Hey all,
For some reason I have bullheads on my mind.

Every once in a while I remember that I really dig bullheads. Even though I bet I went on 5 or 6 bullhead catching missions to fill a bucket for flathead bait........ this past season I think I have only intentionally fished for them once.... that is, fishing just for the sake of catching them.


I don't think I have caught any bragging sized bullheads since I was a kid. I would love to find some "big bullhead" waters. What types of waters produce large bullheads, as opposed to thousands of 4" bait stealers?

what are the largest bullheads you all have caught of the various species? How big would a bullhead have to be for you to consider it a trophy? I guess 2lbs (for any of the three MN species) would really get my attention, and maybe (except for the brown) I would get pretty darn excited.

Off the top of my head my biggest Black Bullhead was 12"
Yellow was 15" and brown was 16.5"

For big yellow bullheads I hit clear lakes with good carpet like vegetation (The type you find pike over)
then use cut minnows in chunks around 1-2" long
Set out the poles (Pole for you guys :D) after dark on these weed flats. normally we set the lines and sit by the fire and check them every 15 min to a half hour.
We normally would get Big Yellows.

For Browns I hit the rock and gravel flats on my lake (Winnebago) try to find a spot where the current pushes leaf litter into piles on the bottom.
Then use cut or whole shiners again after dark. We have gotton some monster browns doing that.

For Black Bullhead I normally fish weedy muddy backwaters and ponds.
the are more simple to deal with. Gob of crawlers and wait.
Day is actually better fro them in my experience.

It is impressive to me how differently they species behave.
I rarely get all 3 on one outing unless I switch techniques.

They really are delicious too.
they have a unique flavor but a good one.

Dang it Eric
Now I want to go Bullhead fishing.
I really cant stand ice fishing. lol
I find myself getting more upset that a month prior I was in my Kayak in the same spot I need to drill through 2 feet of ice.
:D

I've got a pond back home that has excellent black bullheads in it, and it's moderately deep with heavy weed cover. On a hook and line, the largest bullhead of any sort that I've caught was a black bullhead, about 11 inches long and very fat.

Conversely, we've shocked a lot of bullheads this year for my research and also when out for other projects. The largest yellow bullhead we've shocked out of any of the creeks was only about 7 inches long, but we've ran into two black bullheads over 12 inches, and one around 14 inches. In all three cases they were the only bullheads in the pool, and they were associated with dense woody structure, usually tree root wads, and steep banks. These creeks are small headwater creeks, usually not more than ten feet across. I'd say that if you wanted a trophy bullhead, you might have to sacrifice numbers, but focusing on an area that might have just one might reveal a very big bullhead.

On a side note, has anyone ever caught a bullhead on a fly? I've caught plenty of channel catfish, but never a bullhead.

I did actually. Last summer.
There was a school of Black bullheads sunning themselves under and along lilys.
I was trying for the big gills along with them using a small nymph and picked up a number of bullheads. Really funny when I got the first one.
That was the last fish I expected.

I do agree I have got big bullheads but not in schools. mainly lone fish cruising structure to feed.

This has got to be the only group of people interested in TROPHY Bullhead waters or would use the word "trophy" with Bullhead. I find myself at home with talk like this though.

The biggest Bullheads I have ever seen were caught years ago out of Devil's Lake near Webster, WI. When I was about 12 years old my dad and I would bank fish them at night along the beach there. We would go home each night with about 15 BIG Bullheads! I am talking 2 lb+ variety. I know we caught 3 lbers on occasion too. There was a group of retirees from Illinois and Iowa who came up every year for big Bullheads exclusively.

I think larger lakes that produce big panfish have big Bullheads. Yellow is another for big Yellow Bullheads. I can't remember the kind of Bullhead but I would guess Browns and Yellows. I will have to dig up some old photographs to be sure. When I was 12, we just called them "Bullheads."

I have a pond where I was able to catch them everytime I went out for them this past season. I had a few that were MAYBE ten inchers but I had so much fun with my daughter and a my friend and her young children that the size didn't matter. Literally it was hand over fist.

I kept a bunch of them all summer, they were really cool to have. Although I used them as bait on three occasions (Smaller ones, not the ten inch ones) I didn't catch any. It is fun just to catch them though. At least I think so.

I think back to my childhood and how catching a bullhead was a bad thing. You know, you needed thick leather gloves and pliers! Oh, am I glad that I am enlightened now about what fishing is all about. I love those bottom feeders.

We always pick up big bullheads in the Shellrock River and the Mud Lake drainage ditches in Freeborn County while fishing for Pike with 6-8 inch chubs / suckers. They are pretty tanky.

Putting on crawlers typically yield smaller Heads.

Loren,
I have caught a fair amount of black bullheads on the fly in a local creek during the spring. Streamers dead drifted and medium sized nymphs fished the same worked fine.

Paula, when I was around 10, my brother and I used to catch zillions of the 5-10" variety from a small lake..... and line them up in the road for a "speed bump". Misguided kids will be misguided kids, but I could kick myself. My mom did cook some larger ones I brought home once. They were delicious!

I used to catch big ones out of White Bear a long time ago. I'll bet that it is still a good bullhead lake.

I saw the biggest yellow bullhead of my life this year. I was guiding a local dude for channel cats and he insited on using his own tackle and some berkly power cat bait. I was schooling him with cut bait on the channels. But he caught two of the biggest yellow bullhead I have seen.

Also I have caught black bullhead through the ice in Febuary and March. In shallow weed flats on panfish gear. Mostly on real small lakes with stunted panfish.

As for browns I caught most of mine ar night while lindy rigging a crawler for walleyes in summer.Browns seem like; big lake = bigger fish.

We are planning on trying to ice fish on the little pond to maybe get a better idea as to the depth and stuff. It is REALLY pretty small but will be an adventure.