Pleasant Lake Flatties!

[Matthew Cook]

yah, i know what you are thinking, " Flatheads? At Pleasant? No way! "
but it is true. saturday night we went fishing at lake pleasant. got there about 4 and tried to catch some bluegill. didn't catch any so we caught a carp and cut him up. fished for a little untill it got dark and into the night. all of a sudden the clicker on one of the reels started clicking. my dad went and got the rod and set the hook. to our suprise it was a 8 pound flathead! we couldn't believe it. there was so mutch things that we thought were bad for the fishing, like the full moon, and the lake at 60 percent full, and the strip bait instead of live bait. after that we fished for a little and then decided to call it a night. around 5 am i came back out again and threw the poles out again. about 20 minets later i heard the clicker going off again. i ran to the pole, picked it up, and set the hook. again a nother flathead, this time 7 pounds. still not believing it i threw the pole out again. maybe an hour or so later the clicker went off yet a nother time. this time it wasn't so small. it took me a while to reel him in, but finally i got him in. this one weighed 15 pounds. what a good trip. all the fish were real skinny though. they almost didn't look that healthy. i think the stripe bass population is just eating all the bluegill whitch isn't so good for the flatties. all the fish were safely released but not before some pics! here are some picks of the fish:

This one is the 8 pounder:

http://www.catfish1.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=727&stc=1

This one is the 7 pounder:

http://www.catfish1.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=728&stc=1

This one is the 15 pounder:

http://www.catfish1.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=729&stc=1

[Sean]

I'm amazed. I didn't think there were any in pleasant.

Side note, I was there Saturday night from about 1930 - 0230 Sunday morning and I got skunked. :(

Oh and a skunk really did come along and get into my bait bag which was 20 feet away from me, he ate about half of my garlic covered shrimp. I let him eat all he wanted. :(

[tdpasser]

That's great news, i've never fished Pleasant but want to. Now we can do the Striper in morning and evening and flats and channels at night. Great job guys!!

[Matthew Cook]

2 of the fish, the 7 and 15, were caught in the mourning. so it wouldn't hurt to throw out some poles for flathead. we are going back this saturday. last time after catching the first one we sleep for like 5 hours. this weekend i am not shutting my eyes. going to fish all night with live bait and cut up carp. caught all the cats last time on cut bait. i wonder if live bait will be any better. :confused:

[Billy Jo]

Hey mat great job, I didn't think there were flatheads in Pleasant, but I guess they are in there. How deep were you fishing and were you fishing the north or south end of the lake. I guess I well have to give it a try. Keep up the good work and good luck on your next trip.
Billy Jo

[Matthew Cook]

we were fishing in the Agua Fria Arm, i think it was humbug, in a big hole. it isn't really much of a cove any more. the water is very very low. we were fishing in what would be equivalent to the middle of the cove if the water was up. i think it was around 12 to 15 feet of water. also in our recent trips we were catching 20 to 30 white bass with little grubs. another trip is still on for saturday. we plan to go real early and try to catch some bait.

[glenmorebuckman]

I remember when I was a kid, back in the middle to late 70's ,seeing a 13 pound flathead that was caught at Pleasant. We moved to Kentucky in 84 and I guess the lake looks a lot different now.

[Matthew Cook]

went back to pleasant sat night. fished all night and mourning. very very slow. only a couple bites. we could only catch channels, no flats this time. don't know why. everything was pretty much the same as last time. we were using live and dead bait. the live bait seemed to do better. we lost a lot of fish. but the most painful one was in the mourning. we had been getting these bites with the clicker screaming, which all turned out to be channels. i could tell this one was a flathead just buy the way he bit. it was very slow but steady. i picked up the pole and set it deep in the fishes mouth. there was a pause, and then the reel started screaming out line as the fish was pulling the drag out. i had my thumbs on the reel as tight as i could hold them, but there was no stopping this fish. before i knew it the line was caught around something. i could still feel the fish but it was very light pulls. my dad swam out and tried to free the line but it wasn't going anywhere. then, after what seemed to be an eternity, the line snapped.
:crying: :crying: :crying:
don't know where we are going to go this weekend, hopefully the salt.

[Zonaman]

Had a similar experience at Apache several years ago. Bent my deep sea rod into a Dutch pretzel! Those big ones seem to know they're on a line and just how to snag it! Who knows, maybe you'll go back and get him before old age does! ;)