Flatheads Near Indian Point

[Jason Essary]

I dont have much to report normally but love to when I have something worth giving.

Toke the kids out friday evening. Toke awhile to find the perch for bait but finally baited a 20 hook trotline before dark. Checked it this morning. 4 Flatheads, all good size with the largest being 14lbs and one 4lb smallmouth. Gladly using circle hooks the smallmouth got returned with only a small hole in the corning of its mouth. She looked full of eggs anyways.

Flatheads were in great condition. Rolling with fat. Great table fair. Thought this a great catch for only having 20 hooks. Also had 2 other hooks rolled up, even with a good snap and swivel, which normally means channel cat bites but when they got hooked they rolled until it hangs up and rolls to the main line where they can get some leverage. Bad thing about circle hooks, when the channels roll up to the main line they can twist them out.

Lines were in the back of a nice feeder creek, 17 foot deep between to trees ancored to the bottom on both ends.

Hope this helps anyone looking for some good table fair. Flatheads out of the clear water have such beautiful white meat and taste great.

[vonreed]

Thanks for the report. I've been wanting to put in a couple trot lines in on Tablerock here fairly soon and that's encouraging.

[Bill Babler]

Jason, great report. Don't know why folks don't explore this resourse, fantastic. Have you thought about tryiing some limb lines in the flooded stuff? Would bet you a nickle a man could do really well. Would want to bait them late however, to keep off the turtles.

Thanks for the very nice Kitty Katchin Report.

[Jason Essary]

Bill, your correct in baiting them late. Always bate at dark because of the turtles chewing up the bait. Only problem with limb lines for me is I like the flat'es, and always catch them on the bottom. Unless you dig back into the 'stuff' most of your limb lines would be 10' long to get to the bottom (or longer). Way to much line to allow them to wrap up in the trees.

[T-RockJaws]

Fishing in the back of Indian about a week ago, spotted a tree limb bobbing up and down. Upon further investigation found a chanel cat at the end of a limb line. Took 2 hands to get around it just behind the gill plates, had to go 10 to 12 pounds at least. It was on monofillament line so we figured it had gotten on someones snag. Not so, the mono line had actually been tied to the tree limb. Seeing this we returned it for the person who set the line. Never seen anyone use monofillament line to tie a limb line...

[powerdive]

I've caught quite a few flatheads while trolling or jigging, but have released every one. Not so long ago Martin laid some trotline fillets on me, and I have to say, it was the finest freshwater fish I've ever eaten, bar none. Some walleyes or crappies may just go free next time a flattie shows up!