Catfishing for WALLEYES

[Rick]

I learned a new trick last night when it comes to big walleyes on the river. I found out firsthand how to catfish for walleyes.

Let's start from the beginning. Dark30 had invited me out on a shore fishing catfish trip and before I got out with Dark, Dennis Steele called and said let's go chase some flattys. Those stories are in the catfish forum.

Anyway I jestingly asked when I DA MAN was going to get me out chasing flattys as he operates BrianK's Trophy Catfishing Aventures Guide Service.

To my surprise he took me up on it and informed me that we would be fishing for walleyes the first 45 minutes. So I packed up my catfishing and walleye gear. When I get ready to load my walleye gear into Brian's boat he tells me to put it back in my vehicle.

Brian says "You won't need it and you won't believe how we catch these walleyes." So I'm thinking handlining, no biggee.

We get out on the river and two things strike me. First is how little boat traffic there is and the second is how awesome the scenery is yet not quite as wild as the Minnesota River.

Anyway we get to the flathead spot and I toss two flathead lines in. Both heavy duty rods, 50 lb power pro, 10/0 hooks and 4 oz weights baited with a bullhead.

YES the above was my set-up on the right for the evening catfishing for walleye with BrianK.

I say to Brian. "We can only use two rods and I thought we were going to fish for walleyes for the first 45 minutes or so?"

Brian tells me "We are fishing for walleyes."

I'm thinking 10/0 catfish hooks - yeah right.

Brian tells me that the rods on the right are targeting walleyes and the ones on the left are targeting flatheads. It's getting past sunset and Brian is getting a bit nervous. Nothing on and he's told Dennis Steele that he has been on a very hot bite.

Not to fear, in a few minutes I have a very nice fish on. I'm thinking small flathead.

A picture is worth a thousand words so I will make it short and here is that fish:

Nice walleye and even with the heavy cat gear this big momma put up a pretty good battyle for a walleye. I do have to not ehtat the whole time I'm bring her in Brian is telling me "You have one of those junk fish".

Yeah right. Walleye to be proud of. I will let I DA MAN fill you in on the details like the structural elements he looks for, water levels, current and why walleyes are on one side and flatty's on the other.

Yes, we did catch flattys as well. I'll give you a couple pics but we caught plenty of them. No 30 lb monsters but we did have plenty of action even though Brian was complaining how slow it was.

I thought it was the person going out with the guide who was supposed to do all of the complaining.

Brian of BrianK's Trophy Catfishing Aventures with a nice flatty.

A nice Flatty Brian put me on.

I will tell you there are some locational differances between the Minnesota River and Mississppi River Flathead Catfish.

I will leave that and the rest of the story up to Brian and with any luck Dennis Steele as well.

Thank you very much Brian. It was an absolute pleasure getting out with you last night.

If your looking for a little fun and possibly catfishing for hog walleyes some evening check out Brian's site and service.

[musky hunter]

Wow, what we don't know. I did catch walleyes once while catfishin', they actually hit squashed sucker minnows, however, none were large at all and I've never done it since. I never would have thought that a walleye would eat a bullhead. Very nice fish indeed, thanks for lettin' us in on the secret.

[Wiskers]

That is how I do all my big Eye fishing on the river. So far Rick we have Eyes up to 10, 11, & 13 pounds doing that. 33" is the biggest so far. The wife got that one of course. LOL...

You are sure getting into some good fishing as of late there Rick.. good for you.

[Guest]

Those *junk fish* sure do love the bullheads. I know hanson recently got treated to the junkfish on bullies while with I DA MAN(Brian K), as did Bob Moore(Moores bait) landed 3 one evening, all over 8 pounds with Brian. If three 8+ walleyes wasnt enough, the 120 accumilated pounds (all released) of flatheads sure made a trip of a lifetime.

