An Amazing Hour On the River

I'm not quite sure what to think about the month of September.  There is no other single month that has provided me with more really big flatheads.  I've had some amazing multiple monster nights during this month.  September is also when the flatties eventually shut down and disappear for 8 months.  They quickly go into this feeding frenzy that provides some of the most amazing aciton all year, and then just as quickly lock their jaws and vanish.  Shortly after I got married my wife and I went up to Silver Lake to visit my sister-in-law and her husband at his family cottage.  Not being much of a drinker, I thought that this would be a nice safe place to get my first buzz.  Somehow I ended up mixing Boone's Farm and Bacardi Limon.  I mean I literally mixed them in one glass.  I guess I figured it would get me to the buzz quicker.  Sure enough, pretty soon I was giggling at everything everyone said and the stars started dancing around in the sky.  I don't think it lasted 10 minutes before BOOM, a dull headache crawled in behind my eyes and my stomach was attacked by a churning nausea that lasted through most of the next day.  That's the month of September.

Let's stick with the buzz for this entry.  I went out alone one evening this past September.  Things were slowing down enough that I even struggled to get the suckers that I needed for bait.  I scrounged 2 or 3, cut them into big sections, and headed up river to my normal haunt.  I anchored in a spot where I had caught a good percentage of my flatties during the summer.  I'm not sure why, but before I threw out my lines I had this thought jump into my head telling me that I should move.  Just below Devil's Elbow is a 200 yard stretch of deep water.  Most of it is over 10 feet deep.  I've tried it here and there, but I mainly pick up channels in there.  Despite my record, my hunch told me to give this section a go, so I did. 

I anchored smack dab in the middle of this stretch.  I put my lines out in the normal fashion-one straight down, one further out behind the boat, and the last one off to the side.  I didn't have to wait very long before the clicker on the rig behind me started running.  I grabbed this rod and dragged in a 19-pounder.  This was a really good sign.  I barely got this rig back into the water before the pole right in front of me jumped and dipped to the river.  This was the bait that I set right under the boat.  The beast made several strong runs before I was able to get her back under the boat and into a 5 minute stalemate.  In the middle of all of this that same rod that brought in the first fish jumped back into action.  I had to ignore it and eventually the fish let go and diappeared.  I finally pulled flattie number 2 into the boat and weighed her in at 21 pounds.

Figuring that I probably wore this particular spot out, I pulled anchor and drifted until I was just up from a nice point that pokes out 30 yards into the river and slows the current.  I dropped my lines one more time and again one of my rods bounced and bent almost before I even had it set in the holder.  This was a scrappy 17-pounder.  Shock, elation, euphoria, and that stupid grin that always shows when the fishing gets better than you had expected or even hoped.

I haven't seen a flathead since I let that last fish go.  We had a pretty good cold front come through the very next day.  I tried it a few times after that, but with my teeth chattering and nothing going on under the boat, I finally had to call it a season.  It's tough to put the catfish gear away for the last time.  The only good thing about it is I get to immediately start anticipating next year.  I'm down to about 4 months.

Beyond the Bridge

It's been a few years since my days (nights) of sticking around the launch and hoping to run into a couple of roaming cats.  I started to get a lot more comfortable with the night time river and I knew that there were some snags and deep holes out there that had to hold some hungry flatties.

About 2 miles up river, there's a big turn called Devil's Elbow.  Just up from this turn is a long stretch of deep water along a cut bank.  Although things get changed and pushed around from year to year, this portion of the Grand consistently holds several nice snags.  There also seems to be a ton of wood scattered along the bottom.  I've found that you don't necessarily have to drop your bait right on a snag for a flattie to find it.  You can be somewhere around one or maybe in between a couple of them and shortly after dark you have a pretty good chance of crossing paths with this river's biggest predator.  I've also had good luck dropping a bait right at the base of the bank.  Picture it like a wall meeting the floor.  That groove seems to become a natural runway for them.  I do realize that fishing this section makes it much more likely that I will snag up.  I just come prepared with leaders already tied to hooks and swivels.  That lets me get back to fishing with one quick Palomar knot.  By mid summer, I have a pretty good idea where to throw my baits to stay snag free.

