Geoff

[center12]

Geoff, since the PM thing is so slow I thought I'd start a little thread here.

The score I posted was made on my 3rd flight, I tried 7 times total. If we're going to challenge, we should just go on the honor system and post our best in 3 tries........thoughts???

Your probably on your 50th flight trying to break my impressive score :p

[kcgeoff]

Charlie, LOL on the 50th flight. I did around a dozen or so and it looks as though you could keep going on and on. LOL The honor system of of 3 sounds good to me.

[center12]

Do you play asteroids, that's the one I've been hitting hard lately. Guess I need to go figure out how to challenge. First I got to go shower, just cleaned the kitties. Freezer is getting full, of course 30lb's of flathead don't hurt!!

[kcgeoff]

Charlie,
I've played Asteroids. I'm just not any good at it. I need to brush my skills some lol. If you click on somebodies name then you can click challenge.

I need to stock my freezer with some cats. Its bare!! Trying to decide if I want to head out and catch channels or attempt to locate a flathead.

[crazy]

Man you too need to get out and go fishing. Have no idea what you all are talking about.

[cat4life]

They are talking about the arcade. Tons of games you should give it a try just dont let it suck you in like it did to them.

[center12]

Already caught my limit today..........might as well play arcade games :D

[eggman]

hmmm, so the Catmaster has a thread named soley after himself...what in the world is going on??

can I have your autograph Geoff????

just kiddin buddy, you are the man.....lol

egg

[McFlat]

Geoff, one of those Olathe flatties will take some loneliness out of the freezer.

[kcgeoff]

Bryan and I went fishing at a local lake this evening. When we got there I tossed some shrimp out and then caught a few bluegils for cut bait. Tossed out a cut gil and caught a 30lb flathead within 5 minutes. I brought him home and put him in the stock tank. He gets pretty pissed off when I try to pet him in my tank. :p He isn't like my house cats. LOL

I'll get some pictures as soon as I can and post em on here.

[GaryF]

Cool, looks like there are some flatheads up there! He would probably eat your house cats.

[kcgeoff]

Gary
One of our cats disappeared awhile back so we got another. This one is so tiny we named her Miss Minnie. He could eat her in one bite. LOL I just don't think Julie would get a kick out of it.

Speaking of Julie you should have seen her face when she found out I had a 30lb flathead in her trunk! :eek: :eek: :cursing:

[GaryF]

Lol, Tiffany is ok with me fishing all the time, as long as I don't bring them home :confused:

[center12]

When wifey starts beating me up about fishing I just cook up a mess of cats.............then she understands :D


Oh ya, I wear the pants around this house :p

[kcgeoff]

Charlie,
She didn't mind too much. If it was my vehicle she wouldn't have said anything.

I went out there early this morning to check on him. He has been puking up a bunch of crap in my tank. I don't know how anybody can go noodling. I reached in there and snached him up. He liked to tore my hand off and splashed water everywhere. Imagine what an 80lber would do! :D

I've never cleaned a flathead this big. Anybody have some advice? Should I hang him up and cut the tail to bleed before attempting to fillet him?

[center12]

Geoff, I just got done with a 10 lber and I bleed the fish.........they hold a whole lot of blood. This fish was small enough I used the electric fillet knife, on one the size you have I'd hang, skin, then I'd go at it with the knife. If it ain't white meat get rid of it.

Last week I didn't get to pull my trotline off Clinton becuase of storms and my 7 straight days(I didn't rebait my last time out), so I went today to haul it in. I had 4 eater channels, a BIG softshell turtle(it has a headache) and a 10 pound flathead. No bait, just silver hooks!!

Can you say deep fried belly steak................that's the menu at my house tonight :thumbsup:

[kcgeoff]

Charlie, thanks for the advice. Somebody told me the otherday that you can dump boiling hot water on a catfish and the skin will just come right off. Have you ever heard of that? I thought about trying it on some smaller channels and see if it works or not.

[GaryF]

That's a pretty good haul for bare hooks, I doubt you would have done any better, even with bait?

[center12]

It was a pretty good haul for no bait, it had about 9 days to work though. Figure I could have pulled 5 fish and a turtle in 9 days with bait.........at least I'd like to think I could :)

Geoff, you'd have the fish skinned before you got the water boiling,snicker!!

[kcgeoff]

Charlie, LOL
I suppose that is true. I always fillet the small channels anyways. I got an electric knife and don't mess around anymore.

[catfishcentral]

Five fish on a bare trotline is good indeed. You got my hopes up now. I'm taking the canoe to the local river and check mine tonight. I would take my boat out but just don't feel like cashing in my 401K just to put gas in the boat. :rolleyes:

[Calvin]

That's a pretty good haul for bare hooks Charlie. Did the lake come up quite a bit? El Dorado has been up several feet for a couple of weeks. They are letting a lot of water out trying get it down by this weekend.

[center12]

lakes been above pool pretty much all year. They are letting out 500cfs, but it's up about 8" from last week. All those fish were in about 3' of water. We had another outstanding shad hatch so I figure these fish were up chasing the groceries..........shad are 2 to 3" lang right now.

I'm not reponsabile for typo's on this post............eating fresh flathead with my favorite breading, you all that were at ElDorado know the one :)

[kcgeoff]

Just got done taking some pictures of last nights flathead. I've included a couple of them.

[Calvin]

Great pictures Geoff. I think with all the rain we are in for some great fall fishing. That's a nice looking flathead.

[kcgeoff]

Calvin,
I hope the fall fishing is better than the summer fishing has been for me. I can't wait for the blues to start bitting good again on the Missouri.

