8/27: Kayak Flathead, RED HOT!

Wednesday night Russ, Amanda, and I took to the river in search of flathead catfish from our kayaks. Since our last trip yielded a 46lb flathead, and several smaller ones, our hopes were riding high. Here's the report of how our trip went:

Tuesday night we went out to a local lake and gathered approximately 50 bluegill ranging from 4" to 7.5". I knew at the time that between the three of us (Amanda, Russ, and I) we had the potential to use every bit of the bluegill on the river the following day. With that in mind I set my alarm Wednesday morning an hour earlier than I needed to. I planned on meeting Russ the next day in hopes of getting out and finding a few more bluegill before we hit the river. I woke up around 9am and started loading all of our catfish gear into the car and onto the kayak trailer. At 1pm we met up with Russ at one of his bait holes. When Amanda and I pulled up to Russ' bait hole he had three pieces of bait in his bucket already. Russ said the bite was slow so we decided to head over to a different spot to see if we could find bait a little bit faster. After an hour and a half we decided to give it up and go buy a few pieces of live bait from a local bait store. We didn't necessarily need these baits but they would serve as a good insurance policy in case we started to run low. On the way to the bait store I accidentally lowered my back window instead of my driver window (still getting used to my car), and I then proceeded to shut the window. Somewhere along the line my ultra light combo had fell over and was leaning against this window, so when I accidentally rolled the window down the tip of the rod stuck out the window. As I began to close the window I heard a crunch.....which prematurely ended the life of a good rod. The damage had been done and there was nothing I could do about it but laugh, so I shook it off.

After we picked up bait Russ, Amanda, and I ran through the shuttle routine.....drop Russ' car off at the take out, load up his gear onto the trailer, drive over to the launch location, etc... By 3:30pm we were on the water and looking for buffalo. If you read the last blog you may already know that buffalo fishing has become one of our favorite daytime activities on the river. Flathead catfish rarely bite during daylight hours so we find it more productive to search out buffalo feeding on floating scum mats. (Note the different colored text.....keep this in mind!)

We paddled around for the first 15 minutes and quickly realized that the buffalo weren't feeding. The river was receding from a large rain event and was still a foot high and a slightly stained. Since the buffalo weren't feeding we decided to anchor up on  a couple of the deeper holes in the river and try our luck. This was also a way to use up some of the bluegill that had died over night. Before we went our separate ways and anchored on our own spots I had to give Amanda a few of the dead bluegill, which I had stored in a five gallon bucket in the back of my kayak. As I reached back and grabbed the bucket I heard something hit the water.....after further inspection I noticed a white hawg trough (standard measuring board) sinking like a stone in the current. This trip was quickly becoming quite costly.

Once again I shook it off. I anchored up on the head of a hole and began tossing pieces of cut bluegill out along current breaks. Ten minutes later one of my bait clickers began going off. I grabbed the rod and swung for the fences....and connected. The fish stayed low and began working its way into the swifter water near the middle of the river. It never took line but it felt heavy. After a two minute tug of war competition I realized that it wasn't a fish at all, rather a giant leatherback turtle. This trip was not turning out how I had imagined it.

After an hour and only a turtle to show for our efforts we decided to head down stream to the next deep hole. Once again I decided to take the head of the hole. I quickly tied myself off to a tree that was sticking out of the water. Russ paddled downstream to the core of the hole and positioned himself on the bank near the calmer deep water. Amanda found a school of feeding buffalo so she began drifting chunks of night crawler to them. Less than five minutes later my bait clicker started going off. I set the hook and connected once again, and then I quickly realized a problem with my choice of location. The current where I had chosen to anchor was pretty swift, which made for landing/fighting even the smallest fish a difficult task. After a 3 minute battle, which should have taken 30 seconds, I landed my first fish of the trip.

You can see above that the current is literally ripping around my kayak. This is not the kind of place I like to put myself in when fishing for big fish in deep water. 

I quickly snapped a few pictures for kayakwar points and tossed my rod back out. A few minutes later I hear Russ yell that he's got one. I couldn't make out everything he said because the current was making sounds as it rushed past my bait bucket, transducer arm, and kayak. Amanda was located in between Russ and I and she caught the whole comment. She looked over to me and said, "He said he had a GOOD one!" I yelled down to him that I was on my way. I quickly began reeling in rods and unwrapped my anchor.

