Does Size Really Matter...

[hanson]

when you are talking about your 1st Flathead Catfish of the year??

This one had been a long time coming. I don't even think my bait was in the water for 10 minutes when I saw the rod thump. A short pull of clicker and I was assuming attack position. Wham! I let it have it and it felt good to set the hook into something. Only problem was I darn near rocketed the poor little thing out of the water. Oh well. Can you believe this little guy took down my 8" sucker minnow? Hungry sucker. LOL!

The monkey is off my back for now! It was a good night, but wait, there's more...

Half hour later at the same spot with my bait positioned in about the same area, it happened again. My rod took a good thump but the fish didn't pull clicker at all. It was moving upstream ever so slowly but that was all I needed. Wham! Fish #2 is on and it was definitely better. A very short fight followed and my biggest flathead for the year was now on shore, an approximate 10 pounder, maybe more.

I don't think I'll be sleeping well tonight, I've got the flathead fever now.

The game is on and hopefully we see some bigger fish soon!

[PierBridge]

Nice........job!

[rushing]

There sure seems to be alot of those lil fellas out and about this spring. Its amazing how aggressive they are! Nice fish

[I Da Man]

I hear ya Hanson!

Got the FEVER last night too...although your 10 lbs looks bigger than my 10 lber!

The one that got away last night...that's just a fish story to everyone else...but me...as me up and heading out for bait at 7 am. I'm not sure what would have happened if she knew she was hooked!

Water surface temp 61.9

Skeeters and bats out

bait fish surfaceing all over

fire flies starting to appear

It's time!

[Ralph Wiggum]

Alright Hanson! No Mr. B.O. for you yet, huh? Now I'm really pumped. Hope to get my first one tomorrow. I've got a cooler of plump bullies just waiting for a big fella

[Guest]

Nice fish hanson.. it was very nice to see the 1st real fish of the year coming out. There were a couple other baby flatheads that came out like the 1st fish also.

Just to think.. hanson almost didnt go to the 2nd spot where the fish were caught.. he had that sound of *I'm going to go home instead* when the sun went down.. I had some strange 6th sense dragging me to the other spot. Hanson reluctantly followed and like he said.. it was about 10 minutes and he had the 1st fish on. It was 3 minutes after that he was so happy he was ready to see the sun rise with a bait on the hook!

[hanson]

2 things came to mind after last night...

1) I'm going to start journaling every single night fishing this summer as well as length & weight of the fish caught. Of course I'm off to a good start since we neither weighed or measured any of the fish last night.

I know I've been scratching my head like crazy, as has Dave, trying to figure out why the flatheads hadn't turned on yet this year. Nobody is counting but last night was 16 days later than last spring for the first flathead on this stretch of river. Water temp? Water level? Moon phase? Weather patterns? Not quite sure what caused it but a few fish were definitely hungry last night.

I've been out a few nights a week for the last month hitting these same spots with nothing to show except a channel cat here and there. Frustration was setting in and it felt like a big burden was lifted last night. Like I said, "Game On!"

2) Always listen to Dave when he has a gut feeling. You should have seen this guy last night. We were fishing in a different location and all of a sudden he was like, "We've got to get out of here. They're gonna be biting somewhere else." Sure enough, they were and I was 5 minutes away from calling it a night. I'm glad I stuck around.

[Ihateriversnags]

Hanson,

I'm sure you've seen it already in the other forums but it's been the same up here in Crookston as well. Slammin the sheephead but to get a decent cat to bite has been truly difficult. Wiskers and I were out last week and only caught 5 little ones. 2 days ago I was shore fishing by the dam and caught nothing for cats. There are a few people catching decent walleye from the new sandbar that the new dam created. One we estimated at 4 lbs or so but other than that it's been really slow. Haven't even accidentally caught a smallmouth up there yet and last year we had to fight them off the hook.

[DARK30]

Size DOES matter! (But) If you never saw any little ones, you'd never know you had the big one would ya