Seanstone
Catfish Freak
Multi-Specie Catch and Release Angler
Posts: 1,166
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Post by Seanstone on Mar 21, 2011 20:06:00 GMT -5
I have been doing a little early season scouting for new spots this year. I have found a few lakes within an hour and a half drive from my house. Some of which are large 2,000 acres and others that aren't so large (25 acres). Some of the smaller lakes are under fished and possibly not fished at all for catfish. Do I risk the chance of fishing small lakes with limited populations of flatheads and hope there is a large one lurking? I guess the real question I have is, Do I overlook the small lakes and fish the larger lakes? If so at what size do I call a lake too small, 10 acres, 50 acres, 250 acres? Another possible question would be, whats the smallest body of water that will allow a flathead to grow to maximum potential size? I have read tracking studies that have shown that flatheads seldom move over 200 yards from their primary dens/homes. If this were the case a flathead wouldn't need more than 10 acres. (A complete guess without doing math.) Given the best case scenario, plenty of food and structure, what do you guys think? I'm not looking for anything scientific just opinions based on experience. Scientific data doesn't hurt though.
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fishstick11
Member
Hunting for flattys with friends... Is their anything better
Posts: 177
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Post by fishstick11 on Mar 21, 2011 20:54:58 GMT -5
I believe that there is not to small of a body of water as long as they have at least a fair population of Flatheads for the body of water holding them.
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papaw714
Catfish Freak
"Pass It On Before You're Gone"
Posts: 506
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Post by papaw714 on Mar 22, 2011 2:02:19 GMT -5
Sean I've seen some huge flats pulled from farm ponds, I guess if the food is there anything is possible.
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Seanstone
Catfish Freak
Multi-Specie Catch and Release Angler
Posts: 1,166
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Post by Seanstone on Mar 23, 2011 13:03:19 GMT -5
Thanks for the info guys. I have never had an experience with a flathead in a farm pond. I would assume that he ate almost everything in that pond. I would really like to get as much input as possible from people on this topic because I really haven't made up my mind yet. Just throw out some opinions and or stories to help me decide whether or not to fish smaller lakes.
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Post by bassmassey on Mar 23, 2011 20:32:28 GMT -5
that's a pretty interesting question........it would be hard to fish for flatheads without knowing forsure they are there............then again with alot of patience you might find some sweet secrets for yourself.......
my take on it is, if a lake is only 20 or so acres then it must only be a lil bitty creek backed up........which probably didn't hold flatheads...........so unless someone threw enough in there to start a breeding population I wouldn't waste my time. Think about the river/ creek running through the resovoir and if or if not flatheads would be native to that watershed........
just some of my thoughts, look forward to others input......
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Post by katfish on Mar 23, 2011 21:38:38 GMT -5
It is my opinion that small ponds or lakes will not produce trophy flathead. It takes lot of forage fish to feed flathead to reach trophy size. I think it is better to fish long hours on large bodies of water capable of maintaining heavy weight fish.
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Post by catmaster12 on Apr 9, 2011 7:53:06 GMT -5
I think farm ponds can hold fish over 40 pounds. All u have to do is put small minnows in the pond and they will feed off them. Now they probably won't get as big as the cats in the Ohio but they get big. I've seen them get pulled out of farm ponds over 40 too!
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