As I rounded the bend I saw Russ with his rod doubled, tip nearly hitting the water, and kayak scooting toward the middle of the river. I paddled up within 15 feet of him and began getting the net ready. He then proceeded to tell me that he couldn't do anything with the fish. It was on bottom and it wouldn't come up for anything. I watched his drag slip a few times as he lifted the rod and applied pressure. He had 40lb monofilament on his rod and from what I could tell he could still afford to crank the drag down tighter.  He really had no choice at this point, the river bottom was littered with trees and it was only a matter of time before the flathead found one and wrapped him up. With a couple cranks of the drag Russ was able to make some progress and pull the fish free from the bottom. Now this is where things began to get interesting. We were both drifting down a river, he being propelled by a fish and current and myself being propelled by current. It took less than thirty seconds for the flathead to pull Russ within an arms distance of my kayak. I quickly began to back paddle but it only seemed to make things worse. At one point Russ was actually fighting the fish around my kayak. Eventually, the fish made his way back around Russ' kayak and we were able to push off of each other. The fish then began boiling the water at the surface each time it made a run. We could tell that this was a long fish, the point at which the line went into the  water was a good 40" or more from the boils that the fish was putting off with its tail. Eventually, Russ got the catfish to surface within an arms reach. It was a pig and he wasn't waiting for me to come over with the net. He quickly leaned over and grabbed the fishes lower jaw. At that point I paddled over and got the net under the rest of the fish. Now we had to get to the bank to get pictures and get a weight. Russ reeled in his other rod and gave me the net. (my kayak is deeper so I could securely hold the fish and paddle over to the bank.) We paddled over to the bank and began snapping pictures.

It went 42" (when straight) and 36lbs 8oz in the net....with the net deductions it weighed 35lbs 3oz. This was certainly the right way to start a trip! We took pictures, weighed the fish, and then released her back to be caught another day. We paddled back upstream and tossed a few baits out and waited till 8:30pm before we decided to head downstream and start working some shallower wood covered shorelines. We got anchored right at dark and started tossing out baits. I started at my spot with two live bluegill. I placed one five to ten feet off of the bank and the other about 30 feet off of the bank in the deeper water. Literally within seconds of placing my last rod down, the rod that I had placed near the bank began to get a bite. It pulled my bait clicker and then stopped, five seconds later it pulled a little more and then stopped again. I quickly got impatient and picked the rod up and waited for the fish to pull the slack out of the line.....swing and a miss. Over the next hour I got nearly a dozen runs and missed well over half of them. I did however land three small fish, the first of which was a small flathead tjust short of the length needed for kayakwar points, the second was a 22" channel, and the third was a flathead in the 25" range.

At 11pm Russ and Amanda were ready to head downstream and give another spot a shot. We each went our own way and dropped anchor. This spot was no different than the last. Lots of bites near the bank, and a lot of missed hooksets. The fish were either too small to get the whole bait in their mouth or very smart. Amanda ended up landing a nice channel in the 25-28" range thirty minutes after setting up anchor, however she was after bigger fish and decided not to take a picture with it. After a couple hours in this spot everyone was ready to move on and find more active fish. At this point I was on my last piece of bait so I had to bum bait off of Amanda and Russ, who seemed to be having a slow night judging by the amount of bait they had left.

We found another spot nearly a half mile down stream and began tying off to limbs and anchoring on the bank. Russ took the head of the log jam, Amanda the core, and I took the end of the log jam. I found a nice spot with a clean bank about 20 yards upstream from a log jam and overhanging tree. I buried my anchor in the sand on the bank and began tossing out my rods. Within ten minutes the rod that I had placed closest to the bank began to get a bite. I grabbed the rod, dropped the rod tip, engaged the reel, waited for the fish to take up the slack, and set the hook. The drag immediately began to slip as the fish made a hard run. This was a strong fish. About 45 seconds into the fight the fish found a piece of wood. I wasn't wrapped up too bad yet because I could still feel him swimming around. There just seemed to be a point where I couldn't get him over a log or something, so I pulled anchor and went out to fight him from the other side. A couple minutes and several strong runs later I landed what I believed to be my first 20lb flathead from this river. (Russ and I joke all the time that the river doesn't hold fish in the 20-30lb class. We have caught dozens of flathead with a few over 30lbs and yet to get one in the 20-30 lb range.) I yelled up to him and told him that I had a "20", eager to see this mysterious creature he paddled down to investigate. He immediately said, "Nope......not quite 20. Maybe 18." Onto the scale she went...........and Russ was right, not quite 20lbs.

It went 35" and 17lbs. At this point it was 3am, everyone had pulled off anchor, and was sitting around. We had a 30 minute paddle back and an hour or so in loading up/getting the vehicle at the put in location. I knew Amanda was ready to leave, but I wasn't quite done yet. We managed to pull enough energy together to hit one last spot. I anchored downstream of everyone again and began tossing baits out. The rod near the bank was hot again, I quickly picked up an additional two flathead with the largest being 28" and in the 8-10lb range.

At 4am we decided to call it quits and make the paddle back. All in all we had a pretty good trip. Everyone caught a flathead, Amanda even got a nice channel cat, Russ caught a pig at 35lbs 3oz, and we all had a pretty good time. Maybe it will be Amanda's turn for a giant next time!

8/20: Flathead Catfish, The one that DIDN'T get away!

Here's two fishing reports from my last two days of fishing. The first trip I spent bass fishing with Shawn at a local lake where we had been on a 20+" bass streak for well over 5 trips. We changed things up a bit and still managed to break 20" on a single fish....it wasn't a largemouth though. The second trip I spent with Russ flathead fishing  the following night. We each found a few nice buffalo feeding on floating scum mats before dark. As the sun fell over the tree tops the action really picked up........

8/19: 

Tuesday night Shawn Skidmore and I decided to head out and see if we could find a few 20" bass after dark. For the past few weeks I had been thinking about hitting the deep end of the lake in search of night-time bass. I specifically wanted to target a couple of shallow flats and rip rap points near 40+ feet of water. In theory these spots seemed like solid choices since the bass had less room to feed than they did at our other spots. If the bass were feeding at night near the deeper water they would have no choice but to be roaming the only shallow water available. That was my thought anyway. Shawn seemed to like the idea of fishing new water so that's exactly what we did.

Shawn and I met up at 7pm and hit the water. I knew the water very well so I began the trip by pointing out a few main lake points and drop offs that we could fish at night. After about 30 minutes of paddling and talking about where we could fish Shawn was ready to wet a line. We began on a shallow flat near 35 feet of water. The flat itself was 6-12 feet deep and expanded 2-3 acres. The banks were lined with rip rap and the back of the creek arm was covered in thick vegetation. If we were going to find a big fish, this was definitely the spot to do so, or so I thought. Shawn and I worked the banks and the drop off with creature baits but struggled to find fish. In the next hour and a half I picked up 2 small bass and Shawn missed a couple small ones. At this point we decided to start working our way back to the boat ramp and fish some of the main lake points that I had pointed out earlier. As we rounded the rip rap point we started working the steep bank that was riddled with fallen trees. I was in the lead and Shawn was working 10 yards behind me. I made a long pitch up under a tree and hopped my bait twice when I felt a solid thump! I reeled down on the slack and set the hook but nothing was there. I reeled in my bait to find that the greedy fish had made off with one of my claws. I looked back at Shawn and told him that it must had been a bluegill. I reached down into my bag, grabbed another bait, and began threading it onto my hook when I heard Shawn pull in a nice bass. His bass went a little over 17", which scored him 10 points for his Kayak Wars team. He began taking pictures of his bass on the hawg trough and I went back to working the banks. On my very next cast I hoped my bait once and felt another solid thump. I reeled down and set the hook, this time I connected! Halfway through my swing I felt weight, and a lot of it. The fish didn't move a whole lot at first but I could feel it swimming back and forth. I looked up to Shawn and told him that I thought I had a big catfish. I continued to work myself over top of the catfish and then it proceeded to pull me around for a couple of minutes. Eventually I pulled the catfish within reach and slipped my hands into its mouth. The flathead went 30" and 14.5lbs....quite the battle for a bass rod.

We continued working down the bank and picked up another half dozen bass before the bite went dead. We fished the next hour and a half and only managed 1 or 2 small bass. The main lake points failed to produce any fish. At 11pm Shawn and I had made our way back to the boat ramp and we began discussing our options. Shawn wanted to fish until midnight at the very minimum so we had a decision to make; (1) continue fishing down the banks near the boat ramp for an hour or more ,OR (2) head back to the rock point and fish where we had caught all of our fish just at dark? After a little debate we started paddling toward the rock point. I picked up a small bass behind Shawn within the first five minutes. Nearly 30 minutes later Shawn picks up another small bass. The fish seemed to be spread out and the average size was 13-14", so at 12:30am we decided to call it quits.



8/20

Friday I woke up around 9:30am and started swapping out my bass gear for my catfish gear. Not only did my rods and reels need to be swapped but so did my tackle boxes and nets. I also needed to grab a couple aerators, troll buckets, spot light, anchor, cutting board, filet knife, head lamp, etc. After an hour of running in and out of the garage I had everything loaded up and was ready to go. At 10:30am Russ sent me a text stating that he had gotten enough bait for the both of us. After a brief conversation we decided to wait until 2pm to meet up and hit the water.

At 2pm we met at our take out location and loaded all of his gear onto my trailer. From there we drove upstream a few miles and started unloading gear. We both took our time carrying gear 40 yards down to the water. While I was on the bank I decided to retie all of my rods just in case I had a bad spot in my line. Russ got on the water and immediately began paddling upstream to one of his buffalo honey holes. He quickly caught a small buffalo that went just shy of 24". Once I was ready to hit the water I paddled across the river and worked a log jam on the front side of a bridge pylon. The buffalo were everywhere I looked, sucking scum in every spot that it collected. I spent the better part of an hour working a floating jig head with a piece of bread around the scum but failed to get my first buffalo. This type of fishing was becoming very frustrating.

At one point Russ and I were paddling side by side when all of a sudden we spotted a school of buffalo sucking on scum that had accumulated on a root wad. Russ told me to go over and get them, however I insisted that he showed me how to catch these frustrating fish. It was a challenge that he was willing to accept. Like a ninja Russ stealthily paddled over to the root wad and dropped his floating jig head tipped with nightcrawler into the scum where the buffalo were feeding. The first drop was a miss, but the second drop landed perfectly just mere inches from a buffalo's open mouth. He set the hook and the water exploded as the buffalo that he had hooked pulled drag and spooked the other dozen buffalo in the area. Soon enough Russ had landed the 24" buffalo, which was good enough for 10 points for our kayak war team.

Eventually I found my first buffalo of the trip, a small 22" buffalo from a school of 40 or more.

Russ, the buffalo expert went on to land 2 more buffalo over the 24" mark.

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.

Buckeye Kayak Fishing Trail's Kiser Kayak Classic

Last Friday Russ, Amanda, and I drove up to St. Paris and set up camp with a few of our fellow kayak anglers. A dozen or more anglers had spent the day pre-fishing for the tournament, while others decided to simply kick back and relax. Jim Martin found success early in the day landing a three good fish, including a 21.5" tank . Other anglers weren't as fortunate however....Shawn Skidmore, leader of the BKFT Big Bass Challenge with a five fish average of 21",  came off of the water with his head down and confidence broken.

We arrived at the campground around 7pm and decided not to hit the water. Our game plan was simple, not to make a game plan. Now it wasn't because we didn't know the lake or that we were too lazy to pre-fish, but rather because of the sheer numbers of anglers anticipated to fish the tournament in the morning. On several occasions I had heard that there would be an excess of 50 anglers at the event Saturday morning. Fifty anglers on a 300 acre lake would surely make finding spots pretty tough.

Friday night we sat around the campfire, had a few drinks, and talked to our fellow kayak anglers. Stories of killer beaver (Russ) and killer swans (Chase) were repeated for the second and even third times, which even ignited the great debate of Swan versus Beaver. The debate became, which would be worse to encounter in a kayak a beaver or swan?  "You saw what that goose did to Drew Gregory right?......A swan is three times bigger than a goose!"......."Oh yea, well a Beaver can chew a tree down......imagine what it could do to your leg!" In the end I think the beaver edged out the swan as many anglers agreed that having a swan attack you in a kayak would be more preferable than having a beaver armed with razor sharp teeth and a bone crushing tail climb into your yak. At 1am we all retired to our tents and set our alarms for the next morning.

Anglers began rolling out of their sleeping bags around 6am. Some anglers began tinkering with rods and tackle while others hit the snooze button several times. I woke Amanda up around 6am and then proceeded to unload our kayaks and gear. Russ rolled out of his sleeping bag around 6:40, with less than 20 minutes to check in. At 6:45 we walked over to the check in location near the beach to find several dozen cars unloading their kayaks.

With nearly 20 kayaks on the water at the campground and nearly 30 kayaks on the ground near the beach it appeared we had exceeded 50 anglers. I walked around and found a few familiar faces, I took pictures, shook hands, etc. A little after 7 we had our brief captains meeting which highlighted the tournament rules, check in times, etc.  Ten minutes later the meeting was over and everyone took off from the beach. Kayaks started heading every direction, and those fortunate enough to have a peddle powered yak set the pace.

