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+--- Thread: Up to 40" Cats Just For Fun (/showthread.php?tid=1038404)
Up to 40" Cats Just For Fun - castnshoot - 04-12-2018
Spent a couple of days pulling big cats from some of my better Colorado River
drainage honey holes over the weekend.
Caught them in full spawn, with the biggest right at 40".
http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj35/blaineburn/1B594A39-2173-4606-A0EA-B3F04DB3E517_zpsvz1iij81.jpeg
Here is 6 look a likes all caught out of one little hole not more than eight feet across,, all between 32" and 34",,, in the middle of the day.
http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj35/blaineburn/71B92D11-51BA-4DCA-8FE6-2D0EF5A03EA3_zpsoirygjob.jpeg
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Re: [castnshoot] Up to 40" Cats Just For Fun - Kent - 04-12-2018
That definitely looks like fun. I trust they are flatheads, which is a fish on my bucket list.
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Re: [castnshoot] Up to 40" Cats Just For Fun - ice_sled - 04-12-2018
Love them Flatheads. Wish Utah would stock them. Wouldn’t be any chub problems.
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Re: [castnshoot] Up to 40" Cats Just For Fun - SkunkedAgain - 04-12-2018
Wow that's a nice batch of cats.... Thanks for posting, fun to see some hogs... Later J
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Re: [ice_sled] Up to 40" Cats Just For Fun - Ahi1953 - 04-14-2018
yes some flatheads would be nice. But we would need to change our live bait laws. I guess you could try artificial.
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Re: [castnshoot] Up to 40" Cats Just For Fun - sliverslinger - 04-14-2018
Nice fish!!
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Re: [Ahi1953] Up to 40" Cats Just For Fun - castnshoot - 04-14-2018
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Re: [castnshoot] Up to 40" Cats Just For Fun - castnshoot - 04-14-2018
[quote castnshoot][quote Ahi1953]yes some flatheads would be nice. But we would need to change our live bait laws. I guess you could try artificial.[/quote].
Some times live bait is the best bait, but other times it is ‘not’ needed for Flathead.
About half of those Flathead were caught on night crawlers, and it is not uncommon to catch them on a lure.
My 90 year old Dad caught a dozen nice ones the other evening. on night crawlers. He never goes through the hassle of catching Blugill or Carp any more. But he would tell you a live bait is the ticket for sure.
It was a friend of his that put the Flatheads in the lower Colorado back in the late 60s or early 70s.
Here is Dad with a 50 pounder.
http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj35/blaineburn/flat%20heads/minersvillejuly08039-2-3.jpg
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Re: [Ahi1953] Up to 40" Cats Just For Fun - TubeDude - 04-14-2018
[#0000FF]Flatheads eat live food...like sunfish or small bass, carp, suckers or trout. So they also smack lures pretty well. I have caught lots of flatheads on everything from small crappie jigs to crankbaits.
Here is a pic of one I caught on 6# line and a small jig while tubing below Horseshoe Dam in Arizona.
[inline "27# FLATHEAD.jpg"]
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Re: [TubeDude] Up to 40" Cats Just For Fun - castnshoot - 04-14-2018
Ye, Flathead are an interesting fish.
They can hear better than all most any fresh water fish, 15 times better than a Bass. They can hear a noise in the water a half a mile away.
They also have a super powerful sense of smell, taste buds over thier in tire body.
Even though they have very small eyes they see a larger potion of the color spectrum than most fresh water fish.
If you ever hear a very loud sucking all most cracking sound close to shore at night. And think to yourself ‘man that must be a hugh Carp”
It might be a Flathead.
On occasion they swim right up to the shore,, bearly stick there lips out of the water and violently snap there mouth open making a loud sucking almost cracking noise often mistaken for a large carp.
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Re: [castnshoot] Up to 40" Cats Just For Fun - TubeDude - 04-14-2018
[#0000FF]I was float tubing on Patagonia Lake...down near the Mexico border...right after some small trout had been planted. I about launched out of my tube like a Polaris missile when a big flathead chased a rainbow to the surface and blew it out of the water right next to me.
On small streams, whenever the water drops and leaves a deep pool...with a flathead in it...it won't be long until that (fat) flathead will be the only fish left in the pool.
I would love to have them in Utah, but as long as there are hatchery pet trout and everlovin' June suckers we ain't gonna see no fish-eatin' flatheads.
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Re: [castnshoot] Up to 40" Cats Just For Fun - r2u2 - 04-15-2018
Years ago when I first stared Cat fishing Willard at night, one could hear the cats when they surfaced
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Re: [castnshoot] Up to 40" Cats Just For Fun - catfishbait - 04-15-2018
That looks like so much fun. I have always wanted to try flathead fishing !
Beasts
Great job
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