Tim "Doc" Lange
plange@woh.rr.com
All Rights Reserved By Author

   One of the first things I do when I arrive at my launch site is a take a good look at the river after I get out
of the truck. I'm looking for things that I call "signs," things that tell me what the river is doing before I ever
get on it. I watch the boats that are sitting in the water, are they floating past me or are they sitting in one
spot? Look for logs, sticks, dead fish, ducks or geese in the water, again are they sitting still or on the move.

   When there is current flatheads will be spread out all over the place so you are going to have to go after
them.

   I usually head for shallow water or water that is loaded with obstructions. Now, obstructions can be
several different things, the obvious things are trees laid down in the water, stumps, large boulders, concrete
abutments, and feeder creeks into the Ohio.

   But the obscured things are locations where flatheads like to hide or, should I say, lay in ambush. Like
the large barge cylinders that they tie barges to. Big holes wash out on the downside current area, but don't
overlook the area right in front - current piles up in front and creates an eddy.

   The same rule applies to barges. The area directly in front of and behind parked barges is another area
that is overlooked.

   The heavy riprap rock at the entrance to the marinas on the Ohio. Docks along the river edge deflect
current and offer shade during the day. Bridge pillars, again the front and rear and even along the sides of
them. Shallow gravel bars, ones that you can see and those that you can't. Ice breakers, very large concrete
structures that keep ice from forming on the river in the winter months. Discharges from factories along the
Ohio. Bends in the river, mainly the outside ones, trees and other floating objects get piled up and are forced
to the river bottom by the current then they become structure for a flathead.

   Structure is home to a flathead. They are lazy so they like to lay behind structure that diverts the current,
something comes by then they go after it.

   When there is little or no current I usually head for deep water or creeks.

   Deep water I mean water that is twenty foot or greater in depth, thirty and over is great, but deep water is
limited on the Ohio, the average depth is about fifteen feet. The area down in Indiana is where I have found
the most consistent deep water, fifty feet or greater. Deep holes all over the place with structure down in the
hole or at the head of it. Deep water is where a flathead's resting place is located, during the day they rest
or try to rest, if a meal comes along well, they're going to jump all over it.

   I try to fish areas where there is a little of both deep and shallow water when the current is very weak. As
darkness falls on the river flatheads move out of the deep holes and head to the shallows in search of food.
I like to have bait waiting on them before they ever get to the shallow water, using both cut and live offerings.
Hey, give them the choice and let them select their meal.

   Lynn and I tease each other a lot about our choice of bait, I use live shad and she uses fresh-cut shad.
I say that the live bait attracts flatheads by getting all excited and a flathead can feel that excitement and
they take her easy offering of cut bait. Lynn says that flatheads zone in on her cutbait because they can
smell it in the water and it attracts the flatheads, and that's why she will catch more flatheads in a night of
fishing.

   I can't argue the fact, I sure do a lot of netting for her on a night out on the river. Who knows which one of
us is right but I do know this much, we both know how to catch flatheads. Not too many men have the great
partner that I have, so I'm very proud of her and I listen to her input. Most of the time she will know where the
fish are as well as me, and two heads are better than one when the fishing gets tough. So many times she
will bale us out on locations to fish when the fishing is slow.

   Creeks are another good spot, baitfish love creeks and flatheads love baitfish. Again, anytime there is an
influence of water it will produce oxygen and it will draw baitfish to the area. Lack of current will stack
flatheads up, now they are very territorial they have been doomed to live a life of solitude so no other flathead
in his right mind will dare go into another flatheads domain, he will just become another meal for the bigger
fish.

   This is very obvious during the spawn when they fight for the right to court a female. If I catch a large
flathead in a hole most of the time I will go and move because of the above reason.

   The biggest thing to remember about a flathead is where the baitfish are that's where they will be, they live
to eat and it takes a lot of fish to fill their enormous appetite. I feel that they don't travel great distances
except during one time of the year and that is during the spring.

   When the water starts to warm up to about the fifty degree mark most of the bait starts migrating upriver,
they are stopped by the structure of the Meldahal dam and I think every fish predator out there knows this
so they all head there for an easy meal. The bait can't go anywhere and shad and skipjacks love highly
oxygenated water. This does not happen when there is heavy current all during the spring. When there is
thirty to sixty days of real high water and heavy current the migration just does not happen.

   Again if the current is right and the weather is stable it will happen. In 1996 it happened and I've been
waiting since that time for this phenomenon and each year the floods come and ruin the migration, maybe
in 2001 it will be the year. One can only hope.

JJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJ
    I can be reached at at my email address<plange@woh.rr.com>
or look for me out on the "Brown" this spring but,
when the river warms up then I'm off to there!

Thanks,
Tim "Doc" Lange

Doc's Website: <http://www.hookedoncatfish.com>
Ohio River Catfishing at it's finest.