Russ, Amanda, and I casually walked back over to the campground and made our final preparations. We launched from the campground and began scouting the shoreline for any available openings. Straight across from the campground we found a spot that spanned  50 yards between two kayak anglers, with no better options available we paddled over. We tucked into the pads and began working frogs, poppers, creature baits, etc. Russ quickly picked up a couple small fish by fishing shad schools on the main lake. Amanda and I worked the lily pads, but failed to find any fish early. Eventually the kayak anglers in front of us decided to paddle across the lake, which opened up a rather large section of lily pads for Russ, Amanda, and I. We paddled up the lake to the next section of pads and I quickly caught a 13" bass on a Texas rigged creature bait just outside of the pad edge. A few minutes later Amanda got her first fish as well, also a 13" bass. Now these weren't fish that we were too particularly proud of, but with the given conditions (constantly fishing behind people) I figured that 43-45" would get us in the top ten and possibly get our entry fee back. We continued to work down the shoreline and at one point we had caught back up to a group of kayak anglers. We sat around for a while and tried to decide whether or not to pass them or just stay where we were when all of a sudden they took off paddling across the lake as well. This was the second time this had happened, which had me thinking that someone on the other side of the lake had caught a few fish and the word had gotten out. Either way I was happy to continue working down the bank and flipping the lily pads.

At this point is was nearly 11am and we were struggling to find fish. Russ had two fish for 27" and Amanda and I each had one at 13". We paddled 30 yards up the lake and started fishing again. After a couple casts Neil showed up and started talking to Joel Hains about fishing. He then paddled down to us and started talking as well. I asked if he had heard of any big fish yet and he said that he had heard of at least one 17" fish and a couple people in the mid 40" range with their three fish total. I told him that we were struggling to find our first three fish.  He wished us luck and paddled back down the lake. Within minutes I picked up a 15" and a 14" fish on creature baits while working the pad edges. Amanda started getting bites on her creature bait as well. She was tired of switching back and forth between the Texas rigged creature bait and a hollow body frog so she chose to employ a new technique. She was tossing her Texas rigged chigger craw into the pads and bringing it across them like she would a hollow body frog, as she came to pockets of open water she would let her bait fall to the bottom. I had used this technique in the past with a weightless plastic on thick vegetation mats, but never before with any weight. She quickly caught a 14" bass on this technique about 10 yards behind me.

We only had one Hawg Trough (Measuring Board) between the two of us so I paddled down to her and helped her take a picture of her fish. I then paddled 30 yards up the lake, around Joel and Russ, when I heard her say she had hooked another one. At this point I had just spent 8 minutes or better paddling to her, helping her get a picture of her fish, paddling back up the lake to my spot, and now I had to paddle back to her again. I was not happy to say the least. I turned around to see her rod doubled over but not moving. She was surely snagged, so I sat and waited for her to tell me it was just a snag. However, she was persistent that the fish was still on the line and wrapped up in the lily pads. I paddled 30 yards down the bank, mumbling not so nice comments under my breath, watching her rod for movements the whole time. I eventually pulled up beside her and asked if she still had a fish on, to which she replied, "I don't know." I paddled into the pads 10 yards and grabbed her line where it entered the water. I felt a lot of weight but it felt too heavy to be a fish. I could move it off of bottom a foot before the braided line started to cut my hand. At this point I looked back at her and said, "I think you've snagged a tree branch." I gave it another strong tug to see if I could pull the limb close enough to the surface to grab it and untangle her line. As I pulled the line it began to cut my hand again so I dropped my hand let the line go slack, and that's when I felt something tug back. "He's still on there" I told her. I grabbed the line again and started pulling from different directions when all of a sudden I felt something break free. I could pull now pull another 6-8" of slack out of the line. I began pulling the slack up and that's when I saw it. Wrapped around 2 lily pad stems was the giant head of a largemouth. He wasn't moving at all, to be fair he didn't have an inch of line to play with.  I didn't do anything at first, quite frankly because I didn't know what to do. It was a foot under the water so I'd have to put some pressure on it to get it up and close enough to the surface to grab the fish, and at that point the line would most certainly break. I had a net that I could use but I was afraid that if I touched the net to the fish that he/she would start thrashing around and throw the hook. I looked over to Amanda and gave her the, "You've got to be kidding me" look. She shrugged her shoulders and said, "What." I just shook my head and said, "Its a big bass." At that point she perked up in her seat and started watching every move I made. The best plan I could come up with was to grab the fish without spooking it. If I pulled the line to hard it would break. If I tried to break the lily pad stems by hand the fish could work itself free and possibly jump and throw the hook. If I touched it with a net I could spook it.  I took a deep breath and started pulling her line up toward the surface once again. I got the fish within sight and slowly lowered my arm into the water. I tried to move very slowly as not to freak the fish out. I buried my arm up to my elbow before I felt the fishes mouth. I slid my thumb into the corner of its mouth and it went nuts. I kept a firm grip and pulled it out of the water, snapping the lily pad stems along the way. It was a big bass, but now the question was how big? The answer.....22.25"

