Matt “CatMatt” Jones is a flathead fanatic. He spends countless hours on his boat, the Flathead Battleship, scouting, researching and hunting flatheads on the Rock River. Given his proclivity for flatheads, It should not be too much of a surprise to find that CatMatt’s tip relates to flatties in the cover.
“I like to stick with a good J-hook when fishing heavy cover,” instructs Jones. “Experience tells me that hungry flatheads in heavy cