Thinking back on this video, it occurred to me, an area that I used to scuba dive, would have great potential for vertical jigging. There are huge boulders along this rip rap wall, sloping down to a 35' depth. These boulders have great gaps and crevices and we have seen some monster sized flatheads in there while night diving. Vertical jigging would be putting a "Delivery Style" meal right in front of them. I gotta give this a try!!
It's been a while but I remember Al Linder releasing a video about jigging winter flat heads with spoons and just putting the hurts on em. You outta see if you can't find that video. It's worth the watch for sure!
Yes!! I love using a 1/2oz bass jig with the skirt cut off!! Awesome tactic, they work great to drop a bait in a log jam, flippin for flatheads!! I like to fillet the side off a baitfish and bounce or double bounce it every minute or so. Great fish awesome video!!
Good video Justin.I used to drift for flathead,s back in the 70,s in ariz doing the same thing ,except I would use large soft bodied shad lures.On one of your trip,s sometime try it with a large soft plastic shad and see what happen,s.I would put my soft plastic lure,s in a jar filled with menhaden oil and leave them till I tied them on. Here,s another thought iv,e had but never tried yet.If fish are attracted to vibration,s or rattles,iv,e toyed with the idea of taking a waterproof toothbrush and cutting off everthing but the part that vibrate,s and hook it about a foot or so above your bait on the line and see if you get hits on it or not.It might not work but there,s only one way to find out.You can buy one for a few cent,s to try out.Also maybe put a little silicone around it to be on the safe side,to make sure it,s waterproof.
+Jeff Morris That's interesting with the soft plastics. Keith Severn uses a lot of artificials for flatheads and has success with it. Be curious to see how your toothbrush idea works out. Would be worth a shot to see.
Now this is something I've never seen or heard of. Vert jigging for flatties, from a kayak! What an adventure that must be! Love the double around 5:11 . Now I KNOW I need a kayak! Thanks for the cool video, I just subscribed.
I vertical jig for flatheads from May to October here in ne iowa. I fish right below the dam with jigging spoons, soft plastics, and jig and Bait. The jigs I use are 1.5 to 2.5 oz. with a 7/0 hook. I've had 30 fish days and my personal best is over 60 lbs. for bait I use green sunfish, bluegills, and creek chubs. green sunfish however are my preferred bait. for equipment I use a g loomis 6'4 medium power fast action musky rod with a 5500 Abu Garcia bait casting reel with 50 lbs spider wire. I've had them break off too. on the Mississippi river where I fish it's really important to land them as quickly as possible. for this reason I keep my drag very tight. The longer there in the water the more likely they are to come off. They hit jigs a lot like a walleye. it's a very quick hard crack. for better results keep your bait alive. I also think if you were sitting up a little higher in a chair you're arm wouldn't be sore. I've never hooked the bluegills sideways. mainly because with the excessive current below the Mississippi river a sideways hooked bait would catch more current and be a lot more difficult to fish correctly. I also put a little piece of soft plastic on the tip of the hook in order to preserve bait. I always hook them through the bottom of the mouth and out the top. where I fish a front mounted trolling unit is essentail. I prefer a 54 lbs because it's the largest unit to fit on a 12 volt system. my preferred water temp is 65 degrees. however 55 degrees in the spring is usually when they start biting.
I fish flathead only 1-2 times a year and this is similar to a technique I use. I do this in the fall when the water temp is around 60. I use 7'6" medium action St. Croix rods with a 4000 size reel and 15 lb braid. I jig a 1/4 to 3/8 oz jighead with a 3-4" plastic tail tipped with a fathead minnow. They are holing up for winter and I drift these holes. I release all over 10 lb. Catch them up to 30 lb with this technique. Takes about 30 minutes to land them.
You should try that around boat docks. Boat docks with concrete walls are a great place to try this to crawfish are a good bait to use while jigging to
Hey brother I just subscribed today and watched a few videos and I truly appreciate it. I catfish in Texas. Im going to learn a lot from you. Thank you.
+Peter Scharf I need to spend more time fishing artificial baits. I throw them periodically here for stripers but haven't caught any flatheads on them yet. Probably just a matter of time though. Thanks for watching!
I forgot to add that I am in SE Wisconsin and the river I fish is small comparatively speaking. About 50-100 feet wide and maybe 16 feet deep in the holes. There are walleye and rough fish also to contend with. I look forward to this trip more than any other even though I only do it 1-2 times a year.
What if you tried a whole bluegill rigged the way you did a cut bluegill. I enjoy and learn new ways of doing things every time I watch your video's so keep them coming!
Last October I discovered that a 5" fluke in baby bass was deadly for the big girls. I caught my PB 40 lb flat on this with a custom West Coast salmon jighead on a 3x Owner hook. I was able to land this brute in 30 minutes due to the much stronger 3x hook. Hoping to target them several times this fall. I know guys that fish like this for them all the way into December with the water temp well below 40 degrees. They release everything.
