Kat-a-Log

[madcatter]

around here the rivers havent had a good rain in weeks,baitfish/shad are schooled up thick near the dam tailraces,and i guess the spawn should be finishing within a couple weeks for the majority of the flatheads.i am wondering if due to clarity the flats are feeding when the shad are more active which is daylite hours.
can anyone share their expirences of very clear conditions.we went out again last evening/nite till 1am and only got a tiny 15" one.

[ducky]

Most of us fish the mwcd lakes here in Ohio, they tend to be dark green or muddy all year, when I used to fish rivers I always done better on freshly killed cut bait, when the river was muddy and live bait when it was clear, I'm sure you can still catch some flathead in the day right now but I would stick to nite fishing durring this time of year.
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Brock

[M.Magis]

My experience river fishing isn’t huge, but based on the little I have and some tracking studies I’ve read in the past, I think when talking tailraces you can expect some fish to be feeding at any time of day or night. Once you move downstream, night time is almost always better this time of year.

[katfish]

Madcatter

Squirrel (Jim Schilling) and I compared notes a few years back
about water and came up with interesting conclusions.

In July and Aug and sometimes September, the lakes clear up quite a bit.
But when thunderstorms hit, especially big rains spawned in hurricanes,
we found flathead flock to muddy water where creeks feed bays. We can't be sure if they like the cooler aerated water from rainstorms or not.
I guess that normally preyfish are safe in the clear shallow water where they can see predators coming and evade them. When the water is muddy the odds change to the flatheads advantage and they feed in the muddy shallow water.

Whatever the reason we have both had nights when we catch 4 or 5 flathead per night in areas that normally produce none.
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Catchabiggun,
Robby

[madcatter]

we been pluggin away at them,not having much sucess.small fish,an ocassional one caught in the teens,but for the most part everything seems inactive.i think the water is to warm and they are just targetting shad...just a theory.i dug out an old cast net and think we will have to put that theory to the test,but water temps in the 80s surely cant help.

[ducky]

I only use shad when water is cooler than 75 degrees shad tend to die on the hook quickly when water is warm.
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Brock