Just to share… (3 pics)

[Tyler Holm]

Each and every flat that enters by boat still excites me, so I’m gonna share a little of it.

While walleye fishing on Saturday I hooked into and 8-3 on the deadly jig/minnow combo. Bonus fish! I'll take it.

Monday night found us back on the water with the big rods again. I was first to bat with a telltale flattie bite. Missed. Had the bullie handing on there by the skin of its back, so I rehooked it through the mouth. It didn’t take long until I struck gold into this little bugger. 9-12

Thawp, pulse, load, clicker goes crappieguys rod. He sets’er hard into a nice fish. After clearing the lines and negotiating it around the anchor rope, we putter in the net.

21-5

Over the course of evening crazyice had 2 nice flatite bites and hooked up solid on both. Both were decent fish guessed between 10-25lbs. Each fish pulled the slip just as it got boatside. We never got to see either of them, but on each fish the no roll was maybe 10” underwater, tops. Got a swirl out of one, but didn’t get a look at how big its tail was or anything. He was understandably bummed.

Crappieguy ended the night with another miss.

1 whimpy run on cut bait. Took it 5’ then dropped it. The channel cat gods just weren’t with us tonight, but it was still a good night in my books.

6 nice flattie runs – 4 fish boatside – 2 made the internet.

No blooper pics tonight

[katchaser]

Tyler

Have you thought about bigger tackle?

You know there are probably bigger flathead than you have already hooked waiting to be caught.

[Dan Thiem]

Nice job fellas. Maybe crappieguy outta change his name to flatheadguy.

[Tyler Holm]

Robby,

Ohhhhh. I've got the tackle and I'm limited by law on the size of my bait.

I'm waiting patiently for those bigger flats you speak of...

[hanson]

I'm pretty curious as to how you had fish get off? I've had it happen but it usually happens within the first 5 seconds, typically when they swim at the boat hard.

Couple things come to mind...

#1- Sharp hooks. Hooks bouncing around in a tackle box or that have been on your rod for awhile are bound to become dull. I always check mine before hooking a bait. If you were fishing the same rocky area, could've been a problem.

#2- Didn't give er the onion on the hookset.

#3- Don't tell me your livebaiting with circles.

#4- Sometimes it happens.

I just have a hard time believing you would have 2 in one night get off at boatside, and a 20 pounder wrap the anchor rope.

Otherwise great job man! You can see that flattie fishing, or any big game fishing, comes down to the most minute details. Couple things go differently and you are looking at one heck of a night.

Knots, hook points, bait, drag tension, etc, etc are all important (but very small) details to consider before you cast a line out.

[rushing]

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#3- Don't tell me your livebaiting with circles.

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lol

[crazyice]

Both of the fish lost were on 10/0 gammies, that were in my opinion sharp. Now, I suppose there is always room for improvement in that area, but like I said they seemed sharp to me. But over the course of being in a box and on the rod I suppose they could have gotten unnoticeably duller. As far as the hook set, the first one when I set the hook, the drag did give quite a bit, you know, the zip when you set it. Obviously not set tight enough, so there could have been the problem with the first one. So lesson learned at that point, tightened the drag. On the second one, the hook set was great, no zipping of the drag, darn near a dead stop when I set it. When I set it, the tip was at the water line and when the hook set finished I would guess the tip was not quite horizontal. But definately a dead stop. It seemed like a nice set though. This fish seemed small until it got near boatside and did a mad dash up stream and the king kat rod doubled over mid section. That is when it came unbuttoned. I don't know what I did wrong. Definately two very nice flats that I missed though. And yes as tyler said, I was bummed. But this is what keeps a guy coming back for more.

