# Yellow River long night



## tips n tails (Mar 2, 2011)

Spent a sleep less Wednesday night on the river. Got out there early caught alot of bream. Had a interesting experience while catching bait using worms, I caught bream, some big river roaches, a warmouth and a Lg mouth bass all in 3ft x 3ft space apprx. While catching bait I keep seeing river roaches jumping along the banks and saw what looked like a flathead catfish cruisng the bank. Had a head on it bigger than its body like a bulldog. As I was catching bait two white boats with 175 hp motors came crusiNG by asked how I was doing, exchanged some small talk. I asked them how they were and they replied "working". Civilian attire. As the sun started going down I moved up river to set up. No luck moved downstream a little bit about 7 45 pm still a little twlight. All of a sudden I hear roaring coming towards me a blacked out boat which I recongized as one of the boats earlier I had seen. He slowed down and flashed some back lights towards the other boats which now makes three boats all blacked out. They pass and I moved on, set up. No sooner do I set up I hear roaring again, I reel in my lines, waiting... no boats looks like they paused up stream around a bend, 5 minutes pass, then roaring, I shine my light on the water, they slow and pass no lights except a small little blinking red light. Same boats same guys.no moon, black as hell out. They must have some DAMN good NVGs, I would like to get my hands on a pair of those. 

Slow night once again had a few hook ups nothing solid though. Had more action up river than down by the bridge. My question is when fishing live bait when a flathead takes the bait does your rod tip "should" bend down or just slightly wiggle all around? Saw a few other night fishing guys out also. 


Next day I went up to Yellow river just looking at the water levels and found a nice bait store off of Hwy 90 right outside of Cview called JJs nice place also had bait as well. Next week I ll be giving it another go.


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## CatHunter (Dec 31, 2008)

when they hit it generally it will bend to a braking point, every now and then one will lay on the bait, but more often they are moving threw and will pick the bait up and keep swimming once they feel the tension they will take off.


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## jcoss15 (Oct 11, 2010)

tips n tails said:


> Next day I went up to Yellow river just looking at the water levels and found a nice bait store off of Hwy 90 right outside of Cview called JJs nice place also had bait as well. Next week I ll be giving it another go.


Yea I get all my live bait from JJ's, good people....in my experience when a flathead takes a bream he takes it for sure no doubt bends the rod all the way over. I know your feeling man it took me about 3 years to finally hook into a flathead on rod and reel...and even now I still struggle at times to get a bite. Just keep trying and if you can try redbellies I have had good luck on them for some reason better than bluegills...don't know why.


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## CatHunter (Dec 31, 2008)

jcoss15 said:


> Yea I get all my live bait from JJ's, good people....in my experience when a flathead takes a bream he takes it for sure no doubt bends the rod all the way over. I know your feeling man it took me about 3 years to finally hook into a flathead on rod and reel...and even now I still struggle at times to get a bite. Just keep trying and if you can try redbellies I have had good luck on them for some reason better than bluegills...don't know why.



Once you learn to get them on rods them old limb lines and trot lines will start to collect dust


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## tips n tails (Mar 2, 2011)

jcoss15 said:


> Yea I get all my live bait from JJ's, good people....in my experience when a flathead takes a bream he takes it for sure no doubt bends the rod all the way over. I know your feeling man it took me about 3 years to finally hook into a flathead on rod and reel...and even now I still struggle at times to get a bite. Just keep trying and if you can try redbellies I have had good luck on them for some reason better than bluegills...don't know why.


Damn 3 yrs? I didnt realize catfishing is harder than it looks. What are redbellies?


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## tips n tails (Mar 2, 2011)

CatHunter said:


> when they hit it generally it will bend to a braking point, every now and then one will lay on the bait, but more often they are moving threw and will pick the bait up and keep swimming once they feel the tension they will take off.


Take off as in spit the bait? or take off in start dragging line? I ask because I ve had a few incidents where my rod tip will bend slightly, bend a little more, then just bend in half, then no tension. Im thinking more gar yet I hating knowing there couldve been the possibly of a flathead I just missed.


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## CatHunter (Dec 31, 2008)

tips n tails said:


> Take off as in spit the bait? or take off in start dragging line? I ask because I ve had a few incidents where my rod tip will bend slightly, bend a little more, then just bend in half, then no tension. Im thinking more gar yet I hating knowing there couldve been the possibly of a flathead I just missed.


Take off as in in-hail the bait and hooked up.

You sound like you really want to get one of these flatheads, but be warned once it gets in your blood their is no cure for the illness but more Flathead fishing.

