What we have here is a piscatorial identity crisis. Flatheads chomp crankbaits. How much proof do we need? The predatory similarities to muskies, stripers, and other top-end marauders are striking. Curious then, why anglers rarely wiggle artificial lures past their Cheshire grins. It’s a fundamental breakdown in an otherwise logical progression of catfish presentations. Would you believe that just 30 years ago, almost no one fished crankbaits for walleyes either?

It’s impossible to know for sure just how many flatheads are taken each year by anglers who would have rather avoided the whole hassle, and gone back to pitching plugs for peanuts—bass and walleye anglers, in particular. Surely, after decades of evidence, it’s time to take the deal a little more seriously.

Consider B.A.S.S. Elite Series pro Stephen Browning. While prefishing for a March 2009 tournament on Wheeler Lake, Alabama, Browning boated an enormous flathead on a Rapala DT-10. The fish, which struck along a 9- to 17-foot ledge at the end of a creek arm, measured 51 inches with a 31-inch girth. Browning, like many bass anglers, later reported that he has taken numerous flatheads on crankbaits.

For well over 20 years, In-Fisherman editors have chronicled additional compelling accounts. They told of Missouri angler Virgil Tagtmeyer, who during daytime hours trolled deep-diving plugs in the Osage River and at the head of Lake of the Ozarks below Truman Dam. Beginning in the early 1980s, Tagtmeyer dredged 20- to 30-foot depressions in the river channel, towing Manns 15+, 20+ and 30+ plugs behind 28-pound Spiderwire Fusion. The pursuit rewarded him with a 77-pound blue, and untold numbers of 40-pound and larger flatheads.

When In-Fisherman Publisher Steve Hoffman and Field Editor Ned Kehde tested Tagtmeyer’s tactics during a May 2000 trip to Lake of the Ozarks, they weren’t disappointed. On the second day a 60-pound flathead crushed a crayfish-pattern Manns 30+, which was directly followed by a 25-pounder on the same lure.

More evidence: Pennsylvania’s current state record flathead—a 48-pound 6-ounce brawler—ate a Rat-L-Trap in the spillway below Blue Marsh Reservoir. Moreover, crankbaits have accounted for numerous In-Fisherman Master Angler Award flatheads—specimens exceeding 40 inches or 40 pounds. Most of these catches were in prespawn (late spring) or late summer into early fall.

Noteworthy also, are the variety of waters the pattern scores, including Greers Ferry Reservoir, Arkansas; Conroe Lake, Texas; Mark Twain and Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri; Swanson and Branched Oak reservoirs, Nebraska; Lake Wisconsin, Wisconsin; Keystone Lake, Oklahoma; and Grand River and Muskegon Lake, Michigan; which means it’s a tactic that should apply to a flathead water near you.

Shorecasting Chronicles

Previous catches notwithstanding, our story travels next to the plains of Nebraska, home to longtime In-Fisherman Daryl Bauer. As Fisheries Outreach Program Manager for Nebraska’s Game and Parks Commission, Bauer has a vested interest in flathead fisheries. But when you listen to his excitement for angling, you nearly forget he’s a biologist. Recently, he regaled me with tales of his quest for giant crankbait flatheads. “Many years ago,” he says, “my son Daniel and I started shorecasting crankbaits for walleyes and wipers in a string of Nebraska reservoirs. We immediately started hooking up on enormous flatheads. A lot of nights we were catching more catfish than walleyes, which made for some incredible action. Eventually, we found ourselves specifically targeting flatheads, fine-tuning our approach in the process.

“In several of our reservoirs, the best spots are manmade rock jetties that separate a creek arm from the main body of the lake. During extended periods between spring and fall, flatheads intercept shad, white perch, and other preyfish as they siphon back and forth between the creeks and the deeper water in the main lake. White perch move first, and later into spring and early summer, gizzard shad become accessible to cats, which then become the premium forage.”

For Bauer, the most active feeding periods occur during the last hour of daylight and the first light of morning. He also catches lots of flatheads during some of the darkest, most dismal weather nights of late spring, early summer, and early fall.

While the month of May offers variety catches, including walleyes and wipers, later prespawn delivers peak crankin’ for flatheads. On most evening or early morning trips in June, Bauer catches 2 to 4 flatheads. As July approaches, cats begin spawning, and a predictable lull occurs on these prairie reservoirs. Then, through the remainder of summer, shorecasting plugs becomes less consistent, as shad and other baitfish shuffle out of the creek arms, suspending over the deep river channel and other openwater zones.

Bauer says that a few groups of anglers target these fish by trolling plugs in deeper water. He’d much rather shorecast, and by early fall, Bauer’s back in action. Shad schools filter back and forth across shallow rocks where flatheads wait, at least until water temps drop into the low-50°F range.

Early this past October, Bauer beached a mighty specimen that ate a 5-inch Berkley Power Swim Shad rigged on a 1/2-ounce jighead. He estimates the fish at 47-inches with a weight in the mid- to upper-50-pound range. “I believe the fish likely would have qualified as a line-class world record,” Bauer notes. “But, it was a gloomy, drizzly night—just the way I like it. I had the whole reservoir to myself, which meant no witnesses. Still, it was an awesome fish.”

Then as now, Bauer and son do most of their fishing on foot, wading and working their way up and down the length of the jetties. “Usually we don’t wade very far into the water,” he says. “You’ve got to be quiet when you do this. If we arrive at our spot and find other anglers there, we usually just turn around and go home—it’s not going to happen. Most anglers are just too noisy and mess around with too much light. Negative activity moves flatheads off the rocks every time.

“This is important,” Bauer continues, “because we catch a lot of fish at the end of the retrieve, practically right at our boots in a couple feet of water. Lots of times in the dark we hear flatheads crushing another fish near the surface right off the bank. So we do a lot of casting somewhat parallel to shore rather than way out into deeper water and retrieving the lure in. It helps to sneak up on these fish.”