[Larry FlatCaster]

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Both of the fish lost were on 10/0 gammies, that were in my opinion sharp. Now, I suppose there is always room for improvement in that area, but like I said they seemed sharp to me. But over the course of being in a box and on the rod I suppose they could have gotten unnoticeably duller. As far as the hook set, the first one when I set the hook, the drag did give quite a bit, you know, the zip when you set it. Obviously not set tight enough, so there could have been the problem with the first one. So lesson learned at that point, tightened the drag. On the second one, the hook set was great, no zipping of the drag, darn near a dead stop when I set it. When I set it, the tip was at the water line and when the hook set finished I would guess the tip was not quite horizontal. But definitely a dead stop. It seemed like a nice set though. This fish seemed small until it got near boat-side and did a mad dash up stream and the king kat rod doubled over mid section. That is when it came unbuttoned. I don't know what I did wrong. Definately two very nice flats that I missed though. And yes as tyler said, I was bummed. But this is what keeps a guy coming back for more.

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Crazyice!

Your doing it right. There are times when you get the hook set in the top pads It wont set there. It will hold till the fish gets a moments.... and I say micro moments slack and they can pop the hook.

There Have been times I keep ripping a hook set multiple times... You maybe have seen it on some saltwater fishing shows..... There are times it might be over kill but if it pops at that time right off the bat, It saves the agony of getting it to the boat and having it pop.

Word of note. There have been times that I think that I have probably ripped it out when it might have held.

That comes with experience.

keep working it mate..... Your learning curve is to be commended to say the least.

[hanson]

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And yes as tyler said, I was bummed. But this is what keeps a guy coming back for more.

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Atta boy!

I've been on a #1, #2 streak with my posting so I'll switch it up to letter a, letter b, etc.

a) If you think the hooks were sharp, they probably were. If you can hook your skin, good enough. Just keep that in mind between outings, first cast, etc. Hook might be dull.

Tight drag on the hookset! You can back it off afterwards, but typically, you are giving the fish heck off the bat and moving it away from cover. Once "in the clear", go ahead and adjust the drag. Sometime you will whisker hook one and that is where too much tension is your enemy near the boat. Sounds like that could have happened to you.

c) Fish running at the boat is a recipe for disaster. Keep reeling! Reel as fast as you can even if you think you lost him! A lot of the times, you will feel them back on your rod after you think they are gone. Major emotional curve on fish like that!!

d) Thats flathead fishing. Hate to say it but sometimes unlucky stuff happens.

I'll admit, these are my experiences. What works for me is not Bible, everyone has a different way or opinion that can be just as effective, if not more. We learn from each other and help each other.

[hanson]

As I've been thinking here through the night... Rob was LOL'ing me with my circle hook comment.

I don't take offense, thats a legitimate criticism. Rob loves them and I don't for various reasons that we may or may not agree upon. Circles do work great with live bait (I won't argue that), both Rob & Dtro will attest to that, but I feel their is a great learning curve and level of patience that must be developed to fish them correctly.

So for a beginning cat angler (flattie angler), I try not to make things to complex. Master the basic first and progress from there.

As far as flatties are concerned, we can talk mud fishing, wood fishing, rock fishing, cutbait fishing, live bait fishing, sucker fishing, bullhead fishing, current fishing, slack water fishing, bottom fishing, bobber fishing, etc, etc. It'll confuse a beginner half to death.

A wise man (on Lake of the Woods fishing sturgeon) said "This ain't freakin' NASA" and I believe it.

A cat capable Lindy rig is essentially what we're talking as far as rigging and it will cover many situations. Figure that out first and move on from there. Don't let bobbers, 3-ways, planer boards, balloons, etc confuse the basic bottom fishing rig. Get a taste of that, move on, and through trial & error, you'll be able to form your own opinions on something that might even open my eyes.

[rushing]

Besides the basics rod, line, sinker, hook and bait, flathead fishing boils down to patients, time on the water and LUCK.

You could be a flathead ninja but you're not gonna stick every fish no matter what hook you have.

BTW Hanson you get my email?

[aanderud]

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You could be a flathead ninja but you're not gonna stick every fish no matter what hook you have.

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Maybe not, but I bet a flathead Jedi could hook every one.

[DTro]

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You could be a flathead ninja but you're not gonna stick every fish no matter what hook you have.

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Maybe not, but I bet a flathead Jedi could hook every one.

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Just think if I took Chuck Norris out in my boat

[rushing]

Chuck Norris doesn't need a boat...He can walk on water!

[hanson]

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BTW Hanson you get my email?

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I e-mailed you back last night.

[howellcanufish]

Sorry I couldn't be there Holmer...I figured I would let someone else pose a blooper shot for ya. Did you hit the edge of the hole for the channels? I figured after the last outing with crazyice he would have picked up on my bill dance hookset which almost never fails...unless the fish pulls you over the edge of the boat.

[Shack]

Tyler Holm,

Nice fish!!

[crazyice]

We tried the hole edge, not a channel to be found monday night!! Couldn't believe it if I hadn't seen it myself. I couldn't even hook into a turtle with the cutbait. Oh well.

[Tyler Holm]

OK, I’ve digested this thread and have a few comments. Just for the record as crazyice said we both were using 10/0 octopus J hooks.

I’m a stickler on hook sharpness. I changed one rod just prior to this evenings outing because it wasn’t up to my par. Sure it would (Contact Us Please) your finger and draw blood if you applied pressure, but it didn’t stick to the thumbnail so it was replaced. I also won’t use a hook that has been even slightly bent.

As mentioned by Hanson, it comes down to the minute details and they certainly can be a deciding factor whether the fish reaches the net or not. Each time I go out, I work out of few of the flaws and learn from them. The learning curve is starting to flatten (no pun intended), but we’ve got a ways to go and will infinitely continue to refine our tactics.

I’ll pick on myself for starters although I probably speak for everybody in my boat on this particular evening as we all have had about equal experience with the flatties. I’ll start with the hookset and go from there.

I) I honestly think that excitement is our worst enemy. So much anticipation goes into this with that big fish potential always in the back of our mind. When that rod does actually thump and load an adrenalin rush of anticipation occurs. I think we need to do a better job of harnessing that rush really thinking through the hooksetting process. Be mentally prepared before hand and talk yourself through each scenario.

II) My first hookset of the night was a miss. I feel my timing was right on, but there were a few things I refined for the next one. I gave’er the onion, but didn’t have the drag cinched. To this day I still can’t get over how tight you need to have the drag on a stern hookset. I remember my first time flattin dps (Fisher Dave) checked my drag and just laughed as said “This ain’t walleye fishin” Anyways, the drag slipped and I didn’t let that happen again on my second hookset. As Hanson said, you can adjust it after driving that hook home and that’s exactly what I did on my second attempt.

Now I’ll analyze crazyice. Both his hooksets were timed great in my eyes and he gave’er the onion perfectly. The drag was way loose on the first hookset. I think that was the flaw that lost the fish. The 2nd hookset (and drag tension) was much better, but the fish ran right at the boat. In fact he though he lost it and the fish had slack line to deal with. The fish came right up to the boat and then make a huge headshake and run and the hook poped out. Slack line combined with an still cinched drag from the hookset were likely the culprit.

Somebody mentioned whisker hooked and that’s exactly how crappieguys 21#er was hooked. Right in the meat of the whisker on the outside of the mouth/jaw. This certainly could have been a possibility on crazyice’s fish.

“This ain’t freakin’ NASA” is correct, but there’s really only one way to practice this and that’s just getting out there and learning from your mistakes (as well as learning from others online here). And nothing can prepare you for the excitement that overtakes you when that rod thumps and loads and then the clicker just takes it over the top.

Howell, we fished the edge plenty for channels, but it just wasn’t happening for us. The channels were MIA. The current has increased as I'm guessing the MN River water has finally reached our spot. That changed things quite a bit.

Keep the comments, suggestions, and critiques coming.

[fiskyknut]

Yup sometimes it happens, sometimes it don't. Tyler, anticipation of large fish or not I thought you were quite calm, cool, and collected the evening we were Sturgeon fishing last spring on the Rainy! Your hook-setting skills were working fine that day too, and into the night! You did'nt have many 'swing and a miss' hooksets that day.

Norm

[Farmboy1]

I don't like to play with the drag adjustment on the reel, I feel much better getting the drag to a good setting, and on the hookset, using my thumb on the spool to crank her down. I have always felt that if immediately after a hookset, the fish takes a big run, I have no way to change the drag in tome to not lose the fish. But with the superlines, I don't know if it is that big of a deal.