Fish Tales: Not All Bites are Created Equal

IT’S NOT EVERY DAY you catch a 50-pound flathead catfish on rod and reel.

The piscatorial giants are frequently caught by trot-liners, using live perch for bait or hand fishermen brave enough go rooting around in their spawning dens.

Many rod/reel encounters with flatheads happen while the angler is targeting an entirely different species. Wayne Zartman of Bedford knows all about that deal.

Zartman was enjoying an eventful white bass feeding spree at Lake Ray Roberts near Denton when he inadvertently crossed paths with a heavyweight flathead. His bait of choice was a 1/2-ounce slab spoon, a flat piece of lead painted chartreuse and white with a treble hook on the business end.

Sand bass had been biting fairly well, Zartman said. He had already landed about 30 fish when he felt the thump of another bite. He was bringing the fish toward the boat when something much larger gobbled it up, headed the opposite direction and peeled drag off his bait caster.

What Zartman called an “epic battle” ensued. He figured he had hooked a big catfish, but said he didn’t know for certain until about 10 minutes later when finally managed to work the fish to the surface. A flathead with a weight problem had decided to munch the eight-inch sandie for lunch.

“Much to my surprise, when I went to retrieve my lure from this beast, the two of the three treble hooks were in the sand bass’s mouth and only one hook was in the catfish,” Zartman recalled. “I got the single hook out of the catfish’s mouth with a simple twist of my pliers and then did the same with the sand bass.”

Zartman said the fat cat bottomed out a set of 50-pound scales. He worked the sand bass out of the catfish’s throat and his girlfriend took a few pictures. Both fish were released unharmed.

“It’s definitely one of my favorite fishing memories for sure!” Zartman said.

Some anglers may have been tempted to keep the catfish, but it would have been illegal to do so. That’s because the flathead ate the sand bass, not Zartman’s slab spoon. Both fish are labeled as “sport fish” in Texas, and it is illegal to use any sport fish as bait.

Walter (Junior) Thomas of Alba knows the situation all too well.

In 2010, Thomas was fishing for crappie at Lake Fork when he hooked a crappie on 1/16-ounce jig rigged on ultralight gear. Thomas was reeling the crappie to the boat when a big bass grabbed it and took off.

The angler landed eventually landed both fish. The 15.69 pounder would have ranked among the Top 50 heaviest bass ever reported in Texas had it been caught on a lure or minnow instead of a crappie.

Interestingly, Thomas was already aware the catch was not legal. The angler had caught and released two fish over 10 pounds the same way the month before. Thinking there was a chance he might catch a bigger one, he contacted TPWD’s law enforcement headquarters to find out more.

Robert Goodrich, TPWD’s assistant chief of fisheries enforcement at the time, explained that it is not legal to retain any fish that is caught using game fish for bait, even if it is unintentional.

“The bottom line is you can’t use game fish for bait,” Goodrich said. “It was ultimately a crappie that attracted that fish, not the artificial jig.”

Gliding for Lunkers

We’ve all heard the old saying that big baits catch big bass. Lake O.H. Ivie guide Brandon Burks proved it last June with his 20th double-digit bass of 2022.

O.H. Ivie has been a hotbed for giants the last couple of years, and Burks is a specialist at catching them. His June whopper, a 10.13-pounder, ate a Golden Belt Customs glide bait. The eight-inch lure looks as if it might be more than a mouthful. Burks insists it is not.

“Bass are like great whites,” he said. “If they see something they want to eat, they’ll eat it—it doesn’t make any difference if they weigh two pounds or twelve.”

Burks thinks several factors make the glide bait effective at ‘Ivie. The lake has a bounty of big fish. It also has an abundant population of large gizzard shad that the glide bait does a good job of simulating.

Another is the gin-clear water that cloaks huge fields of salt cedars and hardwoods. This allows the fish to see potential meals from a considerable distance. Bass use the heavy cover to hide and wait for forage to swim dangerously close. Using forward-facing sonar, Burks actually saw his June lunker race out of the brush and nail the glide bait from 15 feet away.

“It gets pretty exciting when you see that happen,” he said.

Things can get even more dicey when you hook what you think is a fish, but it doesn’t turn out to be a fish at all.

Fishing’s Wild Side

Justin Broomhall of Jefferson got a good taste of fishing’s wild side during a Father’s Day fishing trip to Lake Cherokee, a private lake near Longview.

Broomhall and his dad, Michael, were bank fishing for catfish in Lee Creek. He said they had caught several channel cats and blue cats when the bite suddenly waned.

“I told my dad there might be a predator around that spooked the fish,” he said.

Broomhall’s intuitions were correct. He saw a bubble trail on the surface within casting distance and lobbed a fresh glob of Catfish Charlie toward it. He saw the line jump and set the hook.

“At first it didn’t budge, sort of like a log or a rock,” he said. “I knew right then, it was no catfish.”

Broomhall eventually worked the critter close enough to shore to it see was an alligator snapping turtle. Sometimes called a loggerhead because of its large head, the alligator snapping turtle is easily distinguishable by the three rows of spiked ridges on top of its shell.

The snappers have jaws powerful enough to break a broom handle. They frequently use a worm-shaped appendage on the tip of their tongues to lure fish or other prey close.

The prehistoric-looking beast is the largest freshwater turtle in North America. Also, it’s a threatened species protected by law in Texas. Turtles pushing 300 pounds have been documented, but Broomhall’s wasn’t quite that big. He knows because he got his hands on the turtle and carefully wrestled it to shore to get a closer look.

“I do a lot of heavy lifting at work. My guess is it weighed around 150-160 (pounds),” he said, “and it wasn’t very happy at all.”

Broomhall used pliers to remove the hook, took a few pictures and released the big turtle unharmed back into the lake. Word of his catch spread quickly as the photos circulated on social media. Eventually, it was picked up by local and national news outlets. Not surprisingly, he also got a visit from local game wardens interested to learn more about the fate of the dino-looking turtle.

“He’s doing just fine—a neighbor saw him a couple of days later,” he said.

 

 

 

Email Matt Williams at ContactUs@fishgame.com

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