At this point we began crunching the numbers.....there were 59 anglers, maybe 50 of which payed into big fish. Give or take this fish would be worth around $250. I then told her that if she could upgrade her 13" fish to a 16" fish she would have a shot at winning first place as well as big fish! From that point on she was in it to win it. She stood up and made every cast count, stomping her feet the floor of her kayak when she missed a fish.

It was just the spark that Russ and I needed as well, we also got back into the grove of things. Russ finally picked up his third fish of the day on a frog....which happened to be his first frog bass ever. A solid bass at 17"

Ten minutes later I picked up a 16.25" to bring my three fish to 14", 15", 16.25".

I felt pretty confident about cracking into the top ten with my three fish but to be honest I had my sights set on Amanda's three fish total. All I needed was a decent fish to give Amanda a run for her money.  She had 49.25 with her three fish total, which meant I needed a 19" fish or two 17" fish to tie her. It wasn't impossible but very unlikely. About an hour later Russ yelled over and said, "The words out!" I turned and looked across the lake to see at a minimum of 15 kayaks heading our way. We debated on letting everyone have our spot, one we had sat on for the better part of an hour and a half, and then heading across the lake to the spots they had just left from. We ended up waiting for the boats to arrive and talked to a few of the anglers. Each one of them had asked about Amanda's big fish and even told us how they were doing. Most guys were struggling to find fish over 14", they had three fish but very few of them had any size. Things were starting to look up for Amanda, maybe she could pull off a first place finish with one big bass and two small ones. Eventually, Jeff Bennett came from around the bend and started talking with us. He had around 45" and was looking to upgrade a 13" fish. We told him what we had caught and how it all happened. After talking with everyone for 20 minutes we all decided to paddle down the lake and fish back to the campground.

Along the way I picked up another decent fish to add to my three fish total, a 16" fish.

At this point I knew that all I needed was a 17" fish now to beat Amanda, which I felt was rather attainable. Russ, Amanda, and I worked our way down to the campground, eventually making our way into a crowd of 15 anglers sitting 30 yards from the campground. It was a little after 2, we had slept very little the night before, had ate nothing all day, and it was now raining lightly and windy.........we were ready to get off the water. So 45 minutes early, we pulled our kayaks out of the water....a decision that I later discovered would turn out to bite us in the butt. As we started walking toward the check in I heard Neil say,  "You quit too early...... Two anglers landed 20" fish 20 yards from the campground with less than thirty minutes to spare." Persistence had rewarded those tough enough to stay on the water.

We walked over to the measure in site and began taking peoples badges and SD cards. After 40 minutes of measuring fish we all waited to hear the results. (I'll hit the highlights here but be sure to check out all of the results at the Buckeye Kayak Fishing Trail website.) Russ had placed 12th and won his entry fee back. Shawn Skidmore landed a 20" bass with 30 minutes to go which propelled him into seventh place. Larry Haines landed 2 small fish and a nearly 18" fish to propel him into 5th. Jeff Bennett had three decent fish which was good enough for 4th. I took third with my three decent fish and won $150. In 2nd was Aaron Stiger with 2 of his top three fish coming 20 yards from the campground with 45 minutes to go, including one 20" fish. Both Shawn and Aaron earned their money with persistence. And finally in first place with the big fish pot was Amanda.

  She ended up with 49.25" in three fish and walked away with two trophies and over $500 in cash. (The largest payout in BKFT history.)

