1st time catfisher

[Guest]

My brother and I will be attempting to catfish tomorrow, saturday night. We live in the twin cities area. Are there any good areas to launch the boat and stay overnight??? Also, I think we're going to launch in Hidden Falls and go down the MISS and then cut over to the Minnesota river. Any tips would be appreciated! Tomorrow, we're going to go get som bull heads so we can use them as bait.. 7" is the legal limit for using bull heads as bait right? Is there any other baits you can recommend?? Also, on the river, is it just 1 pole? Or two poles? I can't remember..

[Guest]

Read your regs dude. Check the inland waters section. It will tell you how many lines you can use everywhere in the state of minnesota with the exception of border waters and ice fishing.

Hidden falls closes at sunset, dont launch there if you plan on being out after 9 or you will be locked in. You can launch at watergate for a fee, or lilydale and risk a ticket. There is a launch on the minnesota off blackdog road and cedar I believe is open 24/7.

Moores bait carries bullheads, and he might be able to help point you in the right direction.

Good luck.

[Maashkinoozhe]

hey webwarrior -

Did you manage to get that cat you were looking for?

Dave D.

[Guest]

Hi Dave.

Thanks for asking!!

My brother and I did manage to get out there at about 9:45 Saturday night. We stopped at the mentioned bait shop and spoke with the owner. Really nice guy. We ended up purchasing 18 bullies, some nice hooks, 4oz sinkers, and 100lb swivels.

Got to the lauch at 9:45. We didn't know where to go so after the lauch, we went downstream about 200 yards, found a decent hole / dropoff from 9ft to 15ft with some fish on the finder. Circled back about 20 feet from the drop off, sanked the anchor and started fishing. At 10:45, I finally landed my 1st and biggest flathead ever!!

Suffice and sadly, that was the only fish we saw all night. We were up and down the river til morning and nothing else set off the clicker

Here are some pictures from a sad camera phone as I couldn't find my digital

Gear used for this trip:

1 7ft Fenwick Techna AV Heavy Action Rod "Previously used for muskie fishing"

1 Abu Garcia 5500 Baitcasting reel - Had to use that as replacement because my Abu 6600ssc3 reel broke at the last minute

Gamakatsu Octopus #9 hook

4oz sinker

100lb swivel

40lb power pro

1 unfortunate bully.

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hey webwarrior -

Did you manage to get that cat you were looking for?

Dave D.

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[Maashkinoozhe]

Sweet! You're batting 1.000 for flatties so far! Maybe you should retire . Nice intro to flathead fishing! That cat looks pretty healthy! My first and only flathead was puny - I was fishing for smallies on the Mississippi. Did you get a measurement, or weight?

Dave D.

[Guest]

honestly, no... I didn't expect to catch anything on the 1st night out so that was all that I brought, 18 bullies, my hooks, sinkers and weights

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Did you get a measurement, or weight?

Dave D.

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