Warning...this is a long post.with a lot of pics.if you don't want to read a long post, back out now lol.
I've been a flathead fanatic for a long time, started catching them 30 some odd years ago in the Allegheny river. One particular night we caught 3 of them , an 8#,a 12# and an 18# and that was an amazing night to us. So much so that 30 years later, I still vividly remember it.
I moved away from PA and spent 20 years down south, did a pile of fishing , caught a lot of great fish but flatheads have always been a passion of mine, I always thought about those amazing nights on the Allegheny.
That leads me up to this spring. I'm living back in PA and I finally got a boat. I live in the central part of the state so I can either go 2 hours west to the Allegheny or 3 hours east to the suskie. I have often heard that the suskie is full of flatheads so I wanted to give that a try.
Having never fished the suskie before and hearing horror stories about people banging their boats up, I figured it would be best to make a couple day trips down and get a feel for a couple different stretches, catch some bass, feel the river out a bit.
By the time I had made several trips down there to different launches , kind of got a feel for different stretches of the river and was comfortable enough to go on a night trip, the spawn was on. I decided to hold off on driving clear down there to try for flatties until the spawn was over. This was early June so I was bass fishing every weekend and reading every article I could find on flatheads in the suskie, watching every video I could find about the subject and preparing for the post spawn feed.
I ran across one video in particular that absolutely blew me away ....hook shots with Joe Gunter. In this video, the guys from hook shots go out with a suskie guide and they HAMMER the flatheads, literally catching one right after another. Big flatheads in crazy numbers...in October??? That was way later than we ever fished for them when I was younger, back then when the spawn started we stopped for the year, we thought that was the end of the season (this was before the internet, we had no idea that it was just the spawn, we just knew that when june came, the flatties quit biting, so we quit trying)
I also ran across some articles and videos that kinda pointed towards the last week in July as being the week that the bite generally picks back up in this area ( thanks a HEAP to this awesome site, which is where a LOT of the info I got came from)
So it was with a LOT of excitement that I found myself sitting in my new boat on the suskie the last weekend in July. We got there a little early in the day , got lucky and caught a bucket full of bluegills and were set up on what I felt was a solid looking spot right at dark. I told my wife I could feel it...we were about to catch a big fish. I was right, we didn't have a bite until about 10 o'clock , when all of the sudden , one of the rods bowed over, I grabbed the rod and the fish made one powerful surge and POP....broke the line.
Of course the fish hit one of the rods that had an older reel and the drag hesitated for a spilt second, just enough for the fish to break the line. When the line broke , I staggered and ended up on my tail down in the bottom of the boat, I was sitting there shaking my head and nursing a twisted wrist thinking " my god that was a big fish" when I realized that one of the other rods was headed for the river!!! I grabbed the rod just in time to not lose it and immediately realized I was tied into a big fish.
I hollered for my wife to get the net and the next 10 minutes were a blur of screaming drag and smiling faces. By the time the fish surfaced I realized that fishing the suskie was a bit different than fishing the upper Allegheny....there are monsters in this river.
I didn't have a scale but I held the fish up and made a scratch on my belly where the tip of its nose sat when the tail was touching the ground. Ive weighed a lot of 20 and 30 pound fish...i was calling this one 40# , it was around 42-44" long and big around as a log. I was HOOKED ...hard lol!!! The first flathead I caught in the suskie was a 40 pound beast, to someone who was already a flathead addict, that was a heck of a way to start on the road to fanatical obsession lol!!!
So, the rest of the summer , I have been making the drive every weekend. We have caught quite a few fish, almost every weekend we have caught at least one or two fish, always enough to keep me coming back, but nothing crazy, nothing like I knew this river could give if I figured it out. I LOVE catching flatheads. All summer I kept thinking about that video from Hook Shots. Kept thinking about this crazy October bite that I knew was possible.
Well October finally came, I made a trip down the first weekend in October , visions of flatheads filling the boat, convinced that I was gonna wear them out. That is not how it turned out lol!!!! I fished half the night and didn't get a single bite...nada....zero...not a nibble. I got home and told my wife " thats it , I'm turning it in for the year"
That was 2 weekends ago. Well last weekend I got lucky and my daughter had a free weekend so with that being a pretty rare occasion, I figured I better take advantage of it!!! ( she is a band kid and this time of year is usually booked solid for her) We decided we were going to give it another shot ,the water temp on Saturday when we went was 56 degrees. Everyone says that when it hits 55, they really slow down. I figured I missed it and wasn't expecting much but a weekend out with my little partner is priceless fish or no fish. She ended up catching a 10# and a 22# fish. She was THRILLED. broke her PB flathead by several pounds. We had an absolute BLAST, aside from catching the fish , we just had a great time and I figured, what a great way to end the season!!!
After last weekend ,I had planned on putting the big rods away until spring. But then a weird warm front came through. I run a big construction crew so I keep a pretty good eye on the weather Monday I looked at the forecast for the week...sun...alllll week. 78 on thursday!?!?!? Saturday looks BEAUTIFUL, then Sunday its supposed to be down into the 50's for a high....huh. Boy that sure seems like it would be a good time to be fishing. All week ,that was all I could think about, Tuesday I checked the water temp ...58. Wednesday I checked it again several times, up to 62 degrees...uh oh, the monster is coming out.
By Thurs morning I was about frantic. I was eyeing up my work schedule for friday, thinking about what I would have to juggle to work out having Friday off for a vacation day, My mind was made up by Thursday at lunch time, I'm leaving after work tonight and I'm fishing tomorrow. I've been waiting all summer for this day , if I don't go I will regret it all winter I told myself.