Its the most advanced and technical type of fishing that I have ever done and I have caught every thing from marlin and giant groupers, massive amber jacks, large cobias monster snappers to freshwater big bass , 50+lb carp, 100lb+ giant alligator gars and every other thing that swims even 500+lb sharks but nothing gets my blood going like hunting the Flatheads under the cover of darkness.


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## jcoss15 (Oct 11, 2010)

tips n tails said:


> Damn 3 yrs? I didnt realize catfishing is harder than it looks. What are redbellies?


Long eared sunfish, red breasted sunfish what ever you want to call them...they have red bellies and a long ear flap they don't get real big and you can find little schools (8-10) of them along shallow cover on yellow river...when I started using them I started catching flatheads; like I said I'm not sure why they just seem to like them. Check out the FWC fish idenification section to learn more.


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## tips n tails (Mar 2, 2011)

jcoss15 said:


> Long eared sunfish, red breasted sunfish what ever you want to call them...they have red bellies and a long ear flap they don't get real big and you can find little schools (8-10) of them along shallow cover on yellow river...when I started using them I started catching flatheads; like I said I'm not sure why they just seem to like them. Check out the FWC fish idenification section to learn more.


Thanks Jcoss, I ll see if I can catch me some of them for bait. I really think my biggest problem is confidence in a spot. I usually give a spot a hr +/- then move a 1/4 mile set out. After doing this a few times I start to wonder if its the bait, presentation, lack of cat fish. It would be nice to at least catch a channel on shrimp. When we all talk about the yellow river and see a report its not so simple as to go out and get that same report as the next guy. Yellow river is a long river with lots of places to fish. I know cats have holes/cover they keep to and then at night move around yet Im thinking they might stay within a reasonable distance. I see bush hooks all over the river right now which tells me there must be cats, yet I think the further north you go the shallower with deep holes it becomes might be the best bet.


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## tips n tails (Mar 2, 2011)

CatHunter said:


> Take off as in in-hail the bait and hooked up.
> 
> You sound like you really want to get one of these flatheads, but be warned once it gets in your blood their is no cure for the illness but more Flathead fishing.
> 
> Its the most advanced and technical type of fishing that I have ever done and I have caught every thing from marlin and giant groupers, massive amber jacks, large cobias monster snappers to freshwater big bass , 50+lb carp, 100lb+ giant alligator gars and every other thing that swims even 500+lb sharks but nothing gets my blood going like hunting the Flatheads under the cover of darkness.


Thats good to know they arent going to fiddle around. As far as cats go Ive never caught a flathead and its on my bucket list of fish species to catch.


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## screwballl (Feb 1, 2011)

most catfish I have caught by rod n reel tend to grab it and sit, maybe move a little.. at least until they "smell" something else worth eating then they will move again. Once you see your line slowly moving, reel up the slack and see if it starts pulling back, if so reel it on in, but be ready for a fight.

I have pulled in 12" catfish that felt like 20 lb catfish so they can be mean if you pull them off the bottom out of their normal routine.


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## skiff89_jr (Apr 1, 2011)

Shoot from what I've learned as the water heats up and summer approaches the bite will be amazing. The ones worth catching will slam the bait. My phrase while I'm flathead is "daddy don't play." lol


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## CatHunter (Dec 31, 2008)

skiff89_jr said:


> Shoot from what I've learned as the water heats up and summer approaches the bite will be amazing. The ones worth catching will slam the bait. My phrase while I'm flathead is "daddy don't play." lol



After I set the hook mine is "COME TO DADDY"

then its "GET THE NET! GET THE NET!"


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## tips n tails (Mar 2, 2011)

Lol you guys are a hoot. I'm just hoping I'm not waiting 3 yrs and later this week I can get out further up stream. Last yr I launched my boat over at Guest Lake and it was LOW 18 ft boat isn't what you want. I see a lot smaller boats that I think are ideal for that part of the river.


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## drifterfisher (Oct 9, 2009)

Talking about water levels,I cant launch or come in way down on 87 if the tide is out.But I did get a part for my 18hp Evinrude today,so hopefully I'll be able to put in way up on Hwy 2 now with my "new" 14' aluminum boat.
CatHunter have you fished that far up Yellow? It's very shallow for the most part,and you cant go up river from the bridge unless you drag your boat over logs.


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## drifterfisher (Oct 9, 2009)

tips n tails said:


> Lol you guys are a hoot. I'm just hoping I'm not waiting 3 yrs and later this week I can get out further up stream. Last yr I launched my boat over at Guest Lake and it was LOW 18 ft boat isn't what you want. I see a lot smaller boats that I think are ideal for that part of the river.