Just below the elbow is a long stretch of water that runs about 12 feet deep.  It doesn't have as much wood, but when most of the river in this 2 mile stretch doesn't get more than 5 feet deep, the catfish find this area pretty inviting.  I had my best hour of fishing ever on this stretch this past fall.  The other river predators like this section too.  One bank is rocky and it drops straight off.  You can drift along this bank and pick a ton of fish off with crankbaits or jigs.

Down river about a half mile from the elbow is a somewhat unlikely cat honey hole.  It's unlikely because it isn't a hole at all.  There is a pretty good snag that sits in water that generally doesn't get deeper than 5 feet.  As a matter of fact, one summer the river was particularly low and clear.  I was sitting just up from this snag in water that couldn't have been more than 3 feet deep.  I actually peeked over the side of my boat just as a 10 pound flattie swam by.  I could just see him in the glow of my stern light.  I had a quick thought that I'd probably catch him when, sure enough, he picked up my cut sucker and back to the boat I hauled him.  What's better, this snag actually produced my biggest flattie to date.  It was a 25 pounder that I caught in the early morning hours of a summer night.  My uncle Tim was out on the river in his boat that night.  I remember calling him up and telling him that I had to head in because that was all the excitement that I could handle for one night.  I should mention that I have no witness and no picture to verify this catch.  My camera was with me, but it just had enough juice to flash and not record a picture.  I tried 2 or 3 times before giving up on it.  Those are the breaks.  I'll have my camera ready to go when I get my 30 pounder.

One more place to note is a creek mouth that comes in just under some power lines.  I have heard that creek mouths are good for flatheads.  I don't fish this mouth very often, but I tried it one night when the water was running high and fast.  Most of my other spots were unfishable.  I dropped in two lines with creek chubs on both.  I made the fortunate decision to move one of my baits and this second cast must have dropped that chub right in front of a flattie's maw.  I barely put the rod down when it got that beautiful bend in it.  I stared at the rod dumb for a few seconds not believing that I already had a fish on.   I regained my compusure and pulled in a 17-pounder.  The extra current made me wonder if he was going to be a new personal best.  I finally got him surfaced and saw that the thing had its mouth wide open.  He was putting on the brakes.  I was pretty pumped because good high water spots are hard to find and I had a new one.

Michigan recently allowed anglers to fish with 3 lines.  I have put this to good use.  I have what I think is a pretty good set up.  I can use some form of this set up in just about every situation.  We have two rod holders on the back of the boat.  Picture the boat being anchored by the bow so that when I turn around in the driver seat, I am looking straight down river.  The rod on the left is right in front of me and I have to reach a little to get to the rod on the right.  I typically drop the bait on the left straight down just behind the boat.  The bait on the right gets thrown further behind the boat.  Then, depending on where I am in the river, I put a 3rd rod behind me on one side of the boat or the other.  The bait is thrown out at an angle away from the boat.  This usually puts it out in a flat that borders a deep hole or is outside of a snag.  I set the clicker on this reel since this rod is out of my site line.  I cover a lot of water with this set up and it has produced really well for me.

This small stretch of river will always be my favorite.  All stress falls away when I get in our boat and pull away from that launch.  The Grand empties into Lake Michigan and there is a large dam between our stretch and the mouth.  The fish that have access to the lake and to the bait from the lake are obviously going to have the potential to get bigger than the fish in our section.  I'm missing out on those fish because of the dam.  I'll spend plenty of time on my home stretch, but this year I'm going to explore this down river section and see if I can find the monsters.

From There to Here

Catfish gear is pretty simple, but you definitely have to have the right stuff.  After a lot of reading, watching In-Fisherman DVD's, and getting out there and just figuring it out, I've landed on some pretty good gear.  We don't have the real monsters up here, so I don't go as big as the guys in the states that do. 

I learned pretty quickly that a baitcasting rig can't be beat for this application.  The reels are perfect for fighting these fish and the whole rig is much more compatible for setting your rods in a holder.  The reel that I landed on is an Abu Garcia Ambassadeur 6500 C3.  It's incredibly strong, smooth, solidly put together, and it has a clicker.  The clicker is basically an alarm that lets you know if something is pulling out line.  Another nice bonus is that it's relatively cheap at around $80.  I have 2 right now. 