Bullheads work great for walleyes. All of the walleyes spoken about were on 7" bullheads, not a small bait. I think there will be lots of big walleyes landed in the future on decent bullheads when people start to catch on.

I cant agree more that fishing the Mississippi river is an entirely different monster than the Minnesota River.

[I Da Man]

I don't think Bob will be the same again. He had a pretty good night.

The area that Rick and I were fishing for "bait" had a 13 foot channel running through it with a 6 foot of water shelve. The eye's would come out of the deeper water at night to feed in the shallows and hammer the bullies.

Just recently the flats have started moving in and are being caught in the deeper water of the channel. It's become pretty easy to predict what kind of fish is coming to the boat...deep side is a flat and shallow is the eyes.

We've boated 10 eyes now this year waiting for the flats to come in. Smallest was Hanson's latest at just shy of 26" and the largest was a hefty 29+ weighing in at 10.15 pounds.

It's a highlight of the evening when your catfishing and they pull in an bigger eye! They love them bullheads!

I'll get back to this post Friday. It's getting late and I have to catch some bait in the morning.

...and I'll have to cover off on Rick's new finger piercing

Great company Rick! We'll do it again and I'll save a biggun for ya!

[hanson]

Hey Brian-

You sure mine was the smallest. It was 28" and nearly 8lbs.

[I Da Man]

Sorry Chris! The 25.85 walleye was caught by a customer, Jake Hayes. We actually had a double. That walleye and a 13 pound flathead!

The walleye are about done as the flatheads are moving in and chasing the little guys out...or eating them.

If you know of a spot where walleyes are feeding in the evening...you might want to try a 5-6 inch bullhead rig as the photo shows. You won't get bit a lot...but when you do, you'll be happy with the results!

[hitthebricks]

Where do you get the bullheads and how do you hook them. HTB

[Rick]

You can catch them in a lot of lakes, rivers and streams. You hook them on top anywhere from the tail up to the head.

Really you can hook them just about anywhere. They tend to be the liveliest bait you can find and will tend to right themselves as long as they are healthy.

I like to hook them anywhere form the top fin back to the tail. Some hook them through the lips. Flow will make a differance where you want to hook em. Experiment with it.

[Borch]

And people laughed at me when I said walleyes love bullheads. Not just in rivers either.

Nice fish guys!

[I Da Man]

Borch...I think that's great!

When folks see the pics and ask "Whatcha catchem on?" They look at me for one second and think...this guys full of it!

Five people that I've taken out have caught the largest walleye they've ever caught...they aren't laughing!

I may have mentioned this before, Rick's eye was the last one caught..they've moved into the main channel. Wingdams are the places to find them now.

Good catchen all!

[hanson]

Quote:

---

When folks see the pics and ask "Whatcha catchem on?" They look at me for one second and think...this guys full of it!

---

I've got one better Brian. When dtro & I were out fishing Saturday night. A jonboat came by at night and started asking questions.

"What ya fishing for?"

Catfish

"Here?"

Yep

"There ain't no catfish here?"

(Didn't tell him we got a 48 pounder the night before)

"What you using for bait?"

Bullheads!!

"Yeah right" he says

"You guys fishing for walleyes?"

Nope. Geez... We've got 8' white fiberglass rods with big baitcasters on.

Then he goes on to tell us about a big fish he had on further upriver that ran him into a snag and lost him to further prove his point that we didn't know what we were doing.

We got a good chuckle.

[I Da Man]

Some people will just never understand...

[rod-man]

Rick

nice rod on the right

still building a few now and then for fun

doing more carvings now that I'm disabled

[Rick]

Is that you Frank???

[rod-man]

yep

how you doing

[Rick]

Very good.

Hope all is well with you and yours.

[rod-man]

not to bad takin it day by day

learning to walk again now

just a suggestion you need to have a forum

for disabled fishers/hunters

it sucks trying to find a decent place to fish out of a wheelchair

[rod-man]

Rick any thoughts on that Forun