CRC
Old Mossy Horns
Poll coming
Troll mgmt. is terrible.
Yes, you will see scars, torn out places on their lips etc. I lost a nice one several years ago in the river (broke off on a snag) at that time I was using 50# Ande line. A friend of mine and I were fishing in the same trash pile a week later and he caught it and it still had the line in the corner of it's mouth to the barrel swivel.i hope the anglers manage their giant ones responsibly. they are far too unique to be killed. the state cant manage their death by ego or frying pan.
Just wondering , do you guys that catch them see the big ones showing signs of being caught before?
(hook marks)?
Yes, you will see scars, torn out places on their lips etc. I lost a nice one several years ago in the river (broke off on a snag) at that time I was using 50# Ande line. A friend of mine and I were fishing in the same trash pile a week later and he caught it and it still had the line in the corner of it's mouth to the barrel swivel.
Certain species stack up like cord wood prior to when they shutdown in winter when they are gorging on bait. They are on the very tail of that right now. We have had many double digit nights and days when we have caught them to we just got tired of hauling them in and weighing and taking pics of them and putting them right back.good to know they are being "recycled".
I would guess that they are vulnerable at times during the year and can be caught pretty well then.
i read that they really stack up in some rivers in winter.
i hope the anglers manage their giant ones responsibly. they are far too unique to be killed. the state cant manage their death by ego or frying pan.
Just wondering , do you guys that catch them see the big ones showing signs of being caught before?
(hook marks)?
i hope the anglers manage their giant ones responsibly. they are far too unique to be killed. the state cant manage their death by ego or frying pan.
Just wondering , do you guys that catch them see the big ones showing signs of being caught before?
(hook marks)?
Non native east of the Eastern Continental Divide. I have no problem if someone keeps a big one especially a big flathead. If you Harvest a 60 lb flathead you have saved many many 10 lb channels and blues though they are non native as well.
You will never see restrictions on Blues and flatheads east of the most downstream dam as Stripers and Shad and other natives are more important.
I have seen a monster flathead 70lbs plus killing a 25 to 30 lb blue. Pitbulls of the catfish world, eat em all.
I want to hear that story on the flathead killing the blue.
SANTEE years ago. ... big flathead had Blue in its mouth down over the blues head..at least 1/3 of the Blue in the flathead mouth...shaking it like a dog shakes a rat..the blue wasn't dead(yet) but we got em to let go and that blue was it bad shape . Looked like a truck had run over it
Non native east of the Eastern Continental Divide. I have no problem if someone keeps a big one especially a big flathead. If you Harvest a 60 lb flathead you have saved many many 10 lb channels and blues though they are non native as well.
You will never see restrictions on Blues and flatheads east of the most downstream dam as Stripers and Shad and other natives are more important.
I have seen a monster flathead 70lbs plus killing a 25 to 30 lb blue. Pitbulls of the catfish world, eat em all.
SANTEE years ago. ... big flathead had Blue in its mouth down over the blues head..at least 1/3 of the Blue in the flathead mouth...shaking it like a dog shakes a rat..the blue wasn't dead(yet) but we got em to let go and that blue was it bad shape . Looked like a truck had run over it
Every year doing lake sturgeon sampling with trotlines, we will catch big flatheads who decided to eat the blue that eat the baited hook. We have caught flatheads on blues as big as 7 lbs.
There was a nice blue in Badin that had a white mark on it tail. One of the guys(Jerry Arnold) who fished the Yadkin mastercatters trail caught it one year....fish weighed 67 lbs. Another guy(Eric Fincher) caught the same fish the following year and it weighed 72 lbs. There was no mistaken it...it was the same fish and it was caught both times in the month of Nov. I have pictures somewhere of that fish.
Here is the fish picture I spoke of..you can see the fish has a weird tail markings.
View attachment 53740
that is on the trotline right?
When i first read it I thought maybe you were using 7lbers as bait on a rod. If that would be the case that is even more awesome to ponder.
Yeah we use cut carp and buffalo for bait. Blue eats that and gets hooked. Big flathead eats the blue but due to dropline on trotline, he can't get blue all the way down then the blue's pectoral spines basically hook the flathead because the spines won't bend backwards.