I made the moves at work that I needed to make in order to have Friday off, told my wife I was heading out after work. ( she knows I'm crazy and thank god , she just smiles and says " be safe and have fun honey" lord knows I'm a lucky man...and lord knows I need to take my wife somewhere special soon lolol!!!).
Thursday afternoon I left work, picked the boat up, ran home in a rush to load the truck and by 6:30 I was on the road to my bait spot over at Raystown lake (yeah, I live 15 min from raystown and drive 3 hours each way every weekend to fish for flattys in the suskie lol) I was a bit concerned about trying to catch bait in the dark, but luckily enough, rock bass get super aggressive at night so it only took me about 45 min to load up with 40 huge rock bass. ( solid 8-10" rock bass, which I was thinking at the time may be a bit bigger than I wanted, but I would come to realize that a 10" rock bass does not deter even a small flathead, they are seriously pigs.) . Bait all caught...I'M OFF!!!!
By the time I finally got to the launch down below harrisburg it was 2 am. I set my alarm for 530 and crashed out in the truck at the launch. 530 came all too soon, a quick cup of coffee and I threw the rods in the boat....and here is when things started to go south. I walked over to the launch to have a look at the conditions and realized that the game commission had removed the docks for the season!!! Launching by myself was going to be a bit of a challenge. So I stood and BS'd with a couple guys who were heading out, we all cussed whoever had the idea of taking the docks out this early and they headed out. ( take note here...i am eating these words today!)
Once they were gone I had the launch to myself so I went through my checklist...rods...life vest...tackle....gas...battery....plug...meh I don't need to check the plug. Last weekend as we were pulling out of the dock, me and my daughter joked that we didn't even get any water in the boat. We usually keep our bait in a huge tote in the boat so while we are fishing, we change the water out. I'm usually doing it as fast as possible so I end up sloshing water all in the boat.
So usually when we get off the water, I pull the plug and drain the boat. BUT last weekend, we joked about not having to do that because I was careful changing the water and since it was cool out I only had to change it one or two times, so I had that conversation in my mind as I went through my checklist.
I was ready to roll, I pulled over to the launch, now I usually tie the boat rope off to the truck, back the boat in, jump out and grab the rope so I can pull the boat over to the dock, then pull the truck out. Well I decided to cut a corner and I just laid the neatly coiled boat rope in the bed of the truck with the tailgate down so I could see, I planned on launching the boat, then jumping out quickly to grab it before the boat got away...mistake #2. (Notice I say #2...#1 had already happened...i just didn't know it yet)
So when the boat came off the trailer, my nicely coiled rope stayed nicely coiled and the entire thing slid off the back of the truck...and follows the boat about 30 feet out into the river. Thats no good. So into the river I go...the river is 62 degrees, that is not exactly warm especially when the air is colder than that. So I was solidly chest deep , just about to be "swimming deep" before I finally got my hand on the rope. I drug the boat back to shore cussing like a sailer the whole time. Pulled the boat up onto gravel, cussed the game commission again for taking the docks out early and went to park the truck and change into some dry clothes. It took me 10 or 15 min. to change clothes and gather myself together enough to head back down to leave out.
Now comes the good stuff, I got down to the boat and had to shake my head and do a double take when I looked at it and realized it was sitting on the bottom of the river...yes , exactly what it sounds like, my big bait tote was floating like a bobber in 2' of water...in my boat. PANIC TIME. The next 20 minutes are a blur of crazy hard bucket slinging and split second decision making. I dont even know how I pulled it off but somehow I got the boat onto the trailer and out of the water.
It was at this point that I remembered something that I hadn't remembered before...it rained last saturday night, after we got home. So Sunday when I got up to put the boat away, I pulled the plug to drain the rain out. My phone rang while I was draining the boat and I obviously forgot to put the plug back in the boat. This rookie mistake very nearly cost me my boat. I know better, a lot of thoughts went through my head, my daughter could have been with me, that could have been BAD. All because I didn't take 5 seconds to check the plug.
Such a rookie mistake, the potential consequences of my laziness make me shudder. That is entirely unacceptable and could have very realistically cost me a lot more than just my boat. Never again. The checklist is non negotiable. Safety is non negotiable. Lesson learned and thank god the only price I paid was a sore back and another set of soaked clothes. Now instead of cursing whoever took the docks out, I was singing their praises. If the docks would have still been there, I would have taken the boat out to the outside of the dock, tied it off and when I got back, my boat would have been sitting in the bottom of the lake in 8' of water instead of up on the bank in 2' of water. Thank god for the small things.
So after loading everything out of the boat and back into the truck. A dozen phone calls later, I found a plug for the boat (shout out to Andrew from team dual purpose, he literally gave me the plug out of his boat and I will forever feel like I owe him one. He saved this trip and without knowing it, his helping hand led to one of the best nights I've ever had)
So after running in to York which is an hour away to get the plug, by now , its 1 pm , half my bait died in the madness ,I'm debating if I even want to drive an hour back to the launch and try again, but I decided that I am in way too deep to back out now....im fishing darnit.
Back to the launch I go...safety checklist 100% complete. I'm back on the water by 2 PM. I make my way over to the first spot , get my rods baited up and over the side. Fishing in about 50' of water, I wasn't expecting much being daylight ,but it didn't take long before I had a solid takedown which I missed. 15 minutes later..FISH ON redemption in the form of a super yellow 10# flatty! Those jokers fight like crazy in that deep water!! I stayed in that spot another hour and managed another fish in that same size range (11# 3 oz).
By now it was approaching dark, the wind was blowing like crazy but I just had a feeling that tonight was going to get crazy, maybe some of you can relate, some times I just know I'm going to catch fish, I cant always put my finger on it, but some rare occasions I get that feeling and I have learned to trust it, my gut never lies to me. Every time I get that feeling, I catch fish. 6th sense? Who knows...but I had that feeling.
