pool-cue type rod will not be a choice that a some of the best flathead anglers would select. This information is a compilation of Denny Halgren`s 30 some years fishing for flats on the Rock River and my experience and intimate knowledge of flathead physiology, behavior, and seasonal patterns...but remember...there are no absolutes to fishing..only insight, trends, experiences, and patterns are conveyed here in hopes that we all can share our findings with each other for the progress of catfishing.
REVELATIONS
At one time I only fished for flatheads from late May till bout September because I hadn't had much success fishing for them any earlier or later because I was still fishing the traditional "aggressive feeding flathead bite". When placing baits in the travel zones that flats use when actively searching for food almost always results in an obvious hard strike...so naturally the traditional pattern is what I concentrated on as well as nearly 100% of the rest of the catfishing population.
I actually first lucked on to the "Day Bite Pattern" while fishing the Kaskaskia River in Illinois. It is a small river with few holes with enough structure for holding flats in the first 10 miles below the dam...so on a whim I decided to target flats during the day by putting the bait in their face so to speak.... To make a long story short, I caught more flatheads that day than I ever had fishing at night ...7 good flats....with the biggest going 42 lbs!!
So after that day I started developing the pattern over the next 12 years with some good sucess..
Then about 5 years ago I met Denny Halrgren and we started fishing together. As it turns out he had been fishing the very same pattern on the rock river for years with unbelievable success!!!
I learned many subtleties about flathead behavior and detecting their "lite-bite" on my own and then learned a huge amount fishing and talking with Denny. More than I could have learned in 10 years..
So here goes....
THE DAY BITE
It is imperative to know your waters bottom structure intimately unless fishing below dams for day-roaming pre-spawn fish.
Learn where one flat holds in a river in the daytime and there are sure to be more there. They probably wont get up and move for the bait very far but if you can pinpoint where the flatheads personal-space is by accurate bait placement your bait will get bit fast! Usually between 5 to 15 minutes. In a particular hole ...cast many different times on the same anchor and you will up your odds by "puttin the bait in their face" and force the flathead to bite out of "territorial aggression".
DAYTIME BITE CHARACTERISTICS
Day bite is very different from the night bite in that most all of the hits that you take will be non-feeding neutral fish who out of territorial aggression strike the bait. The initial hit will usually be the same and also the slow pumping movement of the rod tip...but they will usually not move with the bait very far and for that reason I we don't usually recommend circle hooks for day-flats.
Some times they will not move at all so watch your rods carefully. Sometimes the hit can be very subtle.. Sometimes you can't hardly see the hit.... but if the rod loads up a little and there is no boat sway... and you know that you're not snagged... It's most likely a flathead catfish.
Sometimes they will hit the bait aggressively but only back up with the bait giving you one to three pumps of the rod.
Sometimes it is difficult to tell the difference between the live bait movement and the hit.. but there is a difference that is not explainable here...sometimes just a different frequency of the tip action is closest I can explain it.
SPITTIN THE BAIT AND AIRBALL HOOKSETS.
Day-bite flats will spit the bait on some days after the hit or after the pump ! We have fished day-flats on spots that have many flats grouped in them and get many hits and only boat two or three depending on whether the flats are spittin or holding the bait in their mouth.
Almost every time we day-fish for them a certain percentage of the biters will short-bite the baits only grabbing them halfway and then moving before spittin the bait. You will get airball-hooksets that are frustrating even though you see the hit....pick up the rod...feel the familiar and definite flathead-rod-pump while the fish is moving away from you...set the hook and get nothing but air ..Frustrating but it happens. .
I'm not talking about channel cats biting the baits either. Channel cats almost always crush the sunfish with even a single tap of the rod...A bait that has been killed by a channel cat will have depressions that are matched on both sides...while flathead bitten baits will usually show an under-bite pattern of removed scales on one side of the bait fish and will almost never be crushed.
A flathead is sort of like an alligator only opposite.... flatheads have a ton of jaw power while opening their mouths...but little power closing them.....
DIFFERENCES IN TECNIQUES
Nite-flathead fishing patterns key on intercepting moving and feeding flats while the Day -time flats pattern is tailored towards taking the bait to them kind of like ROOM SERVICE
Remember also that flatheads are extremely structure oriented during the day, but it doesn't mean that the structure you target has to be a big tree or log jamb or even close. Denny told me repeatedly several years ago. .. "Doesn't have to be big structure," he would growl. "Think to yourself, how does a 50 pound flathead know how big he is?" "He doesn't."; answering his own question confidently. He's just looking for something that will enable him to do what he was designed for ...ambush prey while expending as little energy as possible!!! Something that breaks current or helps him disguise himself from being noticed by the little fishes. So find that one stick or log or tree in a flatheads home and most likely he will be right next to it.
That's where precision casting and bait presentation comes in..... pin-pointing the structure in relationship to where your boat is anchored is not easy but the more you practice a particular spot..the easier it will get and you will be able to drop that bait right in front of their nose like a sniper. The whole principle of day patterning flatheads relies on placing your live baits within the flatheads "personal space"......thus irritating him into hitting your baits or making a bait so easily available to him that he cannot pass it up....I have seen that scenario played over and over in my aquariums that I kept flatheads in also.
Hope this tidbit will help some of you catch more flatheads during the day... the season is almost upon us!
Good Fishin,
Tim
This flathead from the Rock hit the bait, moved about two feet with the bait and spit it. Luckily it hit again and I set the hook on her!
