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Observe catfish in large aquariums and notice the behaviors of the three major species. Channel catfish swim smoothly up and down in the water column, mellow and curious. Blue catfish hover effortlessly, seemingly impassive to their surroundings. Flathead catfish lay still on bottom, burrowed into any cover they can find, their beady eyes emotionless if not faintly malevolent.

Radio-tagging studies show that after spawning, flatheads move to traditional summer holding areas associated with deep holes and heavy wooded cover. As water temperatures rise, so does the metabolism of the largest predator in many rivers across the U.S. Once in their familiar summertime haunts, flatheads settle into a rigid pattern—long hours of near-immobility broken by brief periods of aggressive feeding. Add aggressive to the sullen behavior of flatheads and you’ve described well their personality during the hottest days of the year.

Dr. Jason Vokoun, professor of fisheries at the University of Connecticut, tracked radio-tagged flatheads while he was a graduate student at the University of Missouri. His research shows mature individual flatheads often return to the same area summer after summer, often to within a few feet of the spot where they spent previous summers.  “Once they get to their traditional summer holding area, they rarely move,” Vokoun says. “We stayed in radio contact with some of the fish 24 hours a day, checking them every 15 minutes. Flatheads were stationary for an average of just over 23 hours a day. During the day, some of them were so immobile that I started to wonder if they were dead.”

When flatheads finally decide to move during the dog days of summer, it’s to feed. They move each evening through a milk run of feeding areas, returning to their daytime sanctums to rest and digest. Depending on river flows, water temperature, weather patterns, possibly moon phases, and definitely on their unpredictable taciturn moods, they might make a second feeding run before dawn. “Our radio-tagged flatheads had a tendency to move and feed from sunset till midnight, then back off before another feeding period just before dawn,” Vokoun says.

One Man’s Favorite

That devotion to distinct predictable patterns makes the high-temperature, low water-flow period of late summer primetime for anglers to target the hungriest, most aggressive, and largest flatheads of the year. “It’s my favorite time of year for flatheads,” says Eddie Brochin, Indianapolis fishing guide and host of Ultimate Outdoors TV. “They’re hungry because the high water temperature has their metabolism cranked up. They’re easier to find because they’ve moved to their summer holes and territories, and lower water conditions tend to keep them in specific areas, especially in smaller rivers.”

Brochin often fishes the White River in Indiana where most holes in late summer bottom at 10 feet. Unique baiting and rigging techniques first outlined in In-Fisherman over a decade ago allow him to often fish the entire width of that small river. He uses outrigger-style release clips to hang baits from limbs in logjams or bank poles along both sides of the river; balloon floats to position baits alongside logjams; and traditional weighted rigs to place baits at mid-channel drop-offs. “I’m fishing the river from shore to shore,” he explains. “It’s tricky to get all the lines out and positioned right, but it lets me cover the river for any flatheads that are moving up- or downstream.”

Brochin’s release-clip rigs, adapted from his offshore trolling setup, allow him to dangle a live baitfish directly over or alongside heavy structure. He fastens release clips to branches or poles directly over or alongside a logjam, then strings his lines through those clips back to his boat at midriver. “Release clips let me keep the bait over or beside the snags, but not in them,” he says. “I want the bait off the bottom and away from the snags. When the flathead takes the bait, he’s closer to the surface and I have a better chance of moving him away from the snags and fighting him in open water.”

Some setline anglers dangle baits on the surface, but Brochin positions his baits a foot below the river’s surface. “If you put them right on the surface they’re splashing in the air half the time, and they don’t stay alive as long. Put them a foot under and they make a lot of vibration and commotion that attract flatheads, and they stay live and active for a long time.”

Balloon rigs are another option that allows Brochin to fish over cluttered bottoms. He uses children’s toy balloons instead of a slipfloat, and often puts a colored glowstick in the balloon to increase nighttime visibility. “Clients like it, because we can say, ‘fish on the green balloon’ or, ‘fish on yellow.’ It’s really obvious at night when the lighted balloons start to bob or disappear. It adds a visual dimension to fishing in the dark.”

Brochin ties his balloons around a short piece of plastic coffee-stirring straw slipped over the line, to allow them to slide along the line, then sets the depth of the float with a stop-knot and bead. He uses an appropriate-sized egg sinker to hold the bait down, and the stopped balloon to keep that weight and bait off the bottom or suspended over structure. It’s a way of putting a bait close to bottom structure but keeping it in the clear so when a flathead takes you’re not as apt to get snagged.

Mission Intercept

Location and timing are keys to Brochin’s success. He targets activefish as they leave their daytime lairs and begin their nighttime feeding forays. When the sun settles on the horizon, they start to move out of their daytime hangouts.

According to Brochin, the timing of their move seems to be related to sunlight penetration. If the water is murky they move late in the afternoon, but if the water is relatively clear they may wait till the sun is below the horizon. In late summer the water is usually clear, so they start to move around 45 minutes before full dark. Around the biggest holes with lots of flatheads, fish often are moving from an hour before dark till an hour after dark. After that, Brochin pulls anchor and moves to flathead feeding areas so he can be set up and waiting for the fish when they get there.