I am heading out tonight for my first time ever after Flatheads.

I will post how it goes when I get home tonight. I am going with my "Bullhead Crew", which is my friend and her girls who are 6 and 8 years old. Stephanie is at her grandparents so she will miss out.

I am pretty excited and will take pictures of course.

Goodluck... I'm sure that you already know, and I am certainly not a avid angler yet, but I have had good luck and good strikes on the Minnesota with live medium suckers, weighted at the swivel with a 2-3 ft. line leader.

Good luck tonight Paula. Flatheading is loads of fun. I am looking to make my way down to the MN soon. Darn gas prices, work, and good fishing are keeping me from roaming to far from home.

I have stocked up on Bullheads so that is what we are using for bait tonight. That and crawlers. :P

ACK.........Tonight was NOT a good night.

We didn't catch ANY fish which was the least of my not a good night.

First my husband made me go to the ER because I stepped on something and put a nice gash on the bottom of my little toe. Well, the "good" news was that it needed stiches but it had been too long........so NICE. I didn't even feel it when it happened.

SO, we got to the river at 8....a few bites on crawlers.....but Nothing.

NOTHING.

Which would be a great end of my story, but it gets BETTER.

When hauling all of the stuff back up to the car I tripped off the curb and fell flat on my face.......I am fine. I wanted to cry. NOT GOOD. My knee is bloody and swollen. I hit my head and that hurts. Thank God I was wearing pants. My friend brought up the lantern and it just got better. I had five poles in my hand........INCLUDING my Berkley Glowstick that I got this spring that this was the first time using it. WELL......the kids brought me all the pieces that broke off the poles. THEY ARE ALL busted. I cried on the way home.

SO............that is the end of my fishing..........for a VERY, VERY long time.

I even have sand in my teeth.

SO..........if the stick was still given, I'd ask for it.

BUT, I still have the bullheads to look at. :)

Oh NO!!
I have had days like that
Disaster is the only way to describe it.

Rest up Heal up and get back on the horse, the Flatheads are calling.

Take care
~Josh

Paula - I'm so sorry to hear that! Sometimes life can just smack you in the face for no reason.

I'm glad you're not seriously hurt.

Are any of the rods salvageable? I'm pretty good at fixing them if they're not broken in the middle. I'm going to be extremely busy for a week or so, but if you want me to take a crack at fixing them, I will.

I am sure Cory could fix them up.
You would be amazed at the repairs that can be done on rods.
They may not look pretty after wards but they get the job done.

5 rods at once! Oh crap. That is awful. Its one thing to get skunked, its another thing to break A rod, let alone 5. Just pick up the pieces, get some new tips (if you can), buy some new rods and get back on the river. Trust me, you'll feel better after catching some fish.


Ty

What a crappy night! Going home skunked can be a common occurence when flatheading, but the rest of your night just added insult to injury!

Ah...............today is a new day. I am feeling a lot better about my bad night today. Especially when I saw that I had earned THE "STICK". That MADE my day!

I have to go out and look at the damage that was done to the rods and reels I was carrying. I was looking at it by the light of the Coleman lantern.

Thanks everyone for making me feel better.

I guess I went out last night thinking it would be like when I fish for Channels above the dam. I thought there would be a lot of them...........I thought maybe it would be easy to catch the small ones..........I also thought we would catch some Drum.....anyway, I should have taken the girls to fish for Channels since I do pretty good at my favorite spot for those....but as I told them, this was an "ADVENTURE".

Thanks guys!

Thanks for the stick!

Are any of the rods salvageable? I'm pretty good at fixing them if they're not broken in the middle. I'm going to be extremely busy for a week or so, but if you want me to take a crack at fixing them, I will.[/quote]

Thanks Corey. I have to go get them out of the back of my truck. I didn't even bring them in the house last night.

Fortunately, they aren't expensive rods but still.........I have depleted the supply! LOL.

PaulaS wrote:

QUOTE:
I guess I went out last night thinking it would be like when I fish for Channels above the dam. I thought there would be a lot of them...........I thought maybe it would be easy to catch the small ones!

I fished all summer in 2006 without getting one. Now that was a terrible streak of bad luck, but they're definitely not an easy fish to catch!

Come to think of it, I don't even have one under my belt this year, but I haven't had much time to fish for them :(

Thanks for the offer of help Corey. I went out to assess the damage by the light of day versus by the light of the Coleman and the damage wasn't as bad as I thought. After changing parts around I was able to salvage two rods so I only ended up losing three. they are damaged beyong help.

So, I am glad I saved two anyway.

Way to go on, picking the pieces up. It'll get better.

As many have said, flatheading is a frustrating adventure. It's best to bring quiet music, fish another pole with crawlers if you can and possibly friends and beer. Don't GO OUT flatheading...simply go out to have fun...while...a...rather...large piece of bait is in the water! :)

Channels can be tricky as well but thankfully I've had decent luck with them. Only one 10 lber...but at least a dozen 5-7 lbers in the past 2-3 years...not even trying. Only a couple were on cutbait. All crawlers.

I've done good this year. All in the 20" range, 2 5lbers on the RC, probably a 4lber on the Chippewa and a 4.5lber on the WI. But much like you I'll be looking for the flatheads. They'll take GOBs of worms too, nice flats. But live bait works best.

The drum are all over down here. They're occuring in sloughs now due to all the flooding. Nice sized ones(of course they were probably trying to spawn). Anyways, it's a good Catfish bait and they're obviously beyond plentiful this year.

Hey,

I wanted to say Thank you to everyone who posted or sent me a message about the death of some of my gear. I appreciate others words of encouragement when my little disaster occured.

I AM going to get out for some Channel Cats in the next week I think. I have a favorite spot for them.