I decided to make a move about 50 yards up river. I don't have a depth finder yet, but I do have a cylinder shaped concrete anchor that I made. I use that anchor as my fish finder by slowly trolling along and feeling the bottom using that anchor. I bounce it along the bottom painting a picture in my mind of what's below me. With the concrete, cylinder shaped anchor and plastic/nylon rope, I can feel every little bounce, every little rock, if I'm in mud, etc.
As I was slowly drifting up river ( it was WINDY, blowing straight upriver) , bouncing my anchor along the bottom, I could feel the bottom was slowly creeping up, I came across a big rock ledge, it felt like it was a solid 6' rock ledge and on the upriver side of that ledge,the water slowly came up to about 30' deep in a series of jagged feeling rock ledges that I could feel very clearly by bouncing my poor man depth finder...this is the spot. I dropped my 2 anchors to steady the boat up. It was just coming up on dark and I was confident that I had just found "THE SPOT". up river from me was a big bowl shaped hole that was 60' deep (I know this from previous trips to this spot, if you are reading this and know where I'm talking about...keep it to yourself lol).
I was sitting on a rocky saddle that came up to about 30' and then down river from me was another bowl shaped hole that was about 50' deep in the center. I had heard that this time of year the flatheads will group up in wolfpacks , often at either the head of a deep hole...or the end of a deep hole. All I could picture was the hookshots video where they are slamming flatheads one right after another. I figured this spot covered both bases, I'm at the bottom of one deep hole and at the head of another deep hole. Perfect spot!
Now I hadn't mentioned this before and I am a bit hesitant to mention it now if I'm being honest. But as I was standing in the parking lot readying my boat for launch the second time, I looked over and realized that I was looking at none other than Joe Gunter himself, the guide from the hook shots video, standing beside his truck in the parking lot with his boat in tow. I went over and introduced myself quickly and to be honest, my heart skipped a beat. Its always weird meeting someone after you watch a lot of thier videos, you feel like you know them, yet to them you are just some random dude lol!!!
Here I am launching my boat after having watched this guys videos literally a hundred times...one video in particular that he puts a pile of flatheads like I couldn't even dream was possible in the boat. And here he stands , at the launch I am launching at....in October, which is when that video was made. I feel a little weird even admitting how starstruck I was and how perfect that moment was to me. Enough fanboy stuff lol!!! If you ever want to get a guide to put you on big flatheads....google "hook shots Joe Gunter" watch that video and you will see why I was awestruck with the idea of standing beside this guy at the launch on a perfect october afternoon. I have literally watched that video more times than I care to admit. I daydream all day at work about hitting it just right and having a "hook shots" kind of night.
Back to the story at hand...I started baiting up my rods and I made it as far as having 2 rods out and was baiting the third when I saw that rod #2 was doing the flathead bow. What happened over the next 3 hours was what we as fishermen dream about. I had found flathead nirvana. The tally at 11:30 when I decided that my bed was calling my name was 9 flatheads ,the biggest of which was a 38# 1 ounce goliath with a 26 pound beast to hold second place.
I had 2 doubles and a triple hook up. The first double was a 14# and a 26#. So I was holding the one rod, fighting a 14# fish, holding the other rod down with my boot on the butt of the rod , while a 26# flathead did his best to try and take my rod from me, eventually I netted the first fish and left him in the bottom of the boat to do battle with the 26# fish. I have heard people say they slow down when the water cools down, that they don't fight as hard. Apparently these fish had never read that article because they were on fire!!! Angry, tail slappin, drag screaming bulldogs!
I've been catching flatheads a long time and there is no doubt in my mind that these fish in 62 degree water were fighting every bit as hard , if not harder than the fish I caught in the summer time warm water which I now believe makes them act a little more sluggish. By the time I netted both of those fish, which were #3 and #4 of the trip, I rebaited and sent all three rods back out quickly so I could take picks of those 2 beast. I no sooner got some pics, weighed them and released them and boom another rod bowed down. I got fish #5 which was a feisty 10# to the boat , rebaited that rod and as I was taking pics of #5 , I noticed that 2 of my rods were doing the slow bounce that signals a flathead is down there chewing a big rockbass up.
I quickly released fish #5 and Rod #1 finally bowed over enough that I reeled down and was hooked up. As I was fighting fish #6 which luckily enough turned out to only be an 8# , the other rod which I knew was getting chewed on, finally bowed all the way over. I hurried up and netted fish #6 and picked up the rod which was now loaded to the max. Honesty , when I picked the rod up I thought for a second that I may have snagged up to a big log or something down there. It took a second before the fish realized it was hooked and I finally felt the big crazy headshakes that signal a real big flathead. Now I don't know if its the same for everyone, but I can ALWAYS tell when a flathead is over 20#, an 18 pounder will pull hard, sometimes just as hard as a 25 pounder, but something changes when they hit 20 pounds, they do these crazy headshakes that smaller fish don' t do. It may sound crazy, but I can always tell in the first couple seconds if a fish is over 20 because of the headshakes ,its weird but something happens when they get over that 20 pound mark, a 20+ will shake his head when he first realizes its hooked, smaller ones try, but they just don't do the same thing. I am batting 100% when it comes to calling a 20+ fish, the headshake gives them away.
