Full Bass?

I went fishing this morning. I put out 2 tip-ups. Just about when I was getting packed up to come home, a flag went up. I walked out to it. I see the line off to the side and moving real slow. I take the tip-up out of the hole, take the line & set the hook. Pulled out a nice Small Mouth. I go to get my pliers to take the hook out, he spits my minnow out while I'm fumbling for tools. I pick up the fish and--what the heck--a 4" Bullhead is in it's throat that was ahead of my 4" Golden Shiner. That's a first for seeing that. I've seen them have fish in their throats, but never a Bullhead...

He was a hungry one Larry.

I was reeling in a blue gill last night and I looked down my hole and I saw a northern swimming around. I pulled the blue gill out and the damn northern JUMPED out of my hole after it.

Over in Wis they use madtoms for walleyes. Here they use bullheads for flatheads during the summer.

Lots of predators eat bullheads; you wouldn't think so with the spines and all, but most everything will take the smaller ones.

The ones they use for the big flatheads run up to 8" or so. Flathead fishermen around here guard the locations of their bullhead bait holes almost as jealously as where they fish for the big mudcats or where crappie fishermen have their favorite spots.

:RoflHey you guys should have saved those stories for the Friday nite campfire in may!! Lol:Rofl:Rofl:Rofl

Amen Kevin......lol

Hey no1. What is a Madtom?

Some folks call them stonecats. There is a whole genus, Noturus, with dozens of species, mostly just a few inches long. Pretty much little cousins of the bullheads, just like the bullheads are little cousins of the channel, blue cats and flathead catfish.

Those little buggers have venom glands at the base of their spines, normally causes about as much discomfort as a bee sting, but reactions vary and can be quite serious. For me it is on the order of a bubble bee or a wasp sting, but the discomfort and the swelling lasts quite a bit longer. For all of that nearly every predatory fish species eats them.

Quite some years ago, we seined up one escorting a whole bunch of babies, just little dinky things, but they got their spines are tangled in the minnow seine. Trying to clear it I got one stuck in a knuckle, which proceeded to swell up and stiffen, taking a good week to clear up. I was hopping around there for a bit when it happened, which is where the name comes from. A mad or crazy acting guy, a "mad Tom". Some folks barely notice, others react quite a bit more intensely.

A lot of our plastic tails imitate one or another type of madtom, many of which are often misidentified as very small bullheads. Google has a whole bunch of images if you want to have a look.

I have fished for them since I was a kid. I learned real early how to take them off a hook. Once in a while I slip up and get poked. It doesn't bother me too much. Usually gets a little red is all. I fillet them and skin them, pretty good eating...