It aint that I got anything against circles.They just don,t work under my conditions.#1-How,s the circle gonna work if the fish is right next to the snag?Circle hook design is dependent on the fish moving off and setting the hook into the corner of his mouth.#2-How,s the circle hook gonna work when the fish picks up the bait and moves back toward me,which i,ve found to be the case roughly 25% of the time?Mostle everywhere I fish,if the fish can get 2-3 feet on me before I really put the pressure on him,he,s gonna be hung up in the steel or wood and the battles over.I,m not saying there,s not areas where they work,just not my areas.For those who are gonna tell me to use a slow sweeping set,forget about it!I gotta put everything I got into those first few seconds to get him turned.If i,m using a J that,s PROPERLY sharpened,it,s gonna catch on it,s own as much as a circle hook anyhow.It also leaves me the option of setting when I want.10 years ago there wasn,t hardly anyone using circles for flats and IMHO,10 years from now it will be back to that.I see a lot of guys gung-ho about the circles for awhile,then they end up goin back to J,s once they figure out all the situations where circles don,t work.Name me one situation where a big J hook won,t work?And yes,i,ve given circles an honest try in the past.And no,I can,t even remember the last time I gut hooked a flat.If I have ever done it,it,s been 1,2 at the most in 40 years of flattin.If it aint broke,don,t try to fix it!:wink:

Just curious,i,m not looking for anyones particular holes just what kind of spots you usually fish.I,m always on the hunt for some new spots,and with the price of gas on the rise,i,ll be scouting out more closer to home.I like spots that are somewhat accessable,but not too easy.I do fish some that you can drive up to,but I try and fish those during the off hours when there aren,t any other fishermen there.I got some spots that are real close to the city,but very hard to find from shore if ya don,t know where they,re at.I got some that are out in no mans land,but they,re pretty hard for me to get to too.I guess we,re lucky here in Pittsburgh,there,s a lot of public riverfront that hardly nobody fishes.One of the good things about gettin older I guess,is that you know about a lot of stuff that used to be there.I like holes that don,t look like they,d be any good by looking at the surface,but have a lot of good structure left on the bottom.When they smashed down a lot of those old bridges,piers,etc,they left a lot of good heavy rubble on the bottom.The river shore used to be littered with old scrap barges too.When they cleaned them up,they left large chunks of them down there too.You just gotta know where they were at one time.Anybody else fishing stuff that isn,t there anymore,at least to the naked eye?I see people driving miles from the city,when there,s some really good holes right in the shadow of the city.I like below all our dams too,but some of them are just too damn popular.I don,t mind some people,but I don,t wanna fish in a crowd.