Anyways, after a tense moment of realizing I was not snagged, that I was indeed hooked up to a giant, I was so excited that I called my wife on speaker phone just so I had someone to "woooowhooo" to lol!! This fish was BIG. Lucky enough for me, it was on my biggest rod , but I run 30# mono so a big flathead is a challenge for sure in 30' of water. That fish put up a battle like I have never had from a flathead. 15 minutes of the rod being bowed clear down into the handle , drag screaming runs, a lot of grunting and groaning sprinkled with me screaming WOOOOWHOOOOO enough that I called in a couple boats from across the lake to see what I was up to loll!!!
When the fish finally surfaced I realized that I was going to have my hands full trying to net this behemoth by myself while holding the rod, I missed the first time but I managed to slide most of the fish into my net on the second swing. I was absolutely exhausted and more than a little excited. I got the fish into the boat and had to take a minute to catch my breath, I had a tangled up mess of lines and an angry 38 pound giant causing havoc in the bottom of my little boat. I figured I better get the rods baited up and back in the water while the action was still hot.
I took some pics and weighed the 2 fish that were laying in the bottom of the boat...fish #6 was 8# ...fish #7 was an absolute giant that bottomed the scale out at 38# 1 oz. Such an awesome fish ,I feel blessed to be able to catch fish like that!!
Looking at that fish and knowing it was 38# made me realize that the one I caught back in July was bigger than I had called it as. That one was noticeably bigger than this 38#. Maybe 45? 48? Something like that...Noticeably bigger than the 38, I wont venture a guess, but visibly bigger than a scaled/weighed 38 pounder.
So after a minute of stretching and rubbing a sore wrist, I baited the rods back up , took some pics and released #6 and #7 back into the river. I no sooner released them and fish #8 buried a rod. While I was fighting fish #8 both of my other rods were getting hit....a TRIPLE!!??!?!? SERIOUSLY?!?!?!? THAT DOES NOT HAPPEN FLATHEAD FISHING...THAT IS CRAZY TALK!!!!
Prior to this night, catching 3 in one night seemed to be the ceiling for us. Had several nights where we got 3 but that seemed to be our personal ceiling for whatever reason. But here I was fighting fish #8 and trying to hold down 2 other rods that were bowed over to the max. I got fish #8 into the boat (12# 4 oz) wedged rod #3 firmly into a cinder block I sometimes use as an anchor and picked up rod #2 , I don't have a CLUE what happened here but this fish must have went under a ledge or something. He could take line...and he did, but I could only fight him back so far then the line would stop, snagged up, all I can figure is that the sinker was snagged up but the line was free , so I could fight him back to where the swivel hit the sinker but that was it, weird.
I said heck with it, wrapped the line around my arm and broke it off. Normally I would have done everything I could to get the fish loose, but at this point I had been hard at it for quite some time, I was wore out and I still had another fish hooked up on another rod that I hadn't got to getting yet lol!! Now I don't have a clue what happened here, I still don't know!! At any rate, I picked up the other rod, fought the fish for a minute and the exact same thing happened...fight the fish a bit, hit a wall?!?!?! Open the bail fish swims away, close the bail, very clearly fight the fish , bam...hit a wall. I messed with the fish for 15 minuted trying to get ot loose, it was the weirdest thing, there didn't seem to be any extra resistance wasn't wrapped around a tree or anything like that, just felt like a normal fish fight, then it would stop, I could still feel the fish pulling , but I couldn't make it move any more, again, it seemed like the sinker was snagged and I could fight the fish to the swivel, then it would stop and no matter what I did , I could not get it loose!!.
After 15 min I finally gave up and broke the line off. Really weird that 2 fish in a row did the same thing. They were both right in the same little area , I can only guess that there were little slots in the ledge below and the sinkers somehow got wedged in cracks. Thats the only thing that makes a little bit of sense, still seemed weird that it happened 2 times right at the same time.
With that fiasco being done, I retied those 2 rods, rebaited all three and was back at it. The rods weren't out for 5 minutes and 2 of them were getting bitten again. Rod #1 bowed over and I was hooked up to fish #9 , while I was fighting fish #9, rod #2 bowed all the way over but popped back up. Fish #10 got a free meal lol!! I got fish #9 to the boat and weighed him at 14# 1 oz.
I was wore out. I was going on 3 hours of sleep , it was 11:30 and I knew if I stayed a minute longer I was going to be sleeping in the truck again bev ause I wasn't going to have the energy to drive home.. My original plan to stay and fish all day Saturday went out the window and I decided I was going home lol!!! The temp.was dropping like a hammer, the wind was really picking up and I knew that I had caught it at the perfect time. I've NEVER had good luck once a front moves in. Not the first day after at least, so that made the decision pretty easy after the night I had!
I reeled in the rods and called it a night in the middle of the hottest bite I've ever seen. Do I regret it? Nope. Lol. I got home at 4 am. Slept all day yesterday and now I've got to get off my rear and clean up the disaster the waits for me in my truck.
As fishermen we dream of those days or nights where the fish gods smile on us. Those times when it all comes together and it seems like every fish in the river was sitting there waiting on you. They don't come often, sometimes it seems like they are just stories we tell each other to keep ourselves going. But sometimes when it all comes together and we are in just the right place, at just the right time, its magic. Makes all those fishless nights worth it. Makes fanatics out of us. This was one of those nights. Out of 35 years of being a hardcore fishing lunatic literally hundreds upon hundreds of trips, I can remember 15 , maybe 20 of these times.
Fishing is always fun , but for those of us who are fanatics, we wait for these nights, we put in countless hours in hopes that this is the trip, this is the day when its going to all line up. I feel so blessed to have put another one of those nights into my memory bank. I wish I could have had my daughter with me to experience it, but I'm happy to have gotten to live it myself and it has definitely given me something to look forward to in the fall ( now I'll have to decide if I want to chase bucks or flatheads lol!!!)