All in all everyone had a good time. We wanna thank everyone who came out to this event, and our sponsors who made it all possible. If you haven't checked out Smack Tackle, KFA Sponsor and BKFT Sponsor, please do so. http://www.smacktackle.com

8/10: Flathead Fresh off Spawn

Late Thursday night Russ sent me a text that informed me that he would have the weekend off of work, which meant that he was ready to head out and fish. At this point I had already made plans Saturday to float a section of the Great Miami River with a handful of friends from up north. After a half a dozen text messages back and forth, Russ and I had decided to fish a section of river for flathead catfish Friday night. This gave me the opportunity to fish both Friday with Russ and Saturday with my other friends. Although this all hinged on our trip Friday night, if it was a bust we could leave early and I would be able to head up and fish with everyone Saturday.

Friday morning Russ got off work and went out to gather a few dozen bluegill for bait. At 10am he called to let me know that he had more bluegill than we could use (Approximately 4 dozen), and that he was going to take a nap before our trip. At 3pm I locked the gates at work and made my way home. I grabbed a quick bite to eat, threw a few waters in the car, swapped out my bass gear for my catfish gear, loaded up my kayak, and hit the road. Our trip began a little bumpy, literally, as I broke 2 welds on my kayak trailer as we were heading down a rather rough dirt road. Two of the welds at the frame of the trailer had prevented the metal tubing from flexing and absorbing some of the shock that the trenches and pot holes put on the kayak trailer and they snapped. After unloading all of our gear and dragging our kayaks down to the water Russ informed me that he had forgot to load his paddle into my car.  I looked over to Russ and told him that we were going to have a good trip, he then raised his head and looked at me like I was crazy. I then explained to him that the trips that start out like this, the ones that make you wanna pack up and head back home, often make for the best trips of the year. He then responded, "What do you mean, all of my trips start like this." We both got a pretty good laugh out of the situation and continued to unload our gear.

Typical spot for big cats.....wood and deep water.

We got on the water around six and began scouting the river. I found a place to anchor near a pretty prominent current seam in deep water. I tossed out two rods with cut bluegill and waited to see if any catfish were feeding during the day.  Russ on the other hand, had his eye on other fish such as buffalo and gar. He began paddling along the banks looking for surface activity. In this particular section of river the buffalo population is insane, its nothing out of the ordinary to pull up to a small log jam that has trapped floating scum and see twenty buffalo sucking the scum off of the surface of the water. Russ has perfected a method of landing these surface feeding buffalo. A floating jig head tipped with a piece of night crawler laid gently in the pocket of floating foam works wonders for them. After a couple of hours Russ found what he was looking for.

 While paddling from spot to spot I had spotted a carp feeding beside the buffalo that would have went well over 20lbs, my attention then shifted from cats to buffalo as well. We worked the floating scum mats until dark and then we switched our attention back to catfish. Russ tossed out a live bluegill on one rod and a cut bluegill head on his other. Within 30 minutes he had the first flathead of the night, a 28"er that fell for the bluegill head. After that we sat around for another hour before pulling anchor and heading downstream to the next spot.

I found a nice log jam setting in 10 feet of water but there was nothing near it to tie off to, so I paddled 20 yards upstream of it and threw my anchor onto the bank and began tossing my rods out. ( I rarely, if ever, drop my anchor in the water. Its much safer and more stable to anchor on logs, the bank, etc.) Thirty minutes later the rod I had baited with a cut bluegill head began to get a bite. The clicker mechanism on my reel began to sound as the fish began to take line. I disengaged the clicker and engaged the drive on the reel. I leaned forward and allowed the fish to tighten up the line and then I set a solid hook. The fish didn't take drag, but it wasn't letting me take in line either. A minute later I brought him to up to the kayak and landed my first fish of the night, a 28" flathead. From a quick look at its head size compared to its body size I discovered that this was a male flathead. Males have larger heads than the females, most of the time their head (gill plate to the bottom lip) is wider that the rest of the body, whereas female flathead have smaller heads and larger bodies. This male had spots and bruises all over him from spawn, which told me that Russ and I had timed this trip just right. 

Spawning marks on his head and back.

I waited another 45 minutes in this spot before heading downstream 30 yards and repositioning within the log jam. I tossed a live blugill near the bank and a blugill head on the outside of the log jam. Less than fifteen minutes later my clicker began to roll once again on my outside rod. I disengaged the clicker, engaged the reel, and set the hook. This fish felt strong, very strong. I'd gain a few yards of line and then he'd take it right back. Once I got it to the kayak I realized that this fish was no where near the size that I thought it was, and it wasn't a flathead either. After 3 minutes of trying to land the channel cat by hand I pulled out the net and ended the battle. It went just shy of 28", and I'm guessing it to be in the 8-10lb range...my biggest channel catfish from a kayak to date. 

