Flathead too late to move back into deep water???

[ricqik]

Was fishing on a sand flat of back bay in 2-3' deep on the St. Croix for gars and when I came up to some farely large boulders I noticed a large fish sort of trying to hide between two boulders. I move around to a different angle and imediately knew it was a large flathead cat around 45". Not having any live bait with me I hooked up a sinking lure and sprayed it with some scent on it and dropped it down to him. As soon as it touched his mouth it kinda curled it's tail to back up and slowly swam around on the sand flat looking for deeper water. After 2 minutes following him he finally turned in the right direction and kept going until I can no longer see him in deep water. Just seeing a fish that large in such shallow water made it a great moment. If he'd bit, it would of been a bonus moment. I continued to fish and catch plenty of gars and had an even better day. I knew large flatheads come shallow at night to feed but this one must of thought he just hang out till dark again and be first on the flat is strange.

[katchaser]

The only thing I can imagine is that flathead was sick or injured. Possibly it had eaten an extremely large fish (or bird or turtle) the previous night and was uncomfortable when he moved.

Normally flathead will move to an area that gives it overhead cover during daylight hours. The exception would only be during prespawn when scouting possible nesting sites and fighting other male flatheads for territory.

There are lots of things in nature I can't explain!

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Catchabiggun,
Robby

[This message has been edited by katchaser (edited 08-29-2004).]