A Few Tips for Some Early Spring Flatheads

Spring is here and so is good fishing. There is a growing number of catfish anglers around the country and many enjoy chasing big flatheads when the water starts to warm up. These tips will help you this spring put more and bigger flatheads in the boat, but remember keep the small ones to eat and release those big ones so they can continue the cycle.

Try Small Waters First
You can extend your flathead catfish fun if you concentrate on small bodies of water first. The smaller lakes and streams will warm up a lot faster than larger bodies of water. Keep track of water temps on your area waters, and when the surface temps reach the 50s the flathead catfish begins to feed-up for the upcoming spawn. These small waters that have flathead catfish in them is your best bet early and they can warm up weeks before larger pieces of water. Extend your flathead fun with this tip and remember as small water flatheads begin to spawn and refuse to bite, those big waters are just getting warm enough for more flathead catfish action! Ambush Points
Flathead catfish are known to be buried in thick cover, but during early spring they love ambush points to gorge on baitfish and worms and any other food that washes by.

Look for flathead catfish to position themselves in current breaks behind boulders or around channel swings in the creek, river or stream. A real good spot to find early spring flatheads is at the mouth of incoming creeks. Flathead catfish will hang in the slack water next to this moving water waiting to engulf any type of food that washes by.

Smaller Baits
During the early spring flathead catfish have much slower metabolism. Flatheads, 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 is throwing into moving water allowing the bait to wash into slack water where the flathead lies in wait to ambush its prey. Flatheads 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 flathead hunts.

Up The Creeks
Flathead catfish, more than any of the other catfish species, seek calm water. If you hunt them on big rivers, flatheads 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 believe and search for them, and it is great fun pulling a 30-pound flathead out of a creek 50 feet across!

These tips are just a starting point for you to help you think about the possibilities you might not have thought of before. I love to fish for flathead catfish and it took these tips from much better flathead anglers than me to help me extend my flathead season. Good luck this spring!