If you get tired of fighting Yellow river,take a trip up to Gantt Lake,its fairly easy to catch them there,just find some structure in deep water(30')


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## tips n tails (Mar 2, 2011)

Drifter I've thought about Gantt. Maybe even for a crappie or two. I really love yellow though it's such a diverse river system. A lot of backward sloughs and areas too explore. You still over in Baker? That launch over at 87 is where I use to always launch yet like you said when the tide is out it can be hard to launch.


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## tips n tails (Mar 2, 2011)

Also have you fished shoal any? Last yr I was in salty bass talking with the owner and he had a picture of a huge crappie which I think his son caught on a Senko worm in shoal.


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## drifterfisher (Oct 9, 2009)

Yeah I'm over in baker/blackman. I havent fished shoal in a long time,havent had a boat that would float in it.Thats all about to change as soon as I get up in the morning.I'm hoping to try out the new boat tomorrow night on yellow,prolly in milligan.
Gantt has some good crappie,mostly at night though,the traffic is horrendous during the daytime now that its warm out. Get with me sometime and I'll take ya with me,I've got my bigger boat rigged just about right for Gantt.

How big was the one you saw in the salty? My bro caught one this past winter(froze our butts off) that went 18"....its on the wall.


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## skiff89_jr (Apr 1, 2011)

Dang 18" is huge. I caught a 15" one at talquin that i regret not getting mounted lol.


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## tips n tails (Mar 2, 2011)

I think 18 in sounds close too. Very nice fish. I was pretty impressed for s river like Shoal too produce a gish like that. So your bro caught one that big from Shoal? Where do you typically launch in Milligan to get on yellow? How big is your boat? Yesterday I went down yellow river tf where the scrap yard, drive down to the water adjacent to the train tracks pull up and there's a car with 3 people 1 female 2 male and a white Toy Tun truck with a cop dressed in black cargo pants grey shirt that said police on the back busting them on something. I parked start walking down to the river and he says you ll have to move so I did respectfully then he quickly turns his truck around facing out guess he didn't like the tought of getting trapped I've been trying to find a launch close to Cview that will allow me too launch my boat. I've even considered wading the river.


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## jcoss15 (Oct 11, 2010)

tips n tails said:


> I think 18 in sounds close too. Very nice fish. I was pretty impressed for s river like Shoal too produce a gish like that. So your bro caught one that big from Shoal? Where do you typically launch in Milligan to get on yellow? How big is your boat? Yesterday I went down yellow river tf where the scrap yard, drive down to the water adjacent to the train tracks pull up and there's a car with 3 people 1 female 2 male and a white Toy Tun truck with a cop dressed in black cargo pants grey shirt that said police on the back busting them on something. I parked start walking down to the river and he says you ll have to move so I did respectfully then he quickly turns his truck around facing out guess he didn't like the tought of getting trapped I've been trying to find a launch close to Cview that will allow me too launch my boat. I've even considered wading the river.


I launch there all the time (I live in Milligan)the river is really low now you need a jon boat to get around. Tons of stumps, logs, and shallow bars...however there is also some fine bass and catfishing here you just have to work for them.


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## tips n tails (Mar 2, 2011)

jcoss15 said:


> I launch there all the time (I live in Milligan)the river is really low now you need a jon boat to get around. Tons of stumps, logs, and shallow bars...however there is also some fine bass and catfishing here you just have to work for them.


Damn you launch right there? right by/underneath the tracks? Its hard for me to imgine good catfishing and bass with the water being so low, they must really be confined to their deep holes during the day.


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## jcoss15 (Oct 11, 2010)

tips n tails said:


> Damn you launch right there? right by/underneath the tracks? Its hard for me to imgine good catfishing and bass with the water being so low, they must really be confined to their deep holes during the day.


Not right under the trussel... if you keep left on that road it goes down to a nice concrete ramp with parking lot and picnic tables...there used to be a old dirt ramp under the train tracks long time ago, but the actual ramp is up river from the trussel. Also that part of the river is on a long straight that is always low; there are a couple big holes up and down from there.


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## drifterfisher (Oct 9, 2009)

Yep what he said.I'm going to try out the "new" boat tonight,thanks to advice from Shane Livingston my lil 18 now purrs like a kitten.

The 18" crappie came outta Gantt,back in Dec or Jan,it was one of those bone cold nights,the side of the boat was iced over.We have caught several in the 14-15" range,but that 18 was large compared to them.The bigger ones have slowed down/over run by the 8-11" sized ones.

But I'm after some cats tonight.


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## screwballl (Feb 1, 2011)

Wirelessly posted

I am hoping to hit the Shoal at the south end of Cview since I live in Niceville and want to do more river fishing in my 14ft jon boat (only have 36lb trolling motor for now).


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