Spawning Flathead Catfish, Southern Ohio

Amanda and I took the kayaks out to a local creek Tuesday evening. We met up with Russ and Wes and hit the water. We were targeting bass but the highlight of the evening came when we were dragging our kayaks up a riffle. Amanda, Russ, and Wes made it through the riffle and started paddling when I saw this.

At first I told Russ that I had saw a 10-15 pound flathead sitting in the shallows. I could tell that it had some scars on its back, probably caused from spawning activity. I picked up the camera and started recording.

As I got closer I quickly realized the flathead catfish was much larger than 15 pounds. This fish was every bit of 40" long and in pretty rough shape. It was sitting out of the current recovering from spawning. Given the water temperatures I assume this flathead will spawn several more times.

As the evening progressed, Amanda found a good bite on a green pumpkin jig and chigger craw. She caught several good bass, and even lost a 5 pound channel cat on it. (Which was my fault somehow.) Wes was floating around tossing chartreuse worms along the bank and ended up catching crappie, bluegill, and a couple small channel cats. Russ was throwing a black spinner bait and a black and blue jig. He eventually landed his first fish ever on the jig, a warmouth bluegill. I threw a hollow body frog as usual and only got one bite. I had tossed the frog over a tree limb and started to work it back when a bass blew up on it. I set a good hook but the fish somehow managed to get away.

It was good just to get out on the water and fish with everybody, share a few laughs, and catch some fish.