Trying to get a little input on what you guys think of this subject.I,ll just start by giving you what I think.For me all my flatheading revolves around classifying flats into 2 different types,Homefish or Travelers.These are the two catagories that work for me.I consider homies the fish that are either directly in their favorite lairs or very close to them.I consider travelers all the fish that are moving,either to feed,go to other spots for more favorable conditions,etc.I base all my flattin on this system.The 2 exceptions are wintering cats and spawning cats.I got all my spots I fish down to a certain time I fish them.If i,m fishing early,1/2 before dark to say 10,I try to find the holes where the fish call home during the day,and fish right around them waiting for them to come out and start feeding for the night.If there,s enough food right around these spots,i,ll fish right there all night.I only got a couple spots like that.Most of the time i,m after travelers,the hard part is trying to figure out where they,re going and why.It,s my opinion that they,re following the baitfish as they head in shallower to feed during the night.I try and figure out what routes they take as they spread out.This has been through a lot of trial and error and admittedly some luck.Every flat I catch,the 1st thing I ask is why was he there,was he at home or on the move,and why.Most of my holes that produce year after year,I can usually attribute to what bait was there and why it was there.Below dams,I have found that most of the big flats i,ve caught are holed up close to the dam during the day and evening and spreading out and heading downstream during their nightly jaunts.I fish close to the dam early and then move down as the night progresses,trying to intercept them.The tough part,s in the big pools between the dams,I can figure out where their holing up during the day and catch em early,but figuring out if their goin up or downstream is tough.I,ve followed quite a few radio tracking studies,and it seems like there aint much rhyme or reason to which way they,ll head on a given night.When i,m trying to setup for these fish,I usually fish close to the main channel.I believe they follow this til they come to where they want to cut in towards some shallow hunting grounds.I,ll try and be setup in the channel at these spots during the mid night hours,say 12-2am.Keeping track in my logbooks over the years has helped in bearing this out.Being shorebound right now makes this a little tougher,but I feel by doin a little thinking before I leave the house,it helps me during the night.I,ve found spots where the only way to get 1 is to be in the channel and catch em traveling during the night,seems like ya can,t buy 1 at these spots earlier.I though this might help some newer flatters help pick some spots out for themselves that they,ll be able to repeat their success on.Just my opinion only,take it for what it,s worth.It did take me quite a few years of long nights to figure this out though.The 2 exceptions I mentioned earlier,wintering flats and spawning flats.I always start my flattin in the beginning of the year right by what I consider their wintering holes.Took a little doing to find the deepest holes in each pool,but it pays off in the spring.Those areas are where i always find my first flats of the year.I got some areas where they have everything they want for spawning too,lot of crevices,big boulders.and rubble.Took me a while to find these too,but the spawning flats and those that are real close to spawning,show up at these spots like clockwork evey year when we get close to spawning temperatures.It,s been a long,cold winter and I thought i,d get some fellow USCA,ers take on this subject.This system just seems to make it easier to stay on the flats consistently,I aint saying the poke and hope system won,t work on some nights,just not as consistent.

I agree with ya Big D and Ramon.If i die tommorow,I don,t want to be remembered by what kind of ride I had or what brand gear I was fishing with!I,ve been on some of those other forums where it seems like they don,t know how to do anything but argue and critisize.Makes ya appreciate what we got here.I like a good freindly debate too,but you gotta know where to draw the line.I read a lot of posts I don,t always agree with,but I always leave a Thanks because someone went to the trouble of posting it.About the only posts I don,t thank are those ripping someone elses gear or method simply because it doesn,t match their own.There,s enough shit going on in the world that,s negative,without trying to bring it on here too.When i,m out wearing my USCA gear,i,m proud of what I belong to!:wink:

GOOD QUESTION Kip!I,m with you on this one,I never hit more than 2 holes on any given night.The main reason for that is that my back can,t take more than a couple put ups and take downs.Some of the PA guys I,ve fished with know I like to be comfortable when i,m fishing.All the gear I drag along,it looks like the friggin carnivals coming to town.LOL.I get a lot of multiple fish night though,Usually always 3-4 at least or else none.I use different holes for different conditions,this is where my log books start playing such a big role.I know the deepest wintering holes in my area and start spreading out from them as soon as the water starts warming up.I try to follow them and stay on em.Sometimes I guess wrong and they,re the nights I get none.I like to sort the flats I catch into either home fish or travelers.The spots where I fish early in the evening are usually close to some major cover where they hole up during the day.My late spots(after midnite) are spots where I,ve found them travelling in between feeding spots.The ones that I catch traveling out in the channel,I try to figure out where they,re coming from or heading to,then on future trips I,ll try setting up earlier where I think they were coming from.I wish they could talk,so I could interrogate them and get that information out of them!LOL.Don,t get me wrong,there,s still an element of luck involved,but I like to keep the odds in my favor.You start looking back through your logs from previous years and you,ll see the patterns setting up like a light bulb goin off.I,ve got spots where I know they,ll be when the waters either up high or spots where I find them when the waters down and slow.I had a lot of people rib me about keeping notes,but it,s really paid off.It,s just too hard for me to remember where I got em under different conditions without them.It took me a hell of a lot of trial and error and fishless nights to get this system down.Some nights I was just finding where the flats weren,t!That helped out too in the long run.I only fish the bank now,but I,ve had boats for most of my life,those years when I had a boat and could try 6-10 spots a night,helped speed things up.The holes where they got the right cover for spawning,I can usually find them there year after year during the spawn.I don,t move more than once a night,but I may try 10 different holes in a week until I find em.Some holes are bait related,if I know the white bass are running around a crick in the spring,i,ll fish there and see if the flatties are following them.When the shad are stacking below the dams,i,ll hit some of my dam spots.In short(like that,s possable at this point),if your only getting 1 out of a spot and nothing more,It,s my opinion that you,re getting fish that are on the move.Try and figure out where they,re headed to or coming from and set up there,and I think you,ll get into the numbers nights.I,ve got a COUPLE holes that i,ll sit on all night,simply because they have a history of giving up big fish.One last piece of advice,if I fish a hole where i,m getting nice fish and then it starts just giving up #10 and under fish,i,ll still move from it the next night.I believe the big boys take the choice holes and the smaller ones follow behind at a distance.I won,t move far,cause I know the bigger ones are still setup nearby,just up or downriver a few hundred yds maybe.I have trouble putting my thoughts into words at times,I,m better at explaining things in person,but I hope this helps some to put you on some multiple big fish nights.Goood thread brother!I,d like to get together and do some flattin with ya sometime,if you get up this way or I can get down your way!:wink:

Just throwing this out there for a little feedback.Heard some people saying that they think cattins getting too technical.Do you think it,s getting that way or are we simply evolving?I started out fishing some real junk.I got what I consider to be pretty good gear today.I still enjoy catching a good fish as much as when I started out 40 some years ago.I,m kinda glad I started out with some old gear though,baitcasters mainly with no freespool,no drag,solid glass rods.It taught me how to fight the fish with the rod and how to put pressure on the fish with my thumb.Got a lot of big fish like that too.I love a lot of the new gear too,for the most part,it,s smoother,stronger,and more reliable.I got some reels with nice smooth drags,but none of them will give out line as smoothly or react as fast as my thumb!The cheap Wal-mart cat rigs are probaly better than some of the better stuff was 30 years ago.I think some of the newer guys getting into cattin are putting too much emphasis on the tackle and not enough on the 3 W,s.Where,when,and why.That,s still the 1st thing I think of when I get a good fish.I try and figure out why that fish was there at that particular time,that way,I can repeat that pattern again and again.I keep hearing about gear ratios,which ones are winches,etc.I don,t think it makes no difference unless you,re actually using a REAL winch.Simple ABC,s-you pump the rod to gain some line,then reel the line up you,ve gained.I,m just saying,ya gotta learn to crawl before ya walk.I do think we have a lot better and stronger rod materials today,but there still aint too many situations I can think of where you,d be undergunned using good old solid glass.I just think if your newer to cattin,you,d be better off starting with some medium price gear and using the extra money for gas to scout and learn your river or lake.Give me an old timer that KNOWS his water a Zebco with some #20 line and decent hooks and I,ll put my money on him every time over the high $ gear guy that,s just picking spots by luck or word of mouth.I,m guilty of buying into some of the latest gear myself,but I don,t have any children and cattins my life.My health aint too good lately(back,emphysema),but I still put my share of scouting new spots every year,hacking them out.My main things learning though,the day I think I know it all and quit trying new methods,will be the day I quit growing as a fisherman.Some of my most helpful innovations are ideas that I thought up and built out of hardware store items!I think the most important things to learn first are good basic knots,an intimate knowledge of your rivers or lakes,suitable(not necessarily expensive) gear,the ability to use it to it,s fullest potential,knowlege of the baitfish in your area and how to catch them,and a passion for the cats.I hate to see newer guys trying to go from step 1 right to step 10,without concentrating on the important stuff in between.I spend a lot of time down in the rod and reel review sections myself,but I always check out what,s new in the fishing sections 1st.