Contemplating My Existence As A Beginner Flathead Fisherman

When I first began this journey a year and half ago, I was not aware of the emotional and psychological roller coaster I was about to ride called “Reservoir Flatheads”. With the World Wide Web at my fingertips I engulfed myself in every video and piece of literature I could find. I also reached out to anyone and everyone that I could find and picked their brain regarding these muddy bottom monsters. After all of my reading and speaking with multiple people there was a problem. Everyone had different strategies, different gear and different views of the predatory habits of these fish. It was my job to go through all of this information and find the constants that lie underneath each individual’s acquired style. I found what I thought to be the constants and last May, I loaded up the car with all my gear and headed to the lake with the dream and the confidence that tonight would be the night I would land a 50lb fish. The night came and went with out even a nibble on my lines. On the drive home I thought to myself its ok, it was only your first trip. I proceeded to go weekend after weekend with the same results. Most people would give up at this point and time. It takes a certain amount of fortitude or insanity to continue pushing yourself to go out. The month was now September and flatheads were starting to move into deeper water and gorge themselves on food preparing for the long winter ahead. That night was like all of the others I had witnessed for the last 4 months, silent. That morning I proceeded to clean my fishing area up while thinking in my head “Why do I keep doing this to myself”. As I am just about to take my rods out of the water I hear that magical sound every flathead fisherman urns to hear CLICK…….CLICK…….CLICK. I reached down and turned the clicker off, brought the rod up to waste level and engaged the real. I let the fish take all of the slack out of my line and pull the rod out away from my body. With all of my strength I set the hook like a finishing move from Mortal Combat. Feeling the connection of steel to flesh and seeing the bend in my rod for the first time is something I will never forget. Once I got the fish netted, I was overcome with joy and accomplishment. The fish weighed in at 26lbs, not a trophy to most but to me it was a state record. That was the last opportunity I had that year. I spent all winter doing more reading and scouting in the hopes that next year would be my year. It felt like years had passed but finally the ice had melted and the water was warm enough for the sluggish giants to start moving again. I started out my first 4 trips of the season with the combination of missed hook sets and equipment malfunctions. This would upset most veteran guys, but not me. This meant that I finally started fishing the right locations with results and I knew it was just a matter of time before I met Mr. Lowjaw. It is now the first week of July and the fish were on the verge of spawning. The spot I picked was an old stump field where I knew the fish would be. The night was filled with Hoot Owls and coyotes howling at the moon but no movement on my lines. I’m laying in my cot half asleep when I hear my clicker start to go off. I get out and grab my rod, engage the reel and set the hook. Upon setting the hook I thought I fowl hooked a stump because the rod stayed doubled over. Luckily I was wrong and at this point I knew I was hooked into sizable fish. After numerous drag screaming runs I got the giant netted. I could not <a believe my eyes when the scales showed 42 lbs!! All of my hard work and determination had finally come together in this one moment of triumph. I wanted to write this article in the hopes that someone reading it is considering the sport or is feeling the way I did last year. This sport will test you as a person and as an outdoorsman. I can promise you that there will be times where you want to throw your rods away because you can not stomach another night without out a fish. I can also promise this, when that time comes and it will when you land your first fish or your first big fish you will feel like you are on the top of the world. You will look back at all of those nights leading up this point and time and laugh knowing that this moment made it all worth EVERYTHING !