# good night of flathead fishing



## flathunter (Apr 5, 2004)

I put 8 flats on the bank today. all came on shad heads and circle hooks all were released..here is a pic of the biggest 24-lbs.


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## H2O Mellon (Apr 5, 2004)

Good job man. After todays extremely bad fishing outing, I have seemed to lost my desire. Shoot theres even a 2001 Targa in the OGF Marketplace and I am not getting excited. I've been skunked (or at least nothing over 10#'s) in my lst 7 trips now and each trip is aprox 130-150 miles round trip or more. I dont think I've ever been at a lower point.

I am glad your coming out of your funk.


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## flathunter (Apr 5, 2004)

Bryan, I have been where you are at remember that..All it takes is one good fish to turn it all around...Hang in there, It may get worse, but it will soon get better.


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## BigDaddy300 (Nov 1, 2004)

Great job on the cats. That just makes me even more anxious to give them a try.


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## Predator225 (May 14, 2005)

Way to go jack!!!! You are on fire!!!

Like you said, it only takes one fish to turn it around, confidence is definitely part of the game we all play here; cut shad seems to be your weapon of choice, not really traditional for flatheads, but it works for you!

Melon - Its not even August yet, don't give up!!


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## boonecreek (Dec 28, 2006)

h20 mellon, don't feel bad my slump is a lot worst than that. i can't even catch bait here latly. 2 baot came in right after dark, gave us shinners(thanks man it made all the differents). i caught a 5 or 6 pound shoval and a 8 or 9 pound blue. buddy caught ,gussing about a 30 pound shoval at least i got to hold it, and all by midnight


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## Fishman (Apr 5, 2004)

Very nice Jack, glad to see you're on a roll.

Brian stick it out man, well worth it


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## katfish (Apr 7, 2004)

Jack

Have you isolated what you are doing differently?

I would say to pay attention to the details leading to success.


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## flathunter (Apr 5, 2004)

Robby, a better presentation, at an old location.has worked...You are always learning in this sport.


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## Shortdrift (Apr 5, 2004)

Sure was a busy trip. Great picture. Thanks for sharing.


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## 1catdaddy1 (Jan 29, 2007)

Where do You do most of Your fishing? I love flatheads-mostly drive 2 hr. to fish the muskingum,but have caught my biggest from Deer Creek reservoir-42lbs. any good info would be greatly appreciated-and if interested I know the muskingum pretty well. thanks.


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## tcba1987 (Jun 22, 2004)

you caught them on cut shad heads ??? ive caught a few flatties on shad heads while fishing for channel cats but ive never TRIED USING JUST SHAD !! i guess i'll have to give that a try soon. are the shad freshly caught or frozen shad ??? for some reason my frozen shad gets mushy as soon as i thaw it out ??? should i freeze it in bags with water on them or just freeze the shad in the bags without water on them ???


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## flathunter (Apr 5, 2004)

Brian all I use for flats is cut shad...keep your frozen shad on ice and cut and bait while still frozen


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## bassattacker (Mar 14, 2007)

congrats on the catches, sounds like a interesting night out fishing and a busy one.


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## Doctor (Apr 5, 2004)

Nice fish there Jack, Brian Huff, keep your frozen Shad cold at all times, I vacuum pack mine, then bury it under ice in a cooler, the cold water will allow it to unthaw but because you keep it cold and dry it will not get mushy on you.

We use the larger Shad or Skipjack 16 inch for Flatheads or Blues, the day we leave for a tournament I take the frozen bait out of the freezer and place it in the bottom of my cooler, stop at Speedway and get the 20# ice bag then pour it on top of the frozen bait, generally when I get ready to fish I'll pull one of the packed bags from the bottom, bait is super cold and generally is unthawed, cut it up, then place it in a container called a Super Kooler, my son got me one of these for my birthday one year from Cabala's bait goes in the center section, ice goes around it to keep it cold again the bait stays dry and cold, if the bait does start to bleed out then it just marinates the rest of it, for the last couple of years we have been fishing tournaments using this method, I very seldom carry live bait anymore and can tell you it has been a couple of years since I caught a fish on live bait, I have a Grayline tank but Larry uses it on his boat now as I feel very confident with using the frozen or fresh bait, fresh is really hard to get, Skipjacks that I have are a couple of years old but with the above method we still catch good fish on the river systems, biggest thing is to keep you bait as dry as you can, when using fresh Shad I'll bag it up and bury it under that ice, and if they develop the goo in the bag I just pour it off.

For the last 5 years our track record of catching huge fish during tournaments has been awesome and all Lynn and I fish is tournaments and all of it has come on fresh or frozen dead bait..............Doc


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## Flathead King 06 (Feb 26, 2006)

Doc thanks for posting that info...I was about to post a question on how to keep your shad from getting all mushy on ya, but I still have problems with it unthawing and getting mushy...I generally take it from a castnet put it in a ziplock baggy and freeze it...but if there is water or "goo" in the bag I dump it off then freeze it...Ill just have to let the shad dry some before I freeze it..would this work?


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## truck (Apr 12, 2004)

Congrats again Jack,nice fish.


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## bigdogsteve-o (Aug 26, 2005)

Nice catch Jack.


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## pendog66 (Mar 23, 2005)

congrats jack and its good to hear from you Doc


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## Doctor (Apr 5, 2004)

This is what I have learned over the years, when you take Shad out of a freezer and thaw it out the meat just breaks down gets soft and mushy you can't keep it on a hook at all, but take that same Shad and bury it in very cold ice and let the ice thaw it very slowly and the meat stays firm and good till you get it in the river and then it will break down which is what you want it to do, you need to keep that bait as cold and dry as possible, granted as the meat thaws it will start to break down just no way around that but keeping it good and cold will slow the process and I know that frozen Shad and Skipjack give off a completely different odor than fresh and with that odor I feel it attracts cats in a different way and when there is current it makes it that much better. The smell on my hands is completely different than fresh Shad or Skipjack, along with this method I have found out that the Skipjack blood is bright red instead of a pale brownish color just don't seem to catch the bigger fish on the brownish blood, now Skipjack meat takes a long time to break down as I refreeze what I don't use time and time again, figure 4 times is about the max on Skipjack, Shad on the other hand I have used twice with the above method, the bigger Shad even more than that maybe three times refreezed, I mark the packages with the date and the number of times on them, during winter months it doesn't matter as I normally load up heavy in the fall to get me thru the winter and spring, I do know I have Shad and Skipjack in my freezer right now that is 2 years old and have been using them along with any fresh during tournaments to get them used up, two years is about max for that type of bait, again vacuum packing is the way to go on this bait processing, be interesting as I have some Skipjacks in the freezer right now that are 4 inches long that a freind gave me at a tournament a month ago, generally those things break down after you use them fresh so I'll get to find out maybe this weekend if they will hold up well enough to use..

Oh one other thing Jack I'm sorry I didn't mean to hijack your flatheading thread with Shad and Skipjack talk sorry again............Doc


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