When do flatheads start biting

So, in the warmest months of the year, they like deep pools with slow current and cover like submerged logs and brush piles, according to the Ohio Division of Wildlife. In spring, though, Souders catches them in two to 12 feet of water. It warms up faster than the deeper main river channel or lake body, a fact that attracts baitfish.

That in turn draws predators, including flatheads. Areas around power plants are likewise good because the water around them heats up.

Locks and dams, meanwhile, are good because they stack up baitfish. Then, give them what they want in as natural a way as possible. Flatheads are distinctive in many ways. Want to see more? Check us out on Facebook , Twitter and Instagram. Bob Frye is the everybodyadventures. The maximum distance for a nighttime foray was just under a mile, but sometimes they remained in their home site all night.

The researchers could detect no seasonal trends in the daily movement patterns of the cats. The tagged flatheads usually held in areas with reduced current during the day and night, often in deep eddies.

The depth of these areas ranged from two to 20 feet and most often from six to 10 feet deep. Surprisingly, no day or night depth preferences were noted. During the day, though, flatheads primarily held in brushy areas or dense snags. At night, their nocturnal forays often kept them around cover, but active fish often moved through clear areas.

In the unaltered Big Black River, fish held in denser cover — which was more available — than in the channelized Tallahatchie River. In a tagging study on the Minnesota River, one of the state's top flathead rivers, researchers found that northern flatheads also hold in moderately deep holes with abundant cover during summer.

Without radio transmitters, it was impossible to track precise daytime and nighttime movements. Based on the success of trotlines set in featureless runs between holes, though, fishery technician Brad Koenan suggests that flatheads probably patrol these areas after dark, especially during early summer and other high-water periods.

Some of the most productive trotline sets were in the middle of long runs, a mile or more from the type of habitat most flathead anglers prefer to fish. Some of the lines set in these barren river sections produced as many as eight fish on 10 hooks, including many of the largest fish caught during the study.

Koenan believes that the first fish is attracted by the concentration of baitfish on the trotline hooks. The struggles of the hooked flathead then attract more flatheads into the area. This chart illustrates a general trend in catfish activity on many bodies of water after catfish have spawned and settled into a summer pattern.

In the Deep South, cats might follow this same daily routine throughout the season. Many anglers overlook what often is the hottest of all potential daily feeding periods, the morning period from about 4 a. The actual length of the period isn't so important as knowing that it may exist and that it might focus catfish activity, so you can take advantage of it.

We're not suggesting that this period is magical, just good on many catfish waters. Some anglers believe the early morning is a catch-up period for catfish feeding activity. The cats have all night to feed, but apparently they don't always get the job done. Or perhaps they just prefer feeding during the morning. When the sun cracks the horizon, it's like the big boys realize, it's now or never till tonight.

Who wants to sit pouting in a snag with a partially filled tummy all day? That's no way to reach 30 pounds. Catfishermen often dwell on the flathead's tremendous senses of smell and taste.

Cats are unique in that regard. But other senses get overlooked. Rarely do one or two senses key an effective lifestyle. It's the coordination of all the senses that keys effective feeding strategies. Flatheads, and other catfish for that matter, also are sound sensitive. But it's understanding that cats also have good vision that helps explain the potential intensity of this catch-up feeding period during the early morning. Flatheads, though, also operate well in dingy water, using their senses of smell, taste, hearing, and feeling.

But when the water clears even slightly, they rely on vision, too. We've kept several flatheads in our office observation tank. Most lie on the bottom during the day, only their gills and eyeballs moving. When we move around the room several feet away from the tank, their eyes follow. No matter, I'm here with some good news for you.

Despite what you may have heard, it is possible to keep up on your sleep and still catch flathead catfish. It's true.

You can catch them during the day. In some ways it's actually easier. The first thing you have to do is dismiss the idea that flatheads sleep all day and spend all night out on some feeding frenzy.

That model works just fine to help establish some successful nightfishing patterns, but to see it as a complete representation of their behavior would be a mistake. Thinking like that would likely ruin your confidence about catching daytime fish. The real truth is that these catfish eat whenever they want to, and that includes daytime meals. There are some general differences in their daytime behavior though. These differences are important to consider in order to guide your approach.

During the early spring flathead catfish have much slower metabolism. Flathead catfish, like other fish, know from instincts how much energy it will use to first catch the prey and then to also digest that prey. You can increase your bites during the early spring by downsizing your bait. Cut-bait will also work on early spring flathead catfish.

It seems that the best way to present cut-bait to flathead catfish is throwing into moving water allowing the bait to wash into slack water where the flathead lies in wait to ambush its prey. Flathead catfish, that are in these ambush spots, will engulf the cut-bait without knowing it is dead so take advantage of this during your early spring trips. Flathead catfish, more than any of the other catfish species, seek calm water. If you hunt flathead catfish on big rivers they will migrate up smaller tributaries to get out of the turbulent flow from the snow melt and early spring rains.

These tributaries may be flowing strong but they will have less turbulent water and more ambush points to hide behind. There have been many big flathead catfish caught in very small tributaries during early spring. They are there you just have to be patient and believe they are there. It is a lot of fun pulling a 30 pounder out of a small creek.

During your hunt for early spring flatheads look for steep banks. Flatheads will move up to feed-up in preparation for the spawn and they will do this near spawning areas. Flathead catfish spawn in holes that they can protect.