# bluecats vs. flatheads



## Lewzer (Apr 5, 2004)

I never caught a blue let alone seen one. I keep seeing all this nice blues caught in the river in the Cincinnati area and it got me wondering.
I caught my share of flatheads in the Pike Island Pool and those things really have some power, especially when caught deep.
For those of you who have caught both species, which one is the stronger more durable fighter? Say a 25 pounder.


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## dinkbuster1 (Oct 28, 2005)

a flathead, hands down are more powerful. now blues do fight good, they have unbeleivable speed and can strip a reel of line in no time, but they dont seem to have the pulling power of a flattie. might have something to do with the shape of their tail, flatties tails are round vs the v-tail of a blue which gives flatties more "fanning" power. blues to me are just channels on steroroids


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## jason454ci (Dec 27, 2005)

As Dinkbuster said, hands down a flathead is more powerful.


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## JUSTCRAZY (Apr 6, 2004)

I have yet to catch a blue, but have caught many flatheads and channels, and pound for pound a flathead does not compare to a channel cat. 

Large flatheads do pull well and sure have some power, but put a 10lb channel tail to tail with a 10lb flathead and the channel will pull the flathead around. Yet that being said, until I find a place around here that I can catch channel cats that are over 10lbs on a regualar basis, you will find me chasing monster flatheads at night and getting yelled at for sleeping all day !

That is my take on the matter.....
Rob


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## katfish (Apr 7, 2004)

To be more realistic you should compare 40 pound fish 

Pound for pound a flathead will outpull a blue cat and it
will have almost twice the stamina. The blue cat is fast
but runs out of gas long before the flathead.

I think Mmagis and Justcrazy both took a 15 minute boat
ride one night with a one flathead motor It was 37 
pounds if I remember correctly.

The flathead attitude seems to change exponentially after it 
gets 40 pounds.

The best part is they both make me smile 
when I am fighting them.


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## fisherman5567 (Jan 3, 2007)

I too will have to agree with Dink and Katfish. 

But one thing to keep in mind is the water you catch the fish in, I have caught a few channels over ten pounds that would put the same size flat to shame, but i caught those channels in much more current. So would 2 fish the same size caught in the same stretch of water be the same???? Im goin with the flathead. 

Blues are quick and do create some nice "smoke" on the line but after that run, you have a nice big log to pull in.


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## pendog66 (Mar 23, 2005)

although blue cats take off like a rocket and fight like crazy at first pound for pound a flathead is much stronger. The two 40 pound flatheads i took in 06 were like trying to turn around a run away semi truck. they are very powerful and will wear you out


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## rustyhook36 (Dec 20, 2005)

A flathead is a lot harder to bring out of deep water. Sometimes even a large blue will come to the surface pretty quick. A flathead will try to stay belly to the bottom until they wear out. A bluecat will roll more than a flathead which will sometimes cause the hook to pop out, but a flathead will pull a lot harder. I enjoy catching both.


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## catking (Apr 5, 2004)

A 25 pounder of both----Flathead....A 40 pounder ...Blue cat.Especially in open waters. THE CATKING !!!


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## Fish-N-Fool (Apr 12, 2004)

Unfortunately haven't caught a 40lb blue cat yet - I'll take these guys word on it. However, I just wanted to say to Lewzer that a blue will absolutely come out of nowhere and just SLAM your bait - I think they are on a fast swim and just grab it. Many times I have been sitting with no action and all of a sudden your rod will just get SLAMMED - blue cat! My largest Blue is just under 20 lbs (New Richmond area) and he only took 5 minutes to boat in decent current. 

It also seems to me that the blues "school up" with similiar size blues in the river sometimes as I have caught a handful of them in a short period of time that are all roughly the same size - anybody else notice this?


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## fishnking09 (Dec 29, 2007)

imo a flathead is alot more powerfull than a blue cat.


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## JUSTCRAZY (Apr 6, 2004)

I have always had the hopes that Blue cats would outfight the flatheads. Because although I love catching flatheads I still wish they were stronger. I am still confident that channel cats of equal weight will outfight flatheads, but I haven't landed a 50lb channel cat yet!

Maybe I will finally get after some blue cats soon.......
Rob


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## Doctor (Apr 5, 2004)

Imo the Flathead is by far the stronger of the two species, granted the Blue is like hooking into an F-16, they will smoke a drag in a heartbeat and because of that speed they wear down quick, only exception was Lynn's 88 and that thing pulled like a bulldozer, the Flatheads will pull like a bulldozer or a dump truck and they don't give up, in 2007 I caught my biggest Flatheads ever all were over 50 pounds, they left me sore and beat, and catching two in the very same day was just unreal and they both pulled the rod down slow and moved off slow, when I finally got them to the boat they were straight down under and would just sit there and keep the line tight, seemed that was the only time I was able to rest, Blue's on the other hand will get tired and you will see them pop up behind the boat, I will generally release the anchor and chase down a blue, it is much easier that way, looking forward to the 2008 season, should be a good one on the Ohio very little current last year had 6 massive Shad hatches should be plenty of bait and hungry fish to be caught........Doc


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## katfish (Apr 7, 2004)

Maybe this can attest to the power of a flathead.

Magis hooked this fish and then got into the little boat.
I planned to video over Mikes shoulder but when I got 
the camera out of the pontoon I found Mike and the 
boat already out in the lake. At the start of the fight
Mike and the boat were both on the bank


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