Trotlining adventure kc

[rangerman]

Well my walleye trip to bull shoals was shot due to last minute cancellations by the corp. so hung out at our lake house in kc. I took my 7 year old out for his first trotlining adventure which he and I both enjoyed. He really got a kick out of it. Set two 10 hook lines and ended up with 19 in 3 days all in between 7 and 20 pounds. Lots of good eats in the freezer.

On a side note, and I have noticed this in the past, we fish secondary pockets which the normal table rock slab rock where the preferred bait green sunfish hang out. On a couple of occasions had a big smallie and a big black bass grab them as I was bringing the sunfish in. This isn't a fluke I have seen this numerous times. Any Of you bass guys throw a erratic sunfish pattern crank? just a couple of pics.

[rangerman]

On a side note, had a hard time NOT catching pesky 6 inch smallies. Flippin tons of those things.

[aarchdale@coresleep.com]

Nice, We caught a 34lb flatty once in the KC area. Its in my profile pic. My brother used to dive around there a lot and he said that he saw twice as many flathead as we see in Bull Shoals

[Hunter91]

Very nice, RM!!

[Hammer time]

Awesome report and glad you posted pics.

[Bass Enforcer]

Awesome job Jason. I need to try that this year!

[rangerman]

There are TONS of flatheads in table rock. It's a actually a real good time, but definitely eats into normal fishing time.

[Quillback]

Nice, healthy flathead. Bet they are some good eats.

[5bites]

That is very cool. I wish I knew how to do this. I did my whole childhood on table rock but was never taught if that makes sense. Glad you guys had a good time!

[rangerman]

Real easy 5bites as long as you know where to look.

1) run short lines. 10 hooks or so. I have hooks spaced 4 to 5 foot apart. 2) secondary points are generally best as long as you have the right type of structure. Look for areas with decent size slab rock. Also a shelf of some sort that runs off into 20 foot of water before dropping deep is best. 3) mid May into early June is usually a real good bite prior to them spawning. 4) circle hooks are generally best as they snag fish real well but not rocks, trees, etc. 5) bait selections: green sunfish are the prime flathead bait. Soft finned and bodied. Catch them throwing small brown jigs and such around rocky areas as they are crawdad devouring machines. Pumpkinseed and normal bluegill will work in a pinch though. 6) a little trick I dreamt up and seems to work very well. I take a quarter of a pool noodle and tie it about 3 or four foot from the anchor and sort of lifts the end hooks off the bottom slightly. 7) hook bait slightly behind and above anus opening. The bait will swim up constantly and struggle freely. It also lives a lot longer. Make sure you bait right before dark, any earlier and gar and turtles play havoc along with the TR lobsters.

These are just some of the techniques I use and it works real well. The best morning years ago I had trotlining resulted in 8 out of 10 hooks having flatties on it. Not something I do every year, due to the walleye fishing obsession, but you can fill a freezer real quick with some great eating.

Average size I have found is about 7-14 pounds or so. It varies though.

Good luck.