Bartlett Flatheads

[tgaab]

Been out to Bartlett a few nights in the past month goin after crappie and flatheads. Done decent on crappie but the flatheads are givin me trouble. Finally hooked into one that felt pretty decent last Monday and it popped my 30# braid. I think he got it wrapped around a rock by the look of the line when I got it up.

 

With the new moon coming on thursday I want to get back out there. Been fishing under a light in about 15 ft of water. Shad have been pretty abundant. Crappie nail the shad and use live blue gill for the flattys. I'm over the crappie though and want to land a monster flathead. I've done a bit of reading and I see the phrase "deep pools" with no current quite a bit. What is considered a deep pool in a lake like Bartlett that is over 100ft deep? Any tips on structure to look for and what depth to fish? I've been anchoring around the mouths of coves. Any tips would be appreciated!

[missedagain]

Sounds like the articles you were reading are talking about fishing in big rivers back east. If you are fishing at night those flatheads come shallow to feed. The food they like hide in shallow rocks so that is where I would fish for them, I wouldn't anchor and spend all night in one spot either if your not getting bit within an hour then move on.

[silencedmajority]

I've had most, if not all, of my large flatheads caught in 2' - 8' of water at night. One thing I've found that is very important to my success in hooking into large flatheads is keeping artificial light off the water. If I am shore fishing, I never run a lantern where the light can hit the water.

 

I mostly figured this out when landing a big flathead at night, I have been able to get them to shore quickly but I noticed when I flicked my headlamp on they would immediately react and go on another run. In my experience, they are very light sensitive, so using a crappie light would directly interfere with how I've had good luck.

[mr.smith]

Flatheads are predators. Fish where the bluegill and baby cap are. Shallow(<10 ft) sand is what I target. Chum lightly with corn to draw in the carp and gills.

[nvmulie]

Two weeks ago we went to Bartlett and fished all night catching 80 plus pounds of fish. We used nothing but worms (13 dozen worth). We fished near the Yellow Cliff area (to the north of there). We did have two poles with bluegill on them with NO hits on them all night. The biggest was 30 lbs. Was an all nighter!

[firstcoueswas80]

I've had most, if not all, of my large flatheads caught in 2' - 8' of water at night. One thing I've found that is very important to my success in hooking into large flatheads is keeping artificial light off the water. If I am shore fishing, I never run a lantern where the light can hit the water.

 

I mostly figured this out when landing a big flathead at night, I have been able to get them to shore quickly but I noticed when I flicked my headlamp on they would immediately react and go on another run. In my experience, they are very light sensitive, so using a crappie light would directly interfere with how I've had good luck.

 

If shore.fishing, what has been your tactic to keeping the bait in the strike zone.... How do you stay with in 2-8'from the shore?

[123456]

Sinkers work well!!! LOL. I am guessing he is saying that the fish are found in 2-8' of water. I used to fish for flayheads a bunch, and always caught them in 10' or less of water and always on the bottom. I used to have the best luck with 3 giant minnows on one hook, on the bottom. We would use a seine net, and catch the minnows from the river. When it is mid-day to evening, I would fish deeper holes. When it was night time, I would always move into the shallower water and thats usually when the fun really begins.

[Outdoor Writer]

The best time for catching big flatheads has passed. Here's an article I wrote more than 25 years ago. Mickey DelRe died quite a few years ago.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Verde River Whiskerfish

I looked at my watch. It read 3:30 a.m. Even though the brightness seemed to hint the dawn of the May morning would arrive soon, the sun would remain hidden behind the eastern mountains for at least two more hours. Glancing up, I saw the cause of the surprising amount of light. The full moon, nestled among millions of stars, looked like a giant spotlight surrounded by an uncountable number of tiny flashlights -- all pointing their beams down on the Arizona landscape.

 

My two companions, stretched out on their folding cots, had fallen into a steady rhythm. Each of them took turns to provide an unwelcome symphony of snores, frequently accompanied by an assortment of short grunts and low whistles. For me, any attempt to sleep would have been futile, regardless of how deep I poked my head into my sleeping bag to shut out the incessant snoring. Thankfully, my shift to stay on vigil would last another hour. By then I would be tired enough to sleep through the music of cacophony of a rock band.

 

I rolled to my side and peeked around the edge of my sleeping bag, beyond the place where Mickey Delre and Duke Tartaglia echoed the other's snores. Two of the three rod tips, silhouetted against the light playing on the water, stood still and straight. The third, however, was bent and bobbing.

 

I scrambled to my feet, searched for my shoes and yelled, "Fish on."

 

My fishing partners, no doubt still drowsy from the sudden awakening, stumbled toward the water. Delre, seeing it was his rod that was twitching, grabbed it and reared back. The fish returned the tug, then raced downriver, stripping more line from the already depleted reel. Only a few wraps remained on the spool of the level-wind when Delre, still in his stocking feet, began following the shoreline to keep pace with the fish. With flashlight in hand, I stayed close behind to light the way. In the meantime Tartaglia had grabbed the net from inside the boat. Fifteen minutes later, he netted Delre's 14-lb. flathead catfish -- the sixth one over 10 pounds we had caught that night.

 

Many fishermen would consider that a decent trip. But not Delre. "Another guy and I landed five flatheads one night. The smallest was 18 pounds, and the biggest went 41. All five weighed just under 130 pounds. Those were the good old days when Bartlett was still a fishermen's lake."

 

Delre has fished the Verde River, below Horseshoe Dam where it flows into the upper end of Bartlett Lake for more than 30 years and remembers when the road to the 2,700-acre lake was unpaved and quite rough. Only very dedicated fisherman and boaters with good shock absorbers on their trailers challenged the 15 miles of shake, rattle and roll bumps. The dusty shoulders, littered with broken or lost parts, provided testimony to the roads toll on vehicles and boat trailers.

 

About ten years ago, though, Maricopa County paved the first six miles from the Seven Springs Road to the Horseshoe Lake turn-off, and the U.S. Forest Service, as part of its $3.6 million improvement project at the lake, completed the paving of the last seven miles of the gravel road and added a new launch ramp and parking area last year.

 

Future development by the forest service will add six vehicle-access camping areas, covering more than 200 acres, to the one improved site already in existence. The proposal also calls for the construction of four up-lake campsites, accessible by boat only.

 

In conjunction with the public improvements, a private complex consisting of a marina, store, restaurant and dry boat storage dock will be located a few hundred yards south of the main launch ramp. Brian and Eric Church, who won the bid, hope to have a good portion of the operation in place sometime this year.

 

Not too surprisingly, the catfish in Arizona is somewhat like Rodney Dangerfield; it don't get no respect. The Arizona Game and Fish Department conducted a survey in 1991. It showed nearly 36 percent of the state's anglers preferred trout, 25 percent chose the largemouth bass, while only 5 percent leaned toward channel catfish. Anyone with a fondness for flatheads, however, fell into the 5 percent of "all other fish."

 

Many of Arizona's warm-water fisheries contain whiskerfish, but only a few regularly give up monster flatheads. The Arizona Game and Fish Department keeps records for the inland waters of the state and the Colorado River areas. Pat Coleman of Globe took his exceptional 65-lb. inland-record flathead at San Carlos Lake, and Mike Hughes of Salinas, Calif., caught his 57-lb., 4-oz. flathead near Yuma to hold the Colorado River record. Over the years, however, devoted catfish anglers have flocked to the Verdewhere the odds of landing a REALLY big fish are always good.

 

And Delre concurs. "I really think the next state record will come from the Verde. In the last decade or so, a bunch of them have come close, including a few in the 50 to 60-pound class. So I have no doubts there's one bigger than 65 pounds swimming around in the lake. It's only a matter of time."

 

The ideal time for big whiskerfish is early May through June. The cats, which normally roam about in Bartlett Lake, move up the river then for their annual spawning ritual and congregate in the deep holes and eddies near the faster current, where they try to ambush a meal.

 

Many anglers consider the various catfish species as only scavengers. Actually, they are efficient predators and regularly feed on live fish. The bigger channels and flatheads most likely would starve if they relied on scavenging alone to fill their large bellies. This probably explains why many bass fishermen often hook catfish on an artificial lures.

 

Delre uses the fish's predator instinct to his advantage. "A lot of guys still use the traditional baits like chicken livers, dead shrimp, nightcrawlers or the commercial stink baits. These are fine if you want to simply catch some fish for dinner. But when I go after cats, I'm more interested in size than numbers. Nothing works better than a big, live bait. The first thing I do when I get to the river is gather some bait. Bluegills, carp and suckers work great."

 

Sometimes the bait gathering can be as much fun as the catfishing. When we visited the Verde last spring, we left Phoenix at 3 p.m. and launched the 16-foot aluminum boat two hours later. On the way to our camp spot, we stopped along a rocky stretch of shoreline that held an abundance of bluegills. We used ultralight rigs and small hooks baited with tiny pieces of worms to catch a few dozen bluegills. By 8 p.m, we were anchored far up the river, where the shoreline would later provide a place to set up our cots and sleeping bags for the nighttime fishing.

 

Both Delre and Tartaglia take their catfishing seriously, and their tackle reflects it. They use heavy-duty casting rods and either level-wind or large spinning reels spooled with 25- or 30-lb. monofilament. Heavy shank, 4/0 or 6/0 hooks and 1/2-oz. slip-sinkers, rigged above a barrel swivel about two feet up the line complete their setups. The swivel keeps the weight away from the bait, permitting it to swim more freely.

 

Tartaglia was the first one to hang a bluegill on a large hook. He made a long cast upstream, at approximately a 45 degree angle with the current. By the time the slow-moving water pushed the line parallel to the boat, the slip-sinker had settled to the bottom.

 

Before Delre and I could get our bait out, Tartaglia's line began peeling from his reel. He smiled and patiently waited before flipping the reel in gear, wanting to be sure the fish had swallowed the bait. When the slack was nearly out of the line, Tartaglia set the hook twice. The heavy rod bent in an upside-down "U." Ten minutes later, Delre netted a 17-pound Verde River flathead.

[trophyhnter]

Great article Tony. Back in the day, my brother and I would rent a boat at Roosevelt in late may. We would catch some bluegils and carp near the marina and head up the salt river in hopes of catching a gaint flathead. It was alot of fun but we mostly caught huge carp and channel catfish as we would give up on the live fish and fish mudpuppies and night crawlers. We did manage some flatheads over the years but not the huge models that the lake is known for. The good ol' days!

 

On a side note, I have seen big flathead come to the shoreline at night. In some cases their doral fin was exposed when I tuned on the light to see them.

[bowfishAZ]

I caught this 45lb flat in the salt in July 2010 on a live gil. Thats all my dad and I would use for bait when we fished for flats.

[reganranch]

I caught this 45lb flat in the salt in July 2010 on a live gil. Thats all my dad and I would use for bait when we fished for flats.

That's a heck of a cat Bowfish!

[idgaf]

Has anyone ever fished at the dam at roosevelt(or any lake for that matter) for cats and if so what were the results?

[Hunterjohnny]

I caught this 45lb flat in the salt in July 2010 on a live gil. Thats all my dad and I would use for bait when we fished for flats.

That is a great fish there! Nice job!

[Coues&Bass]

I heard that the pending state record was caught at San Carlos before the lake was shut down. Anyone see any pics?