# smelly flathead



## ducky152000 (Jul 20, 2005)

One of the flatheads we caught last year(31 lb female) smelled just like rotten nite crawlers that have sat in the sun for a few days. anybody no why she smelled like this? We caught her in a local lake in late may. We was fishing a bay that had a soft muddy bottom. We hardly ever fish areas that have a mud bottom.( Usualy fish sandy/rocky bottom) but i new of some very heavy cover and clay tiles in there so we fished it. Ive caught many flatheads that smelled like shad before but never like rotten crawlers. Any ideas? Was she eatin crawlers? Was the mudd the reason? just poped in my mind today thinkin about flathead fishing, something i do every moment of the day


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## dinkbuster1 (Oct 28, 2005)

that smell is very familiar to me. i sometimes flip over a channel or smaller flathead and take a whiff near the "you know what" to try and get an idea of what its been eating. that smell, which sometimes REEKS so bad you dont even had to do the "whiff" part means they have been feasting on crayfish. learned that over the years after smelling that and then cleaning the fish afterwards to find a belly and intestines full of crayfish, man it is awfull! only thing worse i have smelled was a blue cat regurgitating a bellyfull of sloppy, soupy Shad.

you catch that fish in a very "Rocky" area?


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## ducky152000 (Jul 20, 2005)

> you catch that fish in a very "Rocky" area?


No it was a mudd bottom, i stated that in the thread, BUT the bay i was fishing had alot of clay tiles in it. The odnr used to put them in as fish actrators. I bet thats where the crawdads was at. I never thought big flatheads ate crawdads that often. the crawdads must of been loaded on them clay tiles. Thanks for the info dink. Im sure you are rite! We mostly fish sandy/gravel hard bottom but my grandfather told me about that bay with alot of clay tiles and underwater brush out in the middle of the bay so we fished it once last year and we caught that big girl in there im deffently gonna hit it agin this year.


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## dinkbuster1 (Oct 28, 2005)

i fish the GMR mostly and due to the absence of abundant baitfish, and it being absolutely loaded with crayfish i think the bigger ones on this river at least do feast on them maybe more often than other rivers. 

caught a 24lb flathead a couple years ago that had swallowed the hook and mangled its stomach in the process so bad i knew it wouldnt survive. decided to clean it and take the meat home and when i done my usual "autopsy" it was stuffed full of crayfish as well.


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