Russ heard all the commotion and paddled over to see what was going on, since he was already by my side he took a picture for me. Before he could even get re-anchored downstream my second rod began to go off. It was the first fish of the night to come off of a live bluegill, a pretty solid 29" flathead with a neat coloration. This female was in much better shape than the small male that I had caught earlier in the night.

Very cool looking female flathead. Rather free of spawn marks.

In less than an hour I had landed 3 fish, even though they weren't very big I was having a blast. Russ and I paddled downstream and made our one and only portage of the trip. We then began looking for our next spot to fish. About 100 yards downstream from our portage we found a log jam in 8 feet of water, but the current was ripping through too fast for comfort. Twenty minutes later Russ and I dropped anchor near wood that appeared to be rather new to the river. (At-least we had never seen it before.) About thirty minutes after anchoring I hear something massive splash near the surface by Russ. My initial thought was that Russ had a giant hooked. A few seconds later I hear another splash, this time it was even closer to Russ' kayak. His head lamp quickly turned on and I herd rods banging around and Russ mumbling. A few minutes later I hear Russ paddling up the middle of the river. I yelled out and asked him how big it was and he replied, "Stupid thing tried to kill me." I was confused so I continued to ask questions. It turns out that the splashes I had heard weren't a fish at all, rather a very big angry beaver. Russ told me that after the second splash he pulled his anchor so quick that he forgot about having his rods out. He then went on to describe the hissing and grunting noises that the beaver was making. Now Russ isn't one to fear much of anything, sometimes I believe he doesn't even fear his own death but this beaver put the fear into Russ. I hadn't seen him this shook up before. I asked him if he wanted to paddle down the river and look for a new spot, away from the beaver, and without hesitation he said yes.

Around 2am we anchored on a few fallen trees and waited to hear out bait clickers. Once again my outside rod (bluegill head) began to click. I set the hook and landed another small flathead. At this point I was on pace to catch the most flathead I had ever caught in one trip. (4)

This little female had a few bruises on her head from spawning, but nothing too serious. I snapped a few pictures, released the fish, rebated, and casted back out to the outside of the log jam. Less than twenty minutes later that same rod began to click. This female flathead was quite a bit smaller than the other ones but it helped me tie my personal best for most flatheads in one night.  Once again she was rather free of bruises and spawn marks. At this point I had landed 3 female and 1 male flathead, which led me to believe that there are still a few males guarding nests.

Before I could rebait my rod and get it back into the water, my rod with a live bluegill began to run. After a brief battle I brought the 28" bruiser into the yak. This male flathead was two to three times fatter than any fish I had landed all day, it was probably the most beat up too!

Male Flathead....head is much larger than the rest of its body.

Two hours later I land yet another flathead on live bluegill, a thick 28"er.

At this point I was running low on bait and staying awake was becoming more challenging by the second. If the fish hadn't been biting I would have surely been sleeping in my bed at this point. My phone had died somewhere around midnight so I really had no idea what time it had gotten to be, until Russ came paddling upstream and asked me if I knew what time it was. I replied, "No, Why? He then informed me that it was after 4am and that he needed to be home by 7am to watch his kids. At this point I realized that fishing with the guys up north in a few hours wasn't a possibility. Russ had worked a 10 hours shift Thursday night into Friday morning, caught bait till 10am, and then slept for 3 hours before putting in 11 hours on the river. I had gotten up at 6 am, worked 8 hours, and then put 11 hours in on the river. The fish were biting, but it was time for us start heading downstream. We had a 30 minute paddle to the take out location, 20 minute drive to get our second vehicle at the launch location, and another 30 minutes of loading our gear up. On my way home the alarm that I had set for my previously planned fishing trip Saturday went off. I just looked at my cell phone and laughed, those guys where just going to have to fish without me. 

All in all we had a pretty good trip.

Just some thoughts out loud here: 
 I landed 6 flathead and 1 channel cat. Most of the flathead came off of cut bluegill head on the outside of log jams. The bigger fish however, came off of live bluegill near the bank. Most of the flathead were also female. This leads me to believe that there are still a few larger males guarding nests in the log jams, which is forcing the smaller fish to the outside of the log jams. The next few weeks should produced some of the most exciting flathead fishing of the year.