Flathead Catfish on a Fly Rod?

[Jeremy]

My largest flathead on a fly was while crappie fishing and using a Crappie
Candy fly. Weighed upwards of 10 lbs on a 5 wt. An amazing adventure. My largest channel was caught on a topwater Zoo Cougar fishing for bass. Same rod an about half the size of the flathead. Also an amazing adventure. Truthfully, I've never trageted catfish but seem to catch them. White Clousers fishing for silver bass and walleyes. Seems if it imitates minnow action and you're deep enough in the water column you can trick them. The Zoo Cougar catch was an anomoly. Probably wouldn't happen again in a million years. JGW

This was really cool to hear! I don't fish warmwater rivers enough to have come close to this but can imagine the thrill.

Taking a cat this large topside would be something for the books! I'll bet the fight was memorable indeed!

Nice job!

[MrFishingToughGuy]

The resident flatheads in the James are pretty spooky, and not really worth targeting. I took up chasing the flatheads (and blues, channel cats) during summer when the temps got too warm and flows too low for me to comfortably fish for trout (even in the SNP). The breeding fish will come in right around the fall line to spawn in mid-spring, so we target them around the end of June until a big water event flushes them out (in this case it didn't happen until August '08 ). Big fish that just spawned need a big meal - so we fished for them using 5-10" long strung out bunny leeches. They really like black and natural. Flatheads stay on/near the bottom, so dregde. The smaller fish (10 lbs and less) fight like heck but the big ones are hard to stop unless you have a good drag system...

[FishnDave]

Sweet pictures! Awesome!

[Bluegill222]

I'm still after my first flathead, but I target channel cat all the time. Frog colored poppers and black wooly buggers seem to be the most consistent producers, but I've got several on minnow and shad patterns of various types as well. Keep us posted on your progress. It would make an awesome article for the warmwater column!

[rnelson]

I am heading up to Lockport, MB next June to fly fish for catfish. Met a gentleman from Winnipeg who regularly and successfully fishes for cats using his fly tackle. He invited me to MB and I am going to take him up on the offer.

I have never tried to catch cats on my fly tackle. Like others, I have lucked into them while pursuing other species.

Rick

[Gigmaster]

I've never caught a flathead, but I catch Channel cats all the time. I even tie a special fly for them.

[FishnDave]

I've never caught a flathead, but I catch Channel cats all the time. I even tie a special fly for them.

I feel like a fish inevitably drawn to the hook.
OK...I'll bite. What is your "catfish fly"? I'd sure be interested to see it!

[Gigmaster]

The catfish around here eat mostly shad and bluegills.
Here are my catfish flies (they work on stripers as well).






I spray them with Smelly Jelly Shad, or Baitfish, because catfish locate prey more by smell than sight.

[FishnDave]

Those look good! Are they weighted? Or do you fish them on sinking lines?

[FishnDave]

I've caught a fair number of flatheads on lures (but not flies). We had our best success using 5" swimbaits or other sizeable plastics on jigheads. So, you may attempt to mimic such a bait with your fly.
I've also caught them on twister-tail jigs, and vibrating blade baits (Reef Runner Cicada).