I thank god for every minute I spend on the water....but I thank him twice for these nights!!
I've been a flathead fanatic for a long time, started catching them 30 some odd years ago in the Allegheny river. One particular night we caught 3 of them , an 8#,a 12# and an 18# and that was an amazing night to us. So much so that 30 years later, I still vividly remember it.
I moved away from PA and spent 20 years down south, did a pile of fishing , caught a lot of great fish but flatheads have always been a passion of mine, I always thought about those amazing nights on the Allegheny.
That leads me up to this spring. I'm living back in PA and I finally got a boat. I live in the central part of the state so I can either go 2 hours west to the Allegheny or 3 hours east to the suskie. I have often heard that the suskie is full of flatheads so I wanted to give that a try.
Having never fished the suskie before and hearing horror stories about people banging their boats up, I figured it would be best to make a couple day trips down and get a feel for a couple different stretches, catch some bass, feel the river out a bit.
By the time I had made several trips down there to different launches , kind of got a feel for different stretches of the river and was comfortable enough to go on a night trip, the spawn was on. I decided to hold off on driving clear down there to try for flatties until the spawn was over. This was early June so I was bass fishing every weekend and reading every article I could find on flatheads in the suskie, watching every video I could find about the subject and preparing for the post spawn feed.
I ran across one video in particular that absolutely blew me away ....hook shots with Joe Gunter. In this video, the guys from hook shots go out with a suskie guide and they HAMMER the flatheads, literally catching one right after another. Big flatheads in crazy numbers...in October??? That was way later than we ever fished for them when I was younger, back then when the spawn started we stopped for the year, we thought that was the end of the season (this was before the internet, we had no idea that it was just the spawn, we just knew that when june came, the flatties quit biting, so we quit trying)
I also ran across some articles and videos that kinda pointed towards the last week in July as being the week that the bite generally picks back up in this area ( thanks a HEAP to this awesome site, which is where a LOT of the info I got came from)
So it was with a LOT of excitement that I found myself sitting in my new boat on the suskie the last weekend in July. We got there a little early in the day , got lucky and caught a bucket full of bluegills and were set up on what I felt was a solid looking spot right at dark. I told my wife I could feel it...we were about to catch a big fish. I was right, we didn't have a bite until about 10 o'clock , when all of the sudden , one of the rods bowed over, I grabbed the rod and the fish made one powerful surge and POP....broke the line.
Of course the fish hit one of the rods that had an older reel and the drag hesitated for a spilt second, just enough for the fish to break the line. When the line broke , I staggered and ended up on my tail down in the bottom of the boat, I was sitting there shaking my head and nursing a twisted wrist thinking " my god that was a big fish" when I realized that one of the other rods was headed for the river!!! I grabbed the rod just in time to not lose it and immediately realized I was tied into a big fish.
I hollered for my wife to get the net and the next 10 minutes were a blur of screaming drag and smiling faces. By the time the fish surfaced I realized that fishing the suskie was a bit different than fishing the upper Allegheny....there are monsters in this river.
I didn't have a scale but I held the fish up and made a scratch on my belly where the tip of its nose sat when the tail was touching the ground. Ive weighed a lot of 20 and 30 pound fish...i was calling this one 40# , it was around 42-44" long and big around as a log. I was HOOKED ...hard lol!!! The first flathead I caught in the suskie was a 40 pound beast, to someone who was already a flathead addict, that was a heck of a way to start on the road to fanatical obsession lol!!!
So, the rest of the summer , I have been making the drive every weekend. We have caught quite a few fish, almost every weekend we have caught at least one or two fish, always enough to keep me coming back, but nothing crazy, nothing like I knew this river could give if I figured it out. I LOVE catching flatheads. All summer I kept thinking about that video from Hook Shots. Kept thinking about this crazy October bite that I knew was possible.
Well October finally came, I made a trip down the first weekend in October , visions of flatheads filling the boat, convinced that I was gonna wear them out. That is not how it turned out lol!!!! I fished half the night and didn't get a single bite...nada....zero...not a nibble. I got home and told my wife " thats it , I'm turning it in for the year"
That was 2 weekends ago. Well last weekend I got lucky and my daughter had a free weekend so with that being a pretty rare occasion, I figured I better take advantage of it!!! ( she is a band kid and this time of year is usually booked solid for her) We decided we were going to give it another shot ,the water temp on Saturday when we went was 56 degrees. Everyone says that when it hits 55, they really slow down. I figured I missed it and wasn't expecting much but a weekend out with my little partner is priceless fish or no fish. She ended up catching a 10# and a 22# fish. She was THRILLED. broke her PB flathead by several pounds. We had an absolute BLAST, aside from catching the fish , we just had a great time and I figured, what a great way to end the season!!!
After last weekend ,I had planned on putting the big rods away until spring. But then a weird warm front came through. I run a big construction crew so I keep a pretty good eye on the weather Monday I looked at the forecast for the week...sun...alllll week. 78 on thursday!?!?!? Saturday looks BEAUTIFUL, then Sunday its supposed to be down into the 50's for a high....huh. Boy that sure seems like it would be a good time to be fishing. All week ,that was all I could think about, Tuesday I checked the water temp ...58. Wednesday I checked it again several times, up to 62 degrees...uh oh, the monster is coming out.
By Thurs morning I was about frantic. I was eyeing up my work schedule for friday, thinking about what I would have to juggle to work out having Friday off for a vacation day, My mind was made up by Thursday at lunch time, I'm leaving after work tonight and I'm fishing tomorrow. I've been waiting all summer for this day , if I don't go I will regret it all winter I told myself.