For a rod, I use a 7' Medium-Heavy Ugly Stick Catfish rod.  These things only cost a little over $30 and they are just about perfect for what I do.  First of all, they're white.  I can see them as plain as day no matter how dark it is outside.  They're a really powerful rod with a soft tip.  The soft tip makes it nice for casting delicate baits and is helpful when using no stretch braided lines.  The power gives me a lot of confidence when I get into a big fish.  I haven't run into a fish yet that this rig didn't handle beautifully. 

I'm generally a monofilament guy, so I used that bright green Big Cat line by Berkley for a couple of years.  I didn't have any real complaints about it, other than it was a little bit springy.  Some of my reading led me to get curious about braided lines.  The guys on the catfish forums touted Power Pro, hands down.  I went with their 80# hi-vis yellow.  I hated it at first.  I had to go through a learning curve and I was whiffing on my hooksets.  I almost decided to switch back to mono, but I gave it some time and started connecting again.  Now I love it.  It's great for casting.  I had maybe 2 bird nests all last summer and they were pretty easy to get out.  With it's strength, I have a huge amount of confidence when fighting fish.  After a little use, the line loses the outer coating and fades a little bit.  Don't worry, this is actually a good thing.  It maintains its strength and it becomes more pliable.  I actually prefer the line to be broken in.

The In-Fisherman guys teach that a slip rig can't be beat for fishing on the bottom for flatties.  I use a 3 ounce no-roll sinker and a bead above a #3 or #5 Berkley McMahon barrel swivel.  The bead protects the knot.  I exclusively use the Palomar knot.  It's a must with braid.  Don't go cheap with your swivels.  You'll be mad when Pylodictis olavaris turns it to scrap and disappears back into the depths.  I like short leaders and I use the same braid that goes on my reel.  I spend some time in the winter tying up a stock of them so I can get back into the water quicker if I break off.  I generally keep my leader shorter than 8 inches.  It leaves plenty of room for live bait to move around enough to get noticed, while giving them less opportunity to get snagged up on some wood or under a rock.  Sometimes with cutbait, I skip the leader and let the bead and sinker slide right down to the hook.  This is another trick that the In-Fisherman boys taught me.  This lets you hug a snag with your bait while, again, making it less likely to get caught on it.  This set up doesn't seem to deter the fish in the least. 

I'm still figuring out hooks.  I do like Kahle hooks for cutbait.  This is a pretty popular hook that a lot of guys use.  I have the Mustad 37140 in several sizes ranging between 1/0 and 5/0.  Another cutbait hook that seems to work fine is the Eagle Claw #084.  I just have that in 5/0.  Good channel cat hook.  For the big baits that I use for flatties, both cut and live, I like the 10/0 Mustad 92671.  I also have that hook in 7/0 for just a little smaller bait.  I'm really starting to become a fan of Tru-Turn's T722 O'Shaughnessy catfish hook.  I bought that in 8/0 last year and it became my prefered hook.  It comes out of the package nice and sharp and maintains its point.  It's Perma Steel Finish doesn't rust.  This is a huge bonus.  I'm planning on adding a few more sizes of this hook to my arsenal this year. 

I looked all over the internet and went to a dozen stores to track this stuff down.  I finally discovered the web site Catfish Connection.  This little company, based in Pana Illinois, is fantastic.  They have absolutely everything that you need for catfishing and they get it to you in a hurry.  I've had great luck with them. 

I just remembered one nightfishing must, a headlamp.  I messed around with a few different $20 lights and they were okay.  I finally decided that this was something that was worth investing in.  I researched them a little bit and landed on a Petzl Myo XP  for about $85.  I picked it up at a local EMS store.  A good, bright headlamp can really make your time on the dark river trouble free.  This one turns night into day, at least in the area immediately surrounding me.  I keep a big pack of AA batteries in my boat so that I'm always prepared when the light starts flashing its low battery warning.

This may be my most dry entry, past or future, but it's the result of a lot of studying and experimenting on my part.  I'm hoping that I'll save somebody a lot of leg work.  The less time that you spend on the web and in the stores, the more time that you can spend in the dark knocking on a flathead's door.
catfishconnection.com