The Great Bait Debate!

My experience is lacking in fishing for Flatheads, but basically catfishing is still catfishing .... I believe the type of live bait is less relevent than presentation and as they say, location, location, location. You can have the best bait in the world and if you are 20 feet away from the fish you may never attract him to it. But .... if that fish is hungry and you present the worst bait in the world to him correctly ... well ... more than likely he will take it. ........ Garry- :cool2:


"That is my opinion and I am sticking to it"

 

ive had nights where they wont touch a bluegill however a sucker wont be in the water long at all before a flat eats him, i agree that presentation matters more, but some nights there is a big difference..

 

beleive it or not Flatheads CAN be picky at times. there are times when the shad are spawning or hatching on the GMR and they will touch nothing but a shad. many times during late fall (on the lower GMR where white bass exist) i have seen them eat nothing but white bass, live or cut. you throw a 'gill, shad, carp, anything but a white bass and you will get nothing. one of my best trips ever was when they were gorging on white bass. we had over 40 green suunfish on that trip but ended up scrambling around all day trying to catch WB to use for bait. i think we caught a fish on 1 green sunfish that day. when we ran out of WB we baited up with the greenies......not a run! as soon as one of us got a WB and chunked it up (or used it whole) it wouldnt set on the bottom for 2 minutes before it was gone. also have a unique spot where they prefer Bullheads for some reason. you will get fish on other baits, may take a while but man a bullhead wont last 15 minutes. there isnt a particular bait that is better at ALL times, but when certain baits are more abundant, or on their anual "runs" those baits will out-produce others.

 

I think that being in the right place at the right time is more important than what kind of bait. I do believe that sometimes flatheads will eat whatever they find an easy meal. My personal best was caught on 8 nightcrawlers wadded up on a hook ...but they were very lively and I was very lucky. I do like to fish with bluegils or their cousin the pumkin seed that has a lot of the orange color on it. I have probably caught more flatheads on this live bait than all the others baits I have used. I dont know if the orange color has anything to do with it, but it might. Just my 2-cents:smile2:

 

the spot i have where bullheads work best is right below a lowhead dam and is absolutely loaded with tiny channel cats, i have a hunch that is why they prefer bullheads there. who knows, i have yet to try it but channels may be even better. as for chubs, there is something about chubs, especially chub heads. think there is some kind of "scent" or "amino" a cut chub head puts off. many times have i been using a chub, it dies, and i whack off the head and use it do i imediately get a flathead, siometimes several off the same head. when i used to "paylake" chub heads were a go-to bait for both blues and Flatheads, far outproducing anything else including shad. i like to use creek chubs but they die really easy and are magnets for channels, saugeye, and especially the dreaded softshell turtleoooh:.

 

C'mon Dink, admit it, you cant wait to neck wrangle a big ole stinky softshell!! I can see it in your eyes...:crazy: I mention "TER-TAL" and you get that glazed over look, like puppy love. Before long you'll be belly rubbing a big ole snapper to sleep! Hang in there dude! another 4 weeks and you will be back on your game! :wink:

Salmonid

 

I'm new to the flathead gig so I have'nt had too much time to experiment with different baits. My biggest enemies are time and location.I can only fish one day a week and my spot is a good hour drive. With that said I use what I can get, mainly bluegills and goldfish. But this year I am making a bait tank so that will allow me to keep baits at home. This should help me with the time factor and it will give me the chance to use a variety of baits.

 

Location matters much more than bait..If you dont have a good spot the best of live baits aint gonna produce..I would rather fish a killer spot with nightcrawlers, than a bad spot with good live bait.

 

first off rollo, great thread!

i do believe what dink said about sertain times and certain baits. fortunatly those times are few in my waters. i use gills almost exsclusivly. the reason is they are easy to get. i used to go creek hoping for chubs all the time but gas has put an end to that. i really like the smell factor of some baits though. stinky oily fish like shad skippies and chubs leave a stronger sent trail in my opinion. there for they would produce better when they are in a neutral mood,and it takes a good smell to coax them out of a jamb in the daytime. i also am a firm believer in location like jack said! you just cant catch fish that arent there. i am going to use more shad this year though and a few chubs and skippies too. i really dont buy into the native bait thing at all. i have proved that wrong on many ocassions with skipjacks from the ohio! no waters havve skippies up here but the channelcats plain tore them up last year. they out produced other baits like carp sucker danny kings liver gill chunks.........5-1. time after time they were the bait of choice! i did not try them for flatheads but will this year, if i can get some that is. its very hard for me to stray from my gills while flathading though. that confidence thing you know.

very interesting thread and informative! thx again rollo

 

Hey Jason ... should take along a burlap bag and keep a couple of the larger softshells ... they can be some fine eating ..... Garry- :cool2:

 

my first day i ever fished the ohio river i bought $20 worth of live suckers to use for bait.after about two hours of no bites i cut up a skipjack that my daughter caught and threw that out.same spot on the river.within 20 minutes i caught my PB flathead 35lbs.i have not caught a large flathead on cut bait since then,though i have caught smaller ones.live,large skipjack or white bass,caught from the same waterway,have been the most productive baits for me.

 

I would have to go with bullheads. Their being tough to get off the hook and durability and that they catch fish says it all.

 

Here is something that might make you think..I was fishing a spillway several years ago, the shad were so think you could pratically walk across the water on them.

I was fishing live and cut shad and could not get a hit.

A guy beside me was using red worms and caught 3 over 40-lbs, I saw him do it.