"a guy from bobtown took that cat home friday night."

--Just curious, does he just like to feast on pcb laden fillets or does he just like to kill 40 lb catfish so he can take it home and show his buddies and brag before throwing it into a ditch?

"He also has caught many Flatheads,"

--

I dont mean to preach, but just giving my opinion. What is legal is legal, and people are free to do as they see fit. I dont know the situation, details etc in the aforementioned case, but just speaking in general from what ive seen over and over through the years..

As i see it, some just dont understand how important it is that those big fish should be put back. Doesnt make a lot of sense that theyd enjoy catching them so much, yet ensure that they and others will be catching fewer of them in the future. Of course they need quite a bit of age to get that size.. Ive read that it takes a flat on average for northern state to get to 30 lb, about 15 years.. and to top it off, not all fish have the genetic makeup to reach very large size. They that do pass those genes on over an over if allowed to do so. Also a 40 lb catfish is gonnna spit out a helluva lot more eggs than a 5 lber!

I personally wouldnt eat or feed fish from the Mon river to my family, but If you wanna keep catfish to eat, you should keep smaller cats..15-16-17 inchers. They are better eating in general, and have less contaminents built up in their system than older fish and are more easily replaced in the system.

im not sh$%ten. i fished the wharf in brownsville one time with like 6 people( so i have witneses) and it was pouring down rain like when the water boils out of the drains on the side of the road. we where carp fishing and every time we brought our line in , there was toilet paper wrappd around our hooks and sinkers. im gonna pass on eating any fish from the mon.

As far as fishing, talk to the PFBC, they are ruining your sport by letting chemicals being dumped into the creeks. Go to Masontown bridge in the mornings, trucks dumping on both sides, or Waynesburg beagle club road at 2am, and watch the trucks dump. And many other sites in Greene County. They dump on hill sides,
with creeks in the field bottoms, you name it.

theres all kinds of stuff you snag down there. that place is snag centrel

No they arent done with the spawn. Though not all of them spawn at the exact same time. Also, once females lay the eggs they should be very catchable, though the males guarding the nests for a couple weeks or so generally dont feed or travel. The spawn may have come in a bit early this year due to early warm water temps that would trigger the spawn. Hopefully it will end earlier than usual.

If you really want to catch a decent flathead Id suggest forgetting about the carp & small mouth for awhile. Although some get lucky every now and then and catch a flat while fishing for other stuff, your best odds at a nice flat are with big baitfish. Things that you definately wont be catching carp and smallmouths on.

Yea, a decent size flathead won't even bother with a shiner.  Too small, not even a snack for them.  You need to go bigger than you think you need to go, then go bigger than that.  I use whole bluegills, the bigger the better.  Flathead fishing is alot of work.  You have to go catch your own bait before fishing, keep it alive, and transport it to the river. 
 
Some guys here use legal size smallmouth bass (12-16") for flathead bait, and suckers to 18" long.  Some have bait tanks full of bluegills and suckers in their basements/garage just for keeping flathead bait alive. 
 
And of course you need a rod that can handle casting that kind of heavy bait and lead.  Bass rods don't even come close to cutting it.

ORIGINAL: zater34

I have 12 ft x heavy action rods with okoma baitrunners.

 
Then you're good to go.  You do need bigger bait than shiners though.
 
In a couple more weeks, they'll be done spawning, and back on the feed.  Some of the best fishing of the year is September/October. 

that's freaking sweet, Wayne c.  You don't play around, I see!
 
Can I ask what's the total cost of a set up like that?
 
Part of the difficulty in flathead fishing is not having bait at the ready.  I have to go catch it every day, and sometimes that works out better than other times.  Keeping bait at the house would make it alot easier. 
 
Does your garage smell like a bait shop?  I ask because that'd be a deal breaker for the wife!

Thanks wayne.  That's a really good system you have going.  I think I may try to work out something similar.
 
I like the drain valve too.
 
Are you keeping bluegills or suckers in there?  What do you feed them?  For how long have you kept them in there at a stretch?
 
What kind of gasket did you use where the pipe penetrates the bottom of the tank?

I keep various fish in there. Most often bluegill. Have suckers from time to time. I really dont care for suckers. Usually when you hook them and cast out, they often just lie on the bottom unless something comes by and scares it. With bluegills, they almost continually thrash around sending out vibrations, and you can really notice the difference in your rod tip. Especially helpful in summer when current is low and water pretty calm. I'll also have a few crappie or small yellow perch from time to time too. Dont like chubs. Good bait no doubt, but hard to keep alive in warmer water of summer. Suckers stay alive pretty well in the tank, but usually just have others use them occassionally for cut bait. Once kept a small rainbow trout a buddy caught in there with my baitfish for about 3 months before letting it go.

I believe i can keep bluegill and some others in there as long as i want to basically. I generally have some bait in there at all times, use it regularly but always have some left from earlier refilling. I catch bait at quite a few locations and get certain kinds from differnt locations. Everything from rock bass to pumpkinseed, green sunfish, regular bluegill crappie yellow perch etc. Ive had a few fish of certain species that i know when they were caught that have stayed in there from mid spring all the way til fall before being used last year.

In particular i really like green sunfish. Tougher'n nails. Some of the ponds i get them are shallow and almost stagnant. Im sure they are more comfortable in my tank.

As for the plumbing at the bottom of the tank, the tank actually comes with a threaded plug that fills that hole. Simply remove the plug, and screw in threaded pvc joint with one side threaded, the other not, to glue your pipe into.. I used the white thread tape on the threads to ensure a good seal.

Key is to feed them as little as you can get away with. Otherwise you foul up the water somewhat, at least temporarily, with feces and excess food. Fish can go a long time without feeding and if i plan on using some of the blues within a week that were caught for example today, they might not get fed at all until i use some, then the remainder get fed. Less fooling around and less mess for filter to clean out. Otherwise i might feed sparingly in small amounts every 4 or5 days. Usually bread broken up into small bits or small pieces of dry catfood.

When filling the tank with water, I also add around 1 3/4 cups of salt. I think ive read that it conditions the water & also supposed to help keep baitfish healthy, slime coat intact. In the pics, my water level is down about 3 inches from usual.

 I dig hole backyard, got bait year round.
No problem
   crappy

Gave my details in reply to your post in the carp & cat thread

Dave, I change the water whenever i think it needs it not on a set schedule, but to give you an idea, this year so far, ive had bait in the tank nearly steady since early april, though early on especially, not always bluegills and have only changed the water once, and that was about 2 and a half weeks ago. I also changed the filter media out then.

The filter can get pretty nasty...very dirty inside and doesnt hurt unless its effecting the water quality in the tank. It usually doesnt and is actually supposed to get that way because its a biological filter and bacteria builds up in the filter to eat the wastes, ammonia etc.

Time between filter clean depends on a lot of things. The species you have in there, you also dont wanna feed them alot or overly often, for species like bluegill, you might also wanna, if possible, keep them in a large aerated bucket or holding tank to "purge" themselves before going into the main tank. Bluegills when first caught are filthy. Usually they turn the water in the large bucket i use when catching them brown in no time, also crap or throw up moss and other various substances. So when i get home I usually put them in another container like an old cooler, large bucket or couple of buckets and put a cheap bubbler on them till the next day when i put them in the tank itself.

You can put them straight in the tank, but if you refill the tank often with fresh bluegills this adds up and you'll be cleaning the filter more often than i do.