I made the moves at work that I needed to make in order to have Friday off, told my wife I was heading out after work. ( she knows I'm crazy and thank god , she just smiles and says " be safe and have fun honey" lord knows I'm a lucky man...and lord knows I need to take my wife somewhere special soon lolol!!!).
Thursday afternoon I left work, picked the boat up, ran home in a rush to load the truck and by 6:30 I was on the road to my bait spot over at Raystown lake (yeah, I live 15 min from raystown and drive 3 hours each way every weekend to fish for flattys in the suskie lol) I was a bit concerned about trying to catch bait in the dark, but luckily enough, rock bass get super aggressive at night so it only took me about 45 min to load up with 40 huge rock bass. ( solid 8-10" rock bass, which I was thinking at the time may be a bit bigger than I wanted, but I would come to realize that a 10" rock bass does not deter even a small flathead, they are seriously pigs.) . Bait all caught...I'M OFF!!!!
By the time I finally got to the launch down below harrisburg it was 2 am. I set my alarm for 530 and crashed out in the truck at the launch. 530 came all too soon, a quick cup of coffee and I threw the rods in the boat....and here is when things started to go south. I walked over to the launch to have a look at the conditions and realized that the game commission had removed the docks for the season!!! Launching by myself was going to be a bit of a challenge. So I stood and BS'd with a couple guys who were heading out, we all cussed whoever had the idea of taking the docks out this early and they headed out. ( take note here...i am eating these words today!)
Once they were gone I had the launch to myself so I went through my checklist...rods...life vest...tackle....gas...battery....plug...meh I don't need to check the plug. Last weekend as we were pulling out of the dock, me and my daughter joked that we didn't even get any water in the boat. We usually keep our bait in a huge tote in the boat so while we are fishing, we change the water out. I'm usually doing it as fast as possible so I end up sloshing water all in the boat.
So usually when we get off the water, I pull the plug and drain the boat. BUT last weekend, we joked about not having to do that because I was careful changing the water and since it was cool out I only had to change it one or two times, so I had that conversation in my mind as I went through my checklist.
I was ready to roll, I pulled over to the launch, now I usually tie the boat rope off to the truck, back the boat in, jump out and grab the rope so I can pull the boat over to the dock, then pull the truck out. Well I decided to cut a corner and I just laid the neatly coiled boat rope in the bed of the truck with the tailgate down so I could see, I planned on launching the boat, then jumping out quickly to grab it before the boat got away...mistake #2. (Notice I say #2...#1 had already happened...i just didn't know it yet)
So when the boat came off the trailer, my nicely coiled rope stayed nicely coiled and the entire thing slid off the back of the truck...and follows the boat about 30 feet out into the river. Thats no good. So into the river I go...the river is 62 degrees, that is not exactly warm especially when the air is colder than that. So I was solidly chest deep , just about to be "swimming deep" before I finally got my hand on the rope. I drug the boat back to shore cussing like a sailer the whole time. Pulled the boat up onto gravel, cussed the game commission again for taking the docks out early and went to park the truck and change into some dry clothes. It took me 10 or 15 min. to change clothes and gather myself together enough to head back down to leave out.
Now comes the good stuff, I got down to the boat and had to shake my head and do a double take when I looked at it and realized it was sitting on the bottom of the river...yes , exactly what it sounds like, my big bait tote was floating like a bobber in 2' of water...in my boat. PANIC TIME. The next 20 minutes are a blur of crazy hard bucket slinging and split second decision making. I dont even know how I pulled it off but somehow I got the boat onto the trailer and out of the water.
It was at this point that I remembered something that I hadn't remembered before...it rained last saturday night, after we got home. So Sunday when I got up to put the boat away, I pulled the plug to drain the rain out. My phone rang while I was draining the boat and I obviously forgot to put the plug back in the boat. This rookie mistake very nearly cost me my boat. I know better, a lot of thoughts went through my head, my daughter could have been with me, that could have been BAD. All because I didn't take 5 seconds to check the plug.
Such a rookie mistake, the potential consequences of my laziness make me shudder. That is entirely unacceptable and could have very realistically cost me a lot more than just my boat. Never again. The checklist is non negotiable. Safety is non negotiable. Lesson learned and thank god the only price I paid was a sore back and another set of soaked clothes. Now instead of cursing whoever took the docks out, I was singing their praises. If the docks would have still been there, I would have taken the boat out to the outside of the dock, tied it off and when I got back, my boat would have been sitting in the bottom of the lake in 8' of water instead of up on the bank in 2' of water. Thank god for the small things.
So after loading everything out of the boat and back into the truck. A dozen phone calls later, I found a plug for the boat (shout out to Andrew from team dual purpose, he literally gave me the plug out of his boat and I will forever feel like I owe him one. He saved this trip and without knowing it, his helping hand led to one of the best nights I've ever had)
So after running in to York which is an hour away to get the plug, by now , its 1 pm , half my bait died in the madness ,I'm debating if I even want to drive an hour back to the launch and try again, but I decided that I am in way too deep to back out now....im fishing darnit.
Back to the launch I go...safety checklist 100% complete. I'm back on the water by 2 PM. I make my way over to the first spot , get my rods baited up and over the side. Fishing in about 50' of water, I wasn't expecting much being daylight ,but it didn't take long before I had a solid takedown which I missed. 15 minutes later..FISH ON redemption in the form of a super yellow 10# flatty! Those jokers fight like crazy in that deep water!! I stayed in that spot another hour and managed another fish in that same size range (11# 3 oz).
By now it was approaching dark, the wind was blowing like crazy but I just had a feeling that tonight was going to get crazy, maybe some of you can relate, some times I just know I'm going to catch fish, I cant always put my finger on it, but some rare occasions I get that feeling and I have learned to trust it, my gut never lies to me. Every time I get that feeling, I catch fish. 6th sense? Who knows...but I had that feeling.
