I'm going to remember this year as a really tough one for flatheads. I got off to a pretty good start this spring fishing up river around the islands when the water was high. My success rate went south at the beginning of July and I never came out of it. I don't know what could have made the difference from '09 to this year. I had flatheads coming into the boat on a regular basis last year. This year I might as well be fishing in my bathtub.
I keep going back to wondering if their numbers have fallen due to over harvesting. I really hope the other cat guys out there aren't pulling them out. I can understand a small one here and there, but it makes me crazy to think that people might be taking out the big fish that have taken years to grow to a decent size. I also wonder if I have just allowed myself to get into a rut. I'm fishing pretty much the same general spots. Maybe I need to dedicate a night to fishing completely new holes.
I did get out once this week. After dropping Luke off at my sister's to spend a couple of days with his cousins, I headed over to the Grand. I was on the water by about 9:00 AM. It was a really nice day to be out there. Relatively cool and mostly cloudy. By this time of summer, it's nice to escape a hot sun. My daylight hours were pretty productive. I started with the Bomber and picked off several smallies and a skinny 26 inch pike. When this bite seemed to slow down, I switched to a jig and Berkley Alive minnow. Good move. I was able to hit the same spots again and pick off some fish that were sitting a little deeper. It takes a bit more focus to detect a bite on a jig, but a solid hookset just feels sweet. My biggest smallie of the day pushed 17 inches. I had several that were right around 15. Those fish really fight like giants. I thoroughly enjoy fishing for them.
I wish that I could say that things went so well for the flatties. I used 3 different baits-live bluegill, live bullhead, and cut sucker. The live baits didn't get touched. I got off to a really early start, getting anchored and set by 8:00. By 8:30 the rod with the cut sucker was taking a bow. I set the hook on what felt like a pretty big fish. I wrestled with it for a few minutes and got it just below the surface when the hook and 3 ounce no-roll came rocketing out of the water. A tanrum ensued.
It took 3 more hours to get my next bite. I was in the section that I now call the lower arm (because it's just below the elbow). I had tried a few different spots in this stretch and was finally down towards the end near a pretty big point. The cut sucker got hit again. I was completely paying attention and got the rod in hand in no time. The fish was still pulling fiercely, so I let her have it. The bait pulled out of her mouth just as clean as Irish Springs. Son of a mother! What the what?! Holy roller! What is going on?! I wanted to start throwing all of my stuff into the river. I didn't. I put everything neatly away and headed for the launch praying for forgiveness for all of those swearing words that the raccoons had to listen to.
A sheriff deputy pulled up as I was getting the boat locked down on the trailer. He asked me if I had been fishing. I refrained from being sarcastic with him and just answered his question about how I had done. I went into too much detail and I could see that his attention was wandering. I told him goodnight and that I'd be leaving shortly. Off he went.
I'm not sure when I'll get out next. Mort came over today to help change the water pump. I'm glad he did because we had some trouble getting the lower unit off and he was the one who finally figured out what our problem was. When we finally pulled the housing off and looked inside, we could see that the old impeller was in really rough shape. I'm lucky that it was still pushing any water at all. Unfortunately, West Marine gave us the wrong impeller kit so it's going to be another 5 days before we can get our hands on the correct one. If I have to miss a week on the water, it will be worth it to know that we're keeping the motor in good shape. We've learned a lot about our motor through this whole process and I think that we'll take a lot better care of it as a result. That will give me a lot more nights to come home frustrated from getting my @$$ kicked by the flatties.
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