yellow river beat down

[bigmaac73]

I swear this has never happened to me before!! I am just about as confused as I have ever been. I am quite embarassed to say that I have been skunked the past seven trips to the yellow. I know that there are some nice fish in there but I just can't seem to get on any. I went out again this morning and again nothing. I was getting tapped all morning but nothing would stick. I have tried everything that I can think of. I am trying all the spots that make since to me but NOTHING. I have tried every hole out there, the front of the holes, the eddies and flats next to the holes, in the holes, at the tail out, the snags in and around the holes, holes by a creek inlet, up in the creek, and bait from fresh cut mullet, shrimp alive and dead, dip bait, cut and live bluegill, crawdads, and various other cut bait. I just dont know what I am doing wrong. COULD SOMEONE PLEASE HELP!!!! I cant leave this river knowing that she has gottent the best of me.

[MSgtCatfish]

Justin, I sent you a PM. The yella (as we call it) is very tricky. One other thing that I didn't point out is that the fish camps up around Harold have been slaying the flatheads, I'm talking 30 and 40 pounders on bush hooks, the bad thing is that they keep them and eat them or throw them out. They don't want the flathead in "their" river. The blue and channel population have been almost depleted it seems like. One of my friend's who grew up in Milton and is stationed in the area has been fishing it all his life and notices the blue and channel cat struggle. The only time he usually catches them now is in the winter. The yella is hard due to it's small size and heavily limb lined, but read the PM and let me know if that helps. It's what I've done and I usally catch at least one flathead an outing ranging from 2-12 pounds, largest being a 15 pounder. Have you caught any jackfish? I usally tangle with one of them on every outing as well. My buddy caught a 22 pounder on rod and reel back in early June fishing for a flathead in his crappie hole on a lake off the main channel. They are there, they are just being targeted by limb liners so I am certain there numbers are dropping rapidly!

[MSgtCatfish]

Just got off the phone with a buddy in Milton and he said his uncle, who runs limb lines, caught around 30 flatheads since Thursday and caught a 40 pounder today, and actually let the 40 pounder go. Said he watched'em let it go, so that was some good news.

[bigmaac73]

That info actually helps alot. I have mainly been targeting channels and blues. I have been fishing with cut bait and other channel cat delectables mainly. I have never really fished for flatheads before. They have always been a little myserious to me. I dunno why. We just always fished channels and blues growing up and never messed with the flatties. But that 10lber put up a good tussle so I may try to start. Know anywhere around with a good channel cat population? I love channel cat fishin. I have been useing cut mullett alot. I see them jumping out in the rivers and they are all over the bays so I thought that with them being so oily that they would work well, but havn't had any luck yet.

[MSgtCatfish]

the channels and blues are tricky on the yella. Not many people catching them in numbers right now. Fall and winter a lot more people catch them on limb lines. Grimes lake used to be a good spot for channels and bullheads/buttercats but even that has slowed down.

Now that I think about it I've only caught a few blues and a handful of channels out of the yella - buttercats i've caught a lot of but not since early 2007. And now I mainly target flatheads for sport in hopes of breaking the state record LOL - but I prefer hunting them down and if I want to go for blues, bigger blues, head to Escambia or up in Alabama.

Shoot, it's almost like the flatheads have taken over and either pushed the other cats further north up the yella, or wiped them out, it's really crazy I tell ya.

[bigmaac73]

I was out on east bay river a few weeks ago and a guy said that they had alot of bullheads in there and they where hitting crawdads really well. tries some on the yella a few weeks ago and had one good hit but he didn't stick. that was the only hit of the night. I keep on getting these taps like it is a real small cat. I just wouldn't think that with all the flatheads in there that the bullheads or bream or even small blues and channels would be haning around those log jams much. I guess though that the flatheads wouldn't be there if there wasn't food around. I just don't know very much about flatheads at all.

[weinerdog]

Unfortunately I've been noticing a few guys putting out 100+ hook trotlines in the Yellow River lately. FWC has been in the area so I hope they catch them in the act soon. I don't know if it has anything to do with lack of fish lately but it could.