I decided to make a move about 50 yards up river. I don't have a depth finder yet, but I do have a cylinder shaped concrete anchor that I made. I use that anchor as my fish finder by slowly trolling along and feeling the bottom using that anchor. I bounce it along the bottom painting a picture in my mind of what's below me. With the concrete, cylinder shaped anchor and plastic/nylon rope, I can feel every little bounce, every little rock, if I'm in mud, etc.
As I was slowly drifting up river ( it was WINDY, blowing straight upriver) , bouncing my anchor along the bottom, I could feel the bottom was slowly creeping up, I came across a big rock ledge, it felt like it was a solid 6' rock ledge and on the upriver side of that ledge,the water slowly came up to about 30' deep in a series of jagged feeling rock ledges that I could feel very clearly by bouncing my poor man depth finder...this is the spot. I dropped my 2 anchors to steady the boat up. It was just coming up on dark and I was confident that I had just found "THE SPOT". up river from me was a big bowl shaped hole that was 60' deep (I know this from previous trips to this spot, if you are reading this and know where I'm talking about...keep it to yourself lol).
I was sitting on a rocky saddle that came up to about 30' and then down river from me was another bowl shaped hole that was about 50' deep in the center. I had heard that this time of year the flatheads will group up in wolfpacks , often at either the head of a deep hole...or the end of a deep hole. All I could picture was the hookshots video where they are slamming flatheads one right after another. I figured this spot covered both bases, I'm at the bottom of one deep hole and at the head of another deep hole. Perfect spot!
Now I hadn't mentioned this before and I am a bit hesitant to mention it now if I'm being honest. But as I was standing in the parking lot readying my boat for launch the second time, I looked over and realized that I was looking at none other than Joe Gunter himself, the guide from the hook shots video, standing beside his truck in the parking lot with his boat in tow. I went over and introduced myself quickly and to be honest, my heart skipped a beat. Its always weird meeting someone after you watch a lot of thier videos, you feel like you know them, yet to them you are just some random dude lol!!!
Here I am launching my boat after having watched this guys videos literally a hundred times...one video in particular that he puts a pile of flatheads like I couldn't even dream was possible in the boat. And here he stands , at the launch I am launching at....in October, which is when that video was made. I feel a little weird even admitting how starstruck I was and how perfect that moment was to me. Enough fanboy stuff lol!!! If you ever want to get a guide to put you on big flatheads....google "hook shots Joe Gunter" watch that video and you will see why I was awestruck with the idea of standing beside this guy at the launch on a perfect october afternoon. I have literally watched that video more times than I care to admit. I daydream all day at work about hitting it just right and having a "hook shots" kind of night.
Back to the story at hand...I started baiting up my rods and I made it as far as having 2 rods out and was baiting the third when I saw that rod #2 was doing the flathead bow. What happened over the next 3 hours was what we as fishermen dream about. I had found flathead nirvana. The tally at 11:30 when I decided that my bed was calling my name was 9 flatheads ,the biggest of which was a 38# 1 ounce goliath with a 26 pound beast to hold second place.
I had 2 doubles and a triple hook up. The first double was a 14# and a 26#. So I was holding the one rod, fighting a 14# fish, holding the other rod down with my boot on the butt of the rod , while a 26# flathead did his best to try and take my rod from me, eventually I netted the first fish and left him in the bottom of the boat to do battle with the 26# fish. I have heard people say they slow down when the water cools down, that they don't fight as hard. Apparently these fish had never read that article because they were on fire!!! Angry, tail slappin, drag screaming bulldogs!
I've been catching flatheads a long time and there is no doubt in my mind that these fish in 62 degree water were fighting every bit as hard , if not harder than the fish I caught in the summer time warm water which I now believe makes them act a little more sluggish. By the time I netted both of those fish, which were #3 and #4 of the trip, I rebaited and sent all three rods back out quickly so I could take picks of those 2 beast. I no sooner got some pics, weighed them and released them and boom another rod bowed down. I got fish #5 which was a feisty 10# to the boat , rebaited that rod and as I was taking pics of #5 , I noticed that 2 of my rods were doing the slow bounce that signals a flathead is down there chewing a big rockbass up.
I quickly released fish #5 and Rod #1 finally bowed over enough that I reeled down and was hooked up. As I was fighting fish #6 which luckily enough turned out to only be an 8# , the other rod which I knew was getting chewed on, finally bowed all the way over. I hurried up and netted fish #6 and picked up the rod which was now loaded to the max. Honesty , when I picked the rod up I thought for a second that I may have snagged up to a big log or something down there. It took a second before the fish realized it was hooked and I finally felt the big crazy headshakes that signal a real big flathead. Now I don't know if its the same for everyone, but I can ALWAYS tell when a flathead is over 20#, an 18 pounder will pull hard, sometimes just as hard as a 25 pounder, but something changes when they hit 20 pounds, they do these crazy headshakes that smaller fish don' t do. It may sound crazy, but I can always tell in the first couple seconds if a fish is over 20 because of the headshakes ,its weird but something happens when they get over that 20 pound mark, a 20+ will shake his head when he first realizes its hooked, smaller ones try, but they just don't do the same thing. I am batting 100% when it comes to calling a 20+ fish, the headshake gives them away.
Anyways, after a tense moment of realizing I was not snagged, that I was indeed hooked up to a giant, I was so excited that I called my wife on speaker phone just so I had someone to "woooowhooo" to lol!! This fish was BIG. Lucky enough for me, it was on my biggest rod , but I run 30# mono so a big flathead is a challenge for sure in 30' of water. That fish put up a battle like I have never had from a flathead. 15 minutes of the rod being bowed clear down into the handle , drag screaming runs, a lot of grunting and groaning sprinkled with me screaming WOOOOWHOOOOO enough that I called in a couple boats from across the lake to see what I was up to loll!!!
