beavermachine

Has any one ever caught a "Bullhead" through the ice on a tip-up?? I couldn't believe it when this fish came through my hole! It was right during the middle of the day while I was pike fishing.

Pygmy

Funny you should mention that...I caught 5 big bullheads yesterday on tipups..I was fishing for them intentionally, using pieces of nightcrawler for bait..Surprisingly, bullheads will run like a pike or a bass and strip line off the spool like crazy..Fresh bullheads for supper tonite...YUM..!!....

buckhunter14

that's weird. I have never heard of that. I thought they went into a type of hybernation during the winter and bury themselves. cool pic!

lethalconnection

HELLO now thats what i call an ugly mugnice fish, as for the rare through the ice thing i wouldnt know dont have them up here in Alberta.

Pygmy

Buckhunter...The "hibernation/bury in the mud" theory is a popular old wive's tale...My father passed it on to me years ago... But over the last 50 years I've caught far too many bullheads through the ice while jigging for panfish to believe that it was true...

The other day was the first time that I ever targeted bullheads while ice fishing, but it certainly won't be the last...Those 'heads tasted REAL good out of that ice cold water.........

Roadkillwarrior

Ant nothingbetter than seeing that pretty face come out of the hole-lol!!!
Never caught a bullhead but have caught my share of channels through the ice.

childers

whats the diff. between that and a catfish?

Pygmy

There arenumerous species of catfish, and bullheads are among the smaller, although not the smallest species.. There are three species of bullhead catfish...Brown bullheads, yellow bullheads and black bullheads...They seldom weigh more than a couple of pounds, with the average being much smaller, unlike larger species such as channel cats, flathead cats and blue cats which can weigh from 10 pounds to more than 100 pounds...

On the other end of the spectrum are stone catfish, which seldom grow more than 4 or 5 inches and are very popular as bait for smallmouths and walleyes ...

rankbull

wow I am going to have to try that. Just spent the day trying to get a carp on the ice but could not locate them. Any more tips for bullheads?

Pygmy

Rankbull...I'm just getting started on this, but here are a couple of things..

Rather than suspending the bait just off bottom, I'm using small pieces of crawler, perhaps 1/3 of a worm, and letting it lay right on the bottom...That way the bottom feeders like the bullheads will still pick it up but you have less trouble with bait stealers like small sunfish and shiners..I've heard that some guys have had good results with pieces of raw cut shrimp, but I haven't tried it yet...

I've been fishing around midday...Caught 7 yesterday in about three hours from 11:00 to 2:00 PM...