# EPIC PB Yak Flathead



## SeanStone (Sep 8, 2010)

Its been a while since i've been on here....just cant seem to find the time like i used to. My free time keeps getting cutting cut down each year; work, fishing tournaments (semi-work), blogs (becoming semi-work), fishing, fishing, oh yea and fishing..lol. Anyway Russ (rustyfish) and I hit the river Wednesday night in search of flathead and we found a giant. We have been out a 3 or 4 times this year and landed over a dozen flathead between 24-31" (5-15lbs). Here's a little excerpt from the report I threw together. 

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Eventually the sun began to set over the tree tops and the buffalo fishing was the least of our concern. We found a nice cut out bank with several fallen trees and set up for catfish. I tied off to a log running parallel to the current and tossed out a couple live bluegill. Russ anchored 40 yards downstream and tossed a couple baits out as well. The first bite didn't come until an hour or better after dark. Russ made quick work of the 24" flathead, it was a nice start to our evening but not quite what we were looking for. I eventually made a move downstream 60 yards and across the river from Russ. I found a nice hole, 12' deep, with 1 single tree in the core. This was the last deep water before a major riffle so I decided to give it a shot. During my paddle from spot to spot one of my bluegill had died so I cut his head off and tossed it to the outside of the fallen tree. Before I could even get my second rod out I heard the bait clicker go off. The fish pulled about 6" of line out and then dropped my bait. Five minutes later the clicker went off for the second time, once again pulling about 6" of line out. Eventually I picked the rod up and waited for a tug, and then I set the hook hoping to get the turtle, gar, or small catfish that was playing with my bait. I failed to connect but I did manage to get my bait back so I tossed it out a little further, hoping to get away from whatever had been pecking at my bait. Ten minutes later that rod began get a bite and the bait clicker began rolling slow and steady. I dropped my rod, engaged the reel, and set the hook. Whatever it was I got it this time around, and after a brief battle I brought the flathead into the kayak. 


The flathead went 30", good enough for kayak wars so I snapped a quick picture. I sat in this spot and proceeded to get another 2 runs but failed to hook another fish. It appeared that the small fish were using this area to feed, maybe avoiding the bigger fish while they were feeding elsewhere???

Russ and I met up downstream and made our way through the next major riffle. Below the riffle we each took a side of the river and set up just upstream from where we thought the fish would be. I chose to set up on the head of a log jam, and Russ chose to fish a rip rap bank. I quickly tossed out two live bluegill, one of which was an 8.5" green sunfish and the other was a 5" green sunfish. The smaller bait was placed 10 feet off of the bank and the larger bait was placed 25 feet off of the bank. I sat around for 30 minutes without a bite. Eventually, I grabbed my phone and began scanning my news feed on facebook.....after 10 minutes I had read enough. Every now and then the big green sunfish would pull bait clicker and get my attention, but the clicker would stop and the line would slack up. At one point I leaned back in my seat and started looking for shooting starts, and thats when the rod with the large green sunfish began to click.......and click......and click. I sat up straight grabbed the rod, turned off the clicker mechanism, engaged the reel, waited for the line to tighten, and then set the hook. What I then felt was a large amount of weight. My rod was doubled and the fish wasn't taking line or letting me take line. Either this was a large fish or I was snagged, and then I felt two hard head shakes. With each head shake it felt like my line swayed 2 feet each way. My heart began to race. The fish made a quick run toward the bank and made a massive swirl 10 yards in front of me, my heart had now moved to my throat. I yelled across the river to Russ and told him I had hooked a good one. The fish then began running upstream, eventually puling the nose of my kayak off of the bank and dislodging my anchor. I was now floating with the fish, everywhere he went so did I. He eventually made his way into the line of my second rod. At this point I began to replay every lost fish in my mind. I thought about losing the fish to a bad hookset, a snag, breaking my line, breaking a rod, floating into a logjam, pretty much anything that could go wrong. After what seemed like 3 minutes the fish surfaced and at that point I knew it was big. I pulled the fish within grasp and I leaned over to grab the the flathead by the mouth when it decided it wasn't quite finished yet. It turned, threw water all over me, and then proceeded to rip drag. I knew that I couldn't let that happen again so I leaned forward and grabbed the net. On the next pass I managed to get the head of the fish in the net. At this point I still had tension on the line but the fish was 3/4 of the way out of the net. I lifted the net but it only seemed to make matters worse. I eventually used my foot to push another 1/4 of the fish into the net. At that point I felt confident in dropping my rod, grabbing the rim of the net, and then working the rest of the fish into the net. It was without a doubt a new personal best, the question now became; by how much? I told Russ that I had the fish in the net and that I would need some assistance. He asked how big and I replied, "Over 40 for sure, but I don't know about 50." Eventually he paddled over and we worked ourselves closer to the bank and began snapping pictures.









44"

Hawg Troughs......doing it right!!!!

We snapped a dozen or more pictures, put the fish back into the net and sat it in the water for a few minutes. We then repeated the process again. The result was the pictures you see above. As always Russ did a great job on the camera. THANKS RUSS!!!!!

The final count was 44" long and 47lbs 7oz in the net, the net weighs 1lb 5oz. so the fish went 46lbs 2oz. I dropped the fish into the water and let it, and I, recover. In less than 20 seconds it began thrashing around and was ready to swim off. (Hopefully to be caught again!) Russ and I then just sat around and talked about that fish. I kept asking him if he would have believed me if I had lost that fish? "If I told you I lost a nearly 50lber would you believe me?" I then reminded him of all of the big bass I had lost recently, some that would had shattered my personal best. "I doubt anyone believes those stories Russ" I told him. In my head I kept telling myself, If there was ever one fish this year that I didn't want to lose......this was it.

Russ and I then spent the next hour bouncing from spot to spot but the bites disappeared. Russ had to take his daughter to kindergarten in the morning and I had work. So at 2am we called it quits.

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BIG THANKS TO RUSS FOR ALL THE HELP!!!

If you guys have a river or large lake nearby head out one night and see if you can tie into a big ole flathead too!


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## hanmanjr (Mar 26, 2012)

Outstanding!

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## Flannel_Carp (Apr 7, 2014)

That thing is a whale! Nice work!


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## Certified106 (Mar 17, 2014)

That's awesome! Congrats!


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## ML1187 (Mar 13, 2012)

Now that's a comeback post !!! Well done sir. Well done. 


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## monsterKAT11 (Jun 20, 2004)

AWESOME fish man!


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## shwookie (Jun 15, 2007)

Epic indeed.


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## FishFrenzy89 (May 18, 2009)

That is awesome man!! I have been wanting to try flatheading from the yak and haven't got around to it because the bass fishing has been so good!! 


Epic fish!!
Epic story!!


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## Recneck (Mar 30, 2014)

Wait....if it's a bluegill then how is it a sunfish?


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## SeanStone (Sep 8, 2010)

Green sunfish is the scientific name.....bluegill is just what I call most sunfish i use for bait in general. (Green sunfish, longears, warmouth, etc.) I was using a green sunfish.....just to clarify.

It's stupid I know cause a bluegill is a type of sunfish....just a bad habit I guess.

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## mishmosh (Jul 22, 2007)

Great catch! That would be a catch of a lifetime for me... kudos!


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## cali2ohio (Nov 27, 2010)

Sorry to ask but...... What river?


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## SeanStone (Sep 8, 2010)

Sorry man I'm not gonna say a location. I'm more than willing to share anything I know that could help you catch flathead.....telling you a specific spot won't help you much in the long run. 

The big one came off of wood in 10 to 12 feet of water. Most of our fish have been coming off of wood lately.....We've been tossing live gills deep in wood, sometimes in stuff we know will get us snagged. At that point we have two outcomes.... 1 a fish eats our bait and we pull the fish out of the wood or 2 we snag and go get it when we decide to move spots.

It seems that the flathead have been cruising the banks near log jams....The baits in deeper water on the outside of the log piles haven't been getting that much attention. (Until the 46 anyway.)



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## SeanStone (Sep 8, 2010)

7/0 gamakatsu hook on a 10" leader with a 3 oz no roll sinker has been our rig. Just a simple slip sinker rig.

As for rod and reels....abu Garcia 7000s spooled with 40 lb Berkley big game and either a quantum big cat or a ugly stick tiger rod. (Medium heavy) 

Just trying to help...... 

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## Recneck (Mar 30, 2014)

SeanStone said:


> Green sunfish is the scientific name.....bluegill is just what I call most sunfish i use for bait in general. (Green sunfish, longears, warmouth, etc.) I was using a green sunfish.....just to clarify.
> 
> It's stupid I know cause a bluegill is a type of sunfish....just a bad habit I guess.
> 
> Sent from my SCH-I545 using Ohub Campfire mobile app


Lol im messin with ya...i figured that was it...kinda like where im from in the south everything. is a bream. lol


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## crittergitter (Jun 9, 2005)

Dude, that is an epic flathead catfish. Well done!


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## rustyfish (Apr 27, 2004)

SeanStone said:


> Green sunfish is the scientific name.....bluegill is just what I call most sunfish i use for bait in general. (Green sunfish, longears, warmouth, etc.) I was using a green sunfish.....just to clarify.
> 
> It's stupid I know cause a bluegill is a type of sunfish....just a bad habit I guess.
> 
> Sent from my SCH-I545 using Ohub Campfire mobile app


I thought it was a Blue/green hybrid? LOL. We had all three so who knows?

Awesome night! All I can say is that it felt like 50 while i was holding up the scale.


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## backlashed (Mar 19, 2011)

Great report and an even better fish. Happened to the right guys too.

Make sure you put in for your Fish Ohio. The pin, certificate and pics belong in a shadow box in the man cave.


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## JohnPD (Jun 12, 2012)

Holy crap catman!


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## Bubbagon (Mar 8, 2010)

Dude, that is a BEAST!!! Catching it out of a kayak just makes it like 10 times cooler! 
Congrats, bro. You're getting it done!


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## Big Joshy (Apr 26, 2004)

Awesome. I'm not a flathead fishermen but that fish and that story makes me want to try it!


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## SeanStone (Sep 8, 2010)

Thanks for the kind words guys! It was a blast....I get pumped up just looking back through the pics. ( I sense some vacation days in my near future!!)

Backlashed I have a carp, channel cat, drum, flathead, hybrid striper, and walleye of qualifying size this year...which qualifies me for master angler.

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## Recneck (Mar 30, 2014)

How does one find the entire list of qualifying sizes and how to apply once the fish is caugh


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## backlashed (Mar 19, 2011)

ODNR Website. Google Fish Ohio or Ohio Master Angler.


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## dstiner86 (Jun 5, 2012)

Wow! Heck of a fish and heck of a story! Great fish man and grew camera work Russ lol (all apart from that one finger haha)


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## SeanStone (Sep 8, 2010)

dstiner86 said:


> Wow! Heck of a fish and heck of a story! Great fish man and grew camera work Russ lol (all apart from that one finger haha)


Russ got his redemption last night.....I was the one behind the camera this time around. I'll try to write something up and put a story together to back up the pics. I'll try to get something up tomorrow am....If he doesn't beat me to the punch.

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