# Tappen Christmas Cats



## rattletraprex (Sep 1, 2005)

Area fisherman spends a day with monsters at Tappan

Randy Norris stuggles to hold up the 49-pound, 8 ounce catfish he caught at Tappen Lake
It&#8217;s not usually hard to spot Randy Norris at an area lake. He&#8217;s the guy fishing with his dog, Saugie.

It&#8217;s was especially easy to spot Norris on the lake on the Saturday after Christmas.
He was the guy making trip after trip to shore at Tappan to get his picture taken with giant catfish.
During a six-hour outing, Norris boated seven fish with the lightest being 18 pounds, 9 ounces and the heaviest cracking the scales at 49 pounds, 8 ounces.

The seven fish &#8212; which were caught, photographed and released individually &#8212; weighed an amazing 254 pounds, 11 ounces.

From smallest to largest, they weighed 18-9, 22-0, 38-9, 39-4, 40-45, 46-6 and 49-8.

&#8220;I used to hear people say that they caught so many fish their arms were hurting, and I always thought they were crazy,&#8221; said Norris, who lives near Tappan Lake. &#8220;But my arms were really hurting.&#8221;

Norris caught all seven of the fish &#8212; and hooked six others &#8212; from the same spot on the lake and caught them all on a 1/4-ounce Vib E and 8-pound test line.

After landing the fish, he headed towards shore to find someone to take his picture.

&#8220;I have a timer on my camera, but I couldn&#8217;t set it off and pick up the fish in 10 seconds,&#8221; he laughed.

Norris said he&#8217;s caught big cats at Tappan before, but not like this.

&#8220;They were just stacked up in the same area,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I started fishing at 10:30 in the morning and quit at 4:30.&#8221;


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## neocats1 (Oct 14, 2006)

That the winter pattern for Flatheads, stacking up in holes, when you find them.


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## 01mercLS (Oct 28, 2006)

WOW nice catch. Keep it up!! i cant wait to go back out again


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## H2O Mellon (Apr 5, 2004)

I'll be the 1st to ask.... Were these snagged?

We've all seen those articles on winter Flatheads and it's a highly debatable topic. 

Hopefully folks like Robbie and Magis will give their two cents on this topic.

Great catches if they were caught. It's a day of a lifetime.


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## monsterKAT11 (Jun 20, 2004)

i'm a FIRM believer in the winter bite. don't know if i'll ever find it, but i know its there.


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## catfish_hunter (May 31, 2005)

Thats a hellova day, any time of the year! Especially for Tappan!


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## Joey209 (Oct 17, 2007)

H2O Mellon said:


> I'll be the 1st to ask.... Were these snagged?
> 
> We've all seen those articles on winter Flatheads and it's a highly debatable topic.
> 
> ...


Yea .I've seen videos of wintering flatheads and its like they're in a coma covered in silt.The divers could come up and touch them and stuff


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## H2O Mellon (Apr 5, 2004)

Joey209 said:


> Yea .I've seen videos of wintering flatheads and its like they're in a coma covered in silt.The divers could come up and touch them and stuff


Yeap those are some of the ones. Some folks believe that the reason so many of them are gotten by jigs and the like are that they are snags and not actually hooked. I saw a video of a couple guys fishing a river in Minnesota in the winter catching flats with jigs. To me, again to me.... it looked like were snagging them. These things didn't put up much of a fight. I've heard of guys catching small flatheads in the winter, but not many. 

Again, congrats to the guy as he did a great job. I really like the fact that he took great care for these flatheads. I'm still very skeptical about the majority of the "Winter" bit for flats though.


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## monsterKAT11 (Jun 20, 2004)

H2O Mellon said:


> Yeap those are some of the ones. Some folks believe that the reason so many of them are gotten by jigs and the like are that they are snags and not actually hooked. I saw a video of a couple guys fishing a river in Minnesota in the winter catching flats with jigs. To me, again to me.... it looked like were snagging them. These things didn't put up much of a fight. I've heard of guys catching small flatheads in the winter, but not many.
> 
> Again, congrats to the guy as he did a great job. I really like the fact that he took great care for these flatheads. I'm still very skeptical about the majority of the "Winter" bit for flats though.



i agree, flatheads could and probably ARE snagged in the winter, i myself don't think it would be very much fun, but i ALSO think its very very possible that this guy could have legitimately stumbled on a stacked wintering hole and had a complete blast


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## JUSTCRAZY (Apr 6, 2004)

This guys does this every single year. He does know the lake very well and hits this same wintering hole every year. He has even "caught" them through the ice. I have fished beside the guy at the bridges once so I don't personally know him, just know of him. He is considered very knowledgeable about the lake itself, but not known for being very ethical.


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## Fishin4Busch (Mar 31, 2008)

same here crazy, i know him and have heard many stories about what hes done


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## H2O Mellon (Apr 5, 2004)

Show me someone who consistent catches 20# Flatheads in the winter with cut bait or some other "non-snagging" bait and I will be more impressed. I'm not saying the fish were snagged and even if they were, it's perfectly legal to snag Catfish (unless I'm mistaken), so what he did/didn't do would have been legal, I guess.


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## dip (Apr 5, 2004)

vibee's are EXCELLENT for snagging..... a few years ago i gave saugeye fishin a try and kept snagging mOnStEr shads on a sloooooow retrieve. so i kept some shad and went catfishin instead. this clown is a SNAGGER


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## KATKING (Jun 10, 2006)

I hope he didn't keep all of them and you can't tell me that he caught all of them using a vibe sorry he snagged em.


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## Saugeye 1 (May 20, 2006)

I agree... I've also fished the bridges with this guy in late fall for saugeye....dont know him ...just of him he does know the lake and spend alot of days fishing...years back he made the papers with something like 
80 pounds plus of saugeye with a ten fish limit.
Vibes are great snaggen baits....seen lots of eyes snagged.
maybe he did catch them, only he knows.
but none the less thats alot of catfish !!


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## Joey209 (Oct 17, 2007)

I thought it was only legal to snag rough fish?????


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## Predator225 (May 14, 2005)

I am with you 100% Mellon. If flatheads bit that good year round, wouldn't nuts like us be fishing for them throughout the winter season? Like Joey said, Flathead metabolisms slow to a crawl in winter, almost a coma-like state. To catch one, I could see it, but that many in a few hour period? They were realeased at least, so it says.


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## flathunter (Apr 5, 2004)

I wonder something, yes I believe those fish were snagged.

But I wonder how it effects a flathead to pull it from it's winter state of alomost hibernation....Even when released I wonder if it effects the survival rate.


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## tcba1987 (Jun 22, 2004)

im GLAD you guys opened up this discussion...........i like many of you have fished around this guy at the bridges at Tappan and i have also fished against him at bass tournaments at Tappan.............and as someone said his "ethics" have been questioned MANY TIMES............in fact i believe he was tossed out of the bass tournaments at Tappan many years ago for "unethical tournament behavior" ...........i think he is ALLOWED to fish in the tournaments out there now because new people are running them and NOT the people who originally threw him out.....and i hear constant complaints about him still......so id be willing to bet on it that ALL OF THE FLATTIES WERE SNAGGED !!!


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