When the fish finally surfaced I realized that I was going to have my hands full trying to net this behemoth by myself while holding the rod, I missed the first time but I managed to slide most of the fish into my net on the second swing. I was absolutely exhausted and more than a little excited. I got the fish into the boat and had to take a minute to catch my breath, I had a tangled up mess of lines and an angry 38 pound giant causing havoc in the bottom of my little boat. I figured I better get the rods baited up and back in the water while the action was still hot.
I took some pics and weighed the 2 fish that were laying in the bottom of the boat...fish #6 was 8# ...fish #7 was an absolute giant that bottomed the scale out at 38# 1 oz. Such an awesome fish ,I feel blessed to be able to catch fish like that!!
Looking at that fish and knowing it was 38# made me realize that the one I caught back in July was bigger than I had called it as. That one was noticeably bigger than this 38#. Maybe 45? 48? Something like that...Noticeably bigger than the 38, I wont venture a guess, but visibly bigger than a scaled/weighed 38 pounder.
So after a minute of stretching and rubbing a sore wrist, I baited the rods back up , took some pics and released #6 and #7 back into the river. I no sooner released them and fish #8 buried a rod. While I was fighting fish #8 both of my other rods were getting hit....a TRIPLE!!??!?!? SERIOUSLY?!?!?!? THAT DOES NOT HAPPEN FLATHEAD FISHING...THAT IS CRAZY TALK!!!!
Prior to this night, catching 3 in one night seemed to be the ceiling for us. Had several nights where we got 3 but that seemed to be our personal ceiling for whatever reason. But here I was fighting fish #8 and trying to hold down 2 other rods that were bowed over to the max. I got fish #8 into the boat (12# 4 oz) wedged rod #3 firmly into a cinder block I sometimes use as an anchor and picked up rod #2 , I don't have a CLUE what happened here but this fish must have went under a ledge or something. He could take line...and he did, but I could only fight him back so far then the line would stop, snagged up, all I can figure is that the sinker was snagged up but the line was free , so I could fight him back to where the swivel hit the sinker but that was it, weird.
I said heck with it, wrapped the line around my arm and broke it off. Normally I would have done everything I could to get the fish loose, but at this point I had been hard at it for quite some time, I was wore out and I still had another fish hooked up on another rod that I hadn't got to getting yet lol!! Now I don't have a clue what happened here, I still don't know!! At any rate, I picked up the other rod, fought the fish for a minute and the exact same thing happened...fight the fish a bit, hit a wall?!?!?! Open the bail fish swims away, close the bail, very clearly fight the fish , bam...hit a wall. I messed with the fish for 15 minuted trying to get ot loose, it was the weirdest thing, there didn't seem to be any extra resistance wasn't wrapped around a tree or anything like that, just felt like a normal fish fight, then it would stop, I could still feel the fish pulling , but I couldn't make it move any more, again, it seemed like the sinker was snagged and I could fight the fish to the swivel, then it would stop and no matter what I did , I could not get it loose!!.
After 15 min I finally gave up and broke the line off. Really weird that 2 fish in a row did the same thing. They were both right in the same little area , I can only guess that there were little slots in the ledge below and the sinkers somehow got wedged in cracks. Thats the only thing that makes a little bit of sense, still seemed weird that it happened 2 times right at the same time.
With that fiasco being done, I retied those 2 rods, rebaited all three and was back at it. The rods weren't out for 5 minutes and 2 of them were getting bitten again. Rod #1 bowed over and I was hooked up to fish #9 , while I was fighting fish #9, rod #2 bowed all the way over but popped back up. Fish #10 got a free meal lol!! I got fish #9 to the boat and weighed him at 14# 1 oz.
I was wore out. I was going on 3 hours of sleep , it was 11:30 and I knew if I stayed a minute longer I was going to be sleeping in the truck again bev ause I wasn't going to have the energy to drive home.. My original plan to stay and fish all day Saturday went out the window and I decided I was going home lol!!! The temp.was dropping like a hammer, the wind was really picking up and I knew that I had caught it at the perfect time. I've NEVER had good luck once a front moves in. Not the first day after at least, so that made the decision pretty easy after the night I had!
I reeled in the rods and called it a night in the middle of the hottest bite I've ever seen. Do I regret it? Nope. Lol. I got home at 4 am. Slept all day yesterday and now I've got to get off my rear and clean up the disaster the waits for me in my truck.
As fishermen we dream of those days or nights where the fish gods smile on us. Those times when it all comes together and it seems like every fish in the river was sitting there waiting on you. They don't come often, sometimes it seems like they are just stories we tell each other to keep ourselves going. But sometimes when it all comes together and we are in just the right place, at just the right time, its magic. Makes all those fishless nights worth it. Makes fanatics out of us. This was one of those nights. Out of 35 years of being a hardcore fishing lunatic literally hundreds upon hundreds of trips, I can remember 15 , maybe 20 of these times.
Fishing is always fun , but for those of us who are fanatics, we wait for these nights, we put in countless hours in hopes that this is the trip, this is the day when its going to all line up. I feel so blessed to have put another one of those nights into my memory bank. I wish I could have had my daughter with me to experience it, but I'm happy to have gotten to live it myself and it has definitely given me something to look forward to in the fall ( now I'll have to decide if I want to chase bucks or flatheads lol!!!)
I thank god for every minute I spend on the water....but I thank him twice for these nights!!