Just got done cleaning the flathead. I tied him up in the garage and put a 5 gallon bucket under him. Cut his tail off and he blead like no tomorrow! Took for ever to skin him, but finally got that done and cleaned him. Took me right at 2 hours to clean and the mess of blood that went everywhere! LOL

I cut all the red meat and fat out. Also filleted the stomach lining off the meat. Ended up with alot of meat but wasted aton aswell! I couldn't believe how big the pile of red meat/belly skin was. The fish was also clear full of eggs. I guess this fish wasn't going to lay them this year?

[Individualist]

Geoff, nice flatcat you caught there. His skin was awful dark, looks like it's been sunbathing some. Did you catch it in one of those watersheds up there in Atchison? I don't think those watersheds are as deep as they used to be when I worked up there back in 95.

[kcgeoff]

Brian,
Yea, I cot him in one of the dam watersheds. I've been trying for awhile to get one for the freezer. But just haven't had anything luck. Finally got this one. I can't wait to taste him. :D

[kccats]

Looks like a great eater to me!

[kcgeoff]

Just got done eatting some of that flathead. Coated it in Shake-n bake, dumped the seasoned salt and lemon pepper on it and baked it. MMMMMMMMMMMM good :D

[Calvin]

Geoff,
Man, I can't imagine why he would still be full of eggs. I've noodled them as late as early August but never in September! Maybe the high water and screwy summer has some of them messed up. That's really interesting. This has been a strange summer here too. The first part of August was so hot I didn't even fish and then when it fianlly rained we had floods and it turned into the wettest August we've ever had. All that should spell some great fall fishing though.

[kcgeoff]

Calvin,
That really suprised me aswell. This was a lake flathead and there has not been alot of changes in the water level of that lake. I could understand that in the river. I figured they were done spawning quite awhile ago. The waters awfully hot to be laying eggs.

After eatting this flathead. Its going to be hard for me to release lake flatheads anymore. I'm not going to eat them outt of the river with all the chemicals but these lake flats sure are tasty!

[catfishcentral]

I don't know if flatheads are any different than blues but I've found eggs in blues pretty much year round. I don't find many catfish like this but I've cleaned blue cats in the dead of winter with eggs in them. I think if they can't find a nesting site they just hold onto the eggs till their absord back into their body. Who know exactly why. Nice fish by the way Geoff.

[Catfish Fever]

Geoff, nice Flathead and pics too. Sure wish I could catch some of the Flatheads I know are here in Milford Lake. The only one of two I caught was that 23+lbr I accidentally caught last February in 40 feet of water while drifting. How about posting some hints here where (depth etc.) I should be fishing. I know to use live perch or bluegills.

[kcgeoff]

Jim,
I've been fishing alot of local lakes lately trying to catch a flathead with no luck. I gave up on that I figured I would go catch some channels. Was using shrimp on one pole and decided to catch a couple gils for cut bait. I tossed out a small 1" piece of cut bulegil in about 8-10 feet of water. Then went about my business of catching more gils. Bryan yelled at me that I was getting a bite. I said ok I'll get it (circle hook). I turned around and the rod was bent in half. My first guess was a huge channel cat. I got to the pole in a hurry and pulled him in. Sure was a nice surprise! I caught her about 6pm.

Almost all my flatheads come at night from rivers. I usually setup on a spot that is fairly shallow (close to deep water) with structure or something to draw the fish in. I have very few good bank fishing spots on the Missouri here in Atchison. I'm still learning this area. I hope to have a boat my next summer. Then I probably won't catch anything. LOL

[Calvin]

Geoff, I think flatheads are the best tasting fish there is. those lake flatheads you're catching should be great eating.
Jim, Milford should have some excellent flathead fishing. I've caught a lot of them on the Republican River up by Clay Center. I'm supposed to be going to Colorado elk hunting in a couple of weeks. But if the gas prices keep going up there's a good chance I won't be able to go. If I don't go hunting I'll give yiou a shout and we can go catch some of the Milford flatheads. It'd be best to do a night trip though.

[Catfish Fever]

Geoff, thanks for the info. That kinda sounds like me catching that one in 35deg water, 40ft deep while drifting cutbait, lol. I had one grab my Looper rig the other day with some dipbait while I was fishing the dam, 53', pulled the tip to the water (I was on the Catoon) I didn't set the hook, just started cranking, forgot it had a kahle hook, just didn't feel like a Blue or Channel, got it about half way up and it spit the hook. Don't know why, but I just felt it was a Flattie. Put it back down with fresh dip, was cranking up my other pole, down she went again, before I could get it out of the holder, it was gone again! I'm gonna catch me some perch and give that area a try again, have it marked on my GPS, I've caught quite a few Channels there, and a couple of Blues.

[Catfish Fever]

Calvin,
Let me know when you're ready. I'll spend the night out. Me and a neighbor have gone out a few times and stayed almost all night, caught a few fish, then they quit, bout 4am, so we came in. I'd be happy to go out with you, you don't have to bring your Toon, we'll go on mine. We've been up the Republican lately, the lakes up 2.4ft, we could see the Broughton Bridge not too far above us. River just isn't the same, most of the snags are gone, except for the big one I posted a pic of last year. Here's a pretty nice one we've been fishing, daytime though, i'm sure it'd be good at night. This trees been there for at least ten years now, and still growing, right in the middle of the river. The water at the base of the tree is about 12 foot deep, and comes up quick where the Toon is.

[kcgeoff]

Jim,
Thats one heck of a snag there! Man you outta be able to pull some good fish outta of there. I would try some fresh cut bait tossed right up into the snag. Live bait will take you into the snag but something fresh with alot of scent outta draw a good fish out!

[Calvin]

That's a nice looking snag Jim. How deep is the water around it? Geoff's right about the live bait. If you are using perch or bluegills be sure to cut their tails off and straight line fish with circle hooks. It looks like the channel is narrow enough to tie off from each bank right on top of the snag.