Have you tried, or thought about, vertical jigging along river system locks or bridge pilings? I've been told that flatheads will lie belly to the wall with their heads facing up next to lock and dam walls.
You commented that the water depth in that area was 35'- 40'. Double checking. Is that how deep you were fishing? Thanks for the info. Keep up the good work.
Thats like jigging for saltwater fish off wrecks. Good job and yes its a work out. May look into verticle jigging setups. Also with your rods angled way out like that do you ever feel like you about to get flipped?
I envy those saltwater guys who can do that all day. They are in better shape than me lol. I have never had an issue with my rods angled out. The drag on my reels kick in long before the fish could pull me over. If I was in a less stable kayak, it could potentially be a problem though. Thanks for watching!
I'm going to try this but Im going to add a whisker seeker versa rattle above the jig with a couple of beads between the jig and rattle to add some noise to it.
How'd you like that catmaxx reel? I picked up a couple of them over the winter to suspend baits off the front of my kayak. I liked the price but haven't had enough time off work to try them out yet. Gonna be using up some vacation here real soon!
I like the old model catmaxx reels. The one I currently use is several years old and still going strong. I had another one that unfortunately went overboard that I had used for several years too and it was great. The newer models, the white ones, haven’t done as well for me. I have owned two and had issues with both. May have just been bad luck but I am hesitant to buy another because of it.
+Ethan Ray I haven't had a problem with them dying before being eaten. They are usually a pretty hardy bait. I usually change them out every hour just to keep them lively though.
I have a lowrance mark 4. It's just a basic black and white graph that shows depth, speed, and water temp. I have the Navionics app on my phone and I rely on it a lot.
I love watching your videos! This will be my first season with a kayak so I am pretty excited! I've flathead fished for years from shore but would like to try drift fishing. What brand or type weights do you use to avoid getting snagged and do you use the three way rig while drifting? I just don't wanna drift fish and end up losing lots of gear haha. Any advice would be appreciated! Thanks alot!
Thanks Dakota! Most of the time when I am drifting, I do so with suspended baits. For that application, I use an egg sinker on a knocker rig. If I am drifting with the wind, in that situation I will drag baits and use a 3 way rig with my dragging sinkers. I rarely get snagged with either application. When suspending, I make sure to keep my baits just high enough to avoid the snags on bottom and when I am dragging, my dragging sinkers pull through the obstructions while my bait is suspended with a peg float. Hope that info is helpful. Good luck fishing out of your kayak this year!
@@KayakCatfish I appreciate the fast response! I watched one of your videos after this comment about your weights and plan on purchasing your book on Amazon to build them. Thanks!
@@KayakCatfish O man, I AM SO SORRY to hear first hand what I have recently come to suspect over much of both Carolinas' water ways and lake ecosystems!!! Dang! Thank you so much for responding. I am an old Southern Boy myself (71) and I swam in Georgia/Carolina lakes as a child! In the stretch of the green (now graying fuze -) fuse of my "young" kick ass life I am terribly saddened to know how far down the scale we have sunk to the ecological bottom where our land comes hauntingly back to poison rather than feed and shelter us who revere (AND NEED!) the country environs! Thank you, young man.. keep on angling, young brother! Arthur
@@KayakCatfish well it's snowing here, I'm not like you I'm not going to the lake in this weather even though I want to bad. I just bought a couple Bass pro pole winches I believe is just like a couple of yours(SS 30's) and I'm chomping at the bit to use them. With that said I'll definitely be trying this Technic!
shuss be quiet! hook the live bluegill under the mouth and through the nose add a large stinger hook impale the stinger on the top side of the tail ,then suspend just above the structure, no need to jig! let the bluegill do the work!! good luck keep em coming!
+David Gregory I suspend fish regularly and was doing that with two rods while jigging in this video. My thoughts were that the jig could get down into the places that the flatheads were hiding and maybe tempt an inactive fish into biting.
+Kayak Catfish yes I follow your channel, so I know you suspend, still let the bluegill do the work, get the bait as close to the structure as possible and you won't have to jig
+FloridaRaider Surprisingly, I haven't done very well with blue cats thus far. I have only tried this technique on 4 trips but I have caught more flatheads than blues while doing it.
Hey. Jig the European way. Pod your rod in the rodholder ore over your lap. Take the line in your hand en start jigging. Very easy en you go one for a whole day. If you get a hit give the line a pull and let the rod take over. Give it a try.
Kayak Catfish too far from us. We are south of Chattanooga. I was going to try to talk you out of some of those small cats.. you are just killing me throwing them back! Lol. I have not been able to go fishing for years.. if i had my way about it fresh fish is the only meat i would eat.
+Scott Taylor I have been playing around with it some more since I made this video and have caught several more flatheads doing it. Nothing over 10lbs though.
