How far up?

[hanson]

When I'm not fishing, I'm thinking and that can sometimes be dangerous.

Why do we fish flatheads right on the bottom?

Lately I've been using a short leader (8-12"), sucker minnow, and 3-4 oz no-roll. If I have a fairly tight line to the bait, that puts the bait right on the bottom amongst the rock, wood, debris, or whatever else is down there. I would equate this to the bait being poorly visible. If I feed out some line, that gives the bait a chance to swim around a little and undoubtedly become snagged.

When you look at the head of a flathead, it has that great big protruding lower jaw. Most other freshwater fish that have a pronounced lower jaw have no problem feeding up, or coming up for the bait. Basically, they are not really designed to suck bait off the bottom like a channel cat would be.

So I'm just curious, any of you other flathead anglers have success fishing a bait 2' off the bottom for example? Or higher up? I'm thinking sort of like a drop shot for flatties or a 3-way with a longer drop to the weight.

[SteveD]

I picked up a nice 30" channel a couple of nights ago on a 3-Way Rig with an 18" 2oz bell sinker drop weight. I had some small bullheads about 4" and I wanted to try them out on circle hooks for flats. Rather than rig them the standard No-Roll slip rig I opted for a 3 Way to get them up off the bottom. I was tight lining the 3 Way and just letting the fish grab the bait and take off. I didn't get any flats to take but I had a nice channel just inhale that bullhead. When I got that channel cat, he had the rod so loaded up I had a heck of a time getting it out of the rod holder. The spot I was fishing had a lot of brush and rocks and I wanted to try to get the bait up and out of that. I made my bell sinker dropper line out of 6# test and I did lose about 3 sinkers getting hooked up. I just broke them off and tied on a new dropper.

I have been having lousy luck this year on flats but last year I picked up a few using a float. I have a few great brush pile spots that are difficult to fish because of the snags right on the bottom. I floated a bullie up about a foot to 18" in the eddy formed near the logjam. I got a few small flats using that approach. I put a couple of rubber bands around the float before I rigged it up and hung a small chem stick on the float so I could see it in the dark. It is pretty cool when the float disappears in the dark. You are expecting to feel Jaws on the hook set. I had to hit the fish hard and fast and drag them out of all that brush. I didn't tag any big fish but it was a lot different than the normal bottom sitting drift rig waiting for a clicker to sound off.

[rushing]

I have fished with a large lighted float with a bully a few times. I have yet to hook into a flat but I have caught walleyes and I tried it again Sat night and had one run but I dunno what it was. I know Dragon Master uses a balloon rig and has had success with it. So yes you can fish em off the bottom, just kinda depends on the spot I guess.

rob

[Fisher Dave]

I know there are some people who use floats along VISABLE snags.. log jams, etc..

I have watched flatheads many times in tanks (cabelas, etc) and observed their actions for a while.. I am sure many of us have stared at fish in tanks..

I did notice they are always tight to the bottom, or elevated tight to some type of structure.. log, etc. I have seen flatheads in backwaters moving across the surface like an alligator more than once, an done time I did witness one feeding on a school of minnows on the surface and breaking the water.. it nearly came out of the water.. it was a sight.

Fishing a float could be deadly in the right place.. but I am not sure if the right place is letting it drift up to a log jam.. unless you hook your 400# line to a winch to drag the fish out immediately, what are the odds that the fish WONT run directly back into the cover.. that would be frustrating.

I think I know the situations(places) your thinking of trying it.. its worth a try.

THere are other alternates to bottom rigs that will pull your bait away from the bottom other than 3 way rigs.

[DARK30]

I catch a fair number of mudeyes on artificial baits like Shad Raps amd Mister Twisters. This always (for me anyway) happens in shallower water and also water that is not real dirty. If a Flathead can see your lure and its in the mood to chase it, he will. These fish are not hugging the bottom like one would imagine...but then again, the bottom isn't very far away. I use my "flying bobber" all the time but never use a regular float. I'll bet that taking the time and playing with the depth of your bait, one could get consistent action under the right circumstances.

[dragon master]

I have caught flats on my balloon rig fishing any were from just a few in below the surface to the bottom of the river. One night we were sitting in the middle of an 18 foot eddy, fishing with the ballons, any were from 4 foot - 8 foot below the surface and could not keep the flats off. The two biggest mistake made are fishing on the bottem at all times and casting out as far as you can. My 53lb flat came from about 2 foot of water, and my 48lb came from about 4in below the surface. Flats feed from bank to bank and from the bottem to the surface.

[gethanet]

I've heard flats or what I think were flat exploding on carp feeding on cotton wood seed floating in a eddy a few time on moon lite nights, All you could hear was the sucking sound from all the carp eating and then all of a sudden it sounded like somone jumping off a high board and doing a conon ball.The it would be silent for a few min. and the it would happen all over again all night long. I also seen one grab a 12" gar about 2 foot from shore one night. Crazy thing about that on was the gar got grabbed and about half of it stick tail up out of the water and l;ooked like a submarine para scope going through the water for about 3-4 feet. So I think you can get them close to the surface or right on top. I was thinking about bringing the musky rod with a few surface baits. Myabe a walk the dog or one of those plop plop plop bait would work. Would be somthing to remember haveing a 30-40 pound flat blow up on a surface bait out in the darkness. One can always dream.