Still On The Flats

[Jason Essary]

Baited lines last night, found one channel on the line. All the bait had been removed so caught him on a bare hook. Its happened before but always blows my mind when it does. Anyways caught 7 Flats by morning, one released and the others are going to a fish fry with me. Theyre still biting great, heard anouther guy at the ramp say hes caught two a night for 3 nights, fishing the same area im in. Great fun with the kids. pics dont want to load. Maybe later.

[zander]

When we were out on TRL yesterday, I saw lots of 5-7 inch gizzard shad holding around the flooded brush around the point in-between Mill Creek and Little Mill Creek. I bet that would be a good place to run a line.

[Trav]

Ever catch much limb lining the channels?

[Jason Essary]

Hard to limb line the channels on TR. I have caught lots of flats on LL but since the outside limbs of the trees are in 15' of water I havent tried them this year.

[bclift65706]

I have never fished on table rock for catfish are the flatheads on the flats or in shallow water along th bank. I do pretty good on truman by the bank on truman in 2 to 8 ft of water arond some brush with deep water not far away. and up the pomme arm in the river channel in 25 ft water. I am sitting 1 1/2 hours from any lake north or south would like to try Table Rock sometime

[Jason Essary]

Flatheads where im fishing are just outside the trees to bout 30'. Havent caught anything inside the trees, 15' and shallower, except dinkys. Normally, u can catch them up to 3' or so in the dark of the night, but I think most fish are cruising the outside of the tree line like bass on a weed line elsewhere. caught 14 this weekend, had 10 saturday. None over 10lb this time but great numbers.

[itsdesignateddave]

I have had lots of success fishing rivers here locally. My parent's house is less than a mile from the Kansas river, and a friend of mine caught an 80+lb one last year on a bank line. I'm not that old, but I have fished the river since I was in grade school and have found that they feed very differently than any other fish I have found around these parts. You can catch them any time of day, but most are after the sun starts setting in the late afternoon after around 4pm. In times of high water they will feed in less than 2' of water consistently. I've had good luck on worms in high water - but typically 3-4 large nightcrawlers fished about a foot off the bottom. Whatever size bait you are looking at - double it. It can't get too big, trust me. The one last year was caught on a small sunfish who was eaten by a 5lb flathead, which was in turn being eaten by the 80lb flathead. Strangely enough I have had better luck using small channel cat under 12" as bait, and filleted side of drum up to 3lbs. The only thing I have really learned over the years is you have to have a lot of patience for pole fishing for flathead. One bite an hour may be all you get, even in a hotspot.

[bclift65706]

a bite an hour would make pole fishing for flatheads exciting.I run jugs then sit with my poles all night may not even get a bite on a blugill but most of the bites I get end up with a fish on the stringer. going to my secret spot tomarrow night me and my son I am going to run two sets of jugs one set were I have cought some flatheads and another set wher I have herd of people catching flatheads and bigones. be back sometime between saturday and monday with a report.

[itsdesignateddave]

Good luck!

My most productive day I caught about 15 of them in a couple hours. Nothing huge, but all 3-10lbs. Plenty of fun on a rod and reel. Also, when fishing the rivers you never know what might take a bite.... I've seen things they say don't exist in the rivers around here.

[bclift65706]

no luckat tunnel dam with flatheads channel cat was ok headed to stockton to try a fev now