Hello New Guy from the Hamilton-Cincinnati Area

[cincycats]

I have been drifting through the catfish1 forums for years and am now here.  A lot of the names look familiar so here it goes,  I fish for both Blues and Flatheads.  I fish only the Ohio River and GMR.  I know quite a few guys on here that are from my area.  I am stuck to bank fishing no boat for now....  I know some but far from all cat  catching tips.  My current setups are 6500 pro rockets and 6500 KC series on 9ft whiskers seekers.  I use mainly circle hooks for both flats and blues, 65lb test suffix 832 and 30lb mono shock leader.  How does that setup sound?  I learned from mainly Steve Douglas and Chad Ferguson vids and another tips from helpful catters browsing through forums.  Just say no to paylakes folks!!

[Skyline1506]

Welcome, sounds like you got the right idea. I don't use circles but when I tried them I used very similar set ups. To each their own I simply prefer kahles circles work for people across the world. I would say your setups will put them on the bank. Steve is a great guy, never met Chad Ferguson but he is a great angler.

[cincycats]

Thanks,  I have been reading up on Kahle hooks and the advantage of using them especially with flat heads.  I do miss the sound of that clicker screaming.  But also have seen people using circles for flat heads too to each there own.  I'm still at a learning curve because me personally finding catching flatheads is more challenging than any other catfish species.  Its hard to hit them log jams from the bank with out loosing tackle everytime.  Any input would help.

[cincycats]

I brought up Steve Douglas to another catfisherman not on this site and he was not a fan. Guess they had met a few times but blamed Steve for "Selling out" to the commercial fisherman in KY. I think its pretty universal most real catmen have no love for paylakers. I live close to P2 and would never entertain the idea of fishing in that diseased hole of overstocked ponds. Just don't see the challenge or fun in it.

[Skyline1506]

If I fished for blues more frequently I would use circles also. I fish big baits for flathead 99 percent of the time. The other 1 percent is smaller cut and live baits for big channels. I use circle hooks most of the time for that application. I take blue cat trips when I can get them.

As far as tips for flathead, buy lots of terminal tackle, lol. Its the truth though. If you aren't losing rigs you ain't fishing the right spots. I try to keep baits as tight to cover as possible without dropping it right in. We don't cast much these days. Use a small boat or kayak to run the rigs out, bait them, then drop them right where you want them. When we do cast we just try to get a close as possible without hanging up, but you are going to loose tackle on flathead it is in avoidable. I mold my own weights and use eagle claw kahle hooks in either 5/0 or 7/0 and buy them by the hundreds and use 50lb mono. I have very little invested on the end of my line so loosing rigs is no problem.

[cincycats]

I need to buy the no roll sinker molds it would save tons those things get expensive. What i keep telling myself with flatheads is its not really the depth its the cover and for some reason i still find myself just chucking it out there thinking the deeper the better but i know its not true just a hard habit to break haha.

[Skyline1506]

Not that you won't catch some deep, because you will, but as a rule they typically feed shallow. You are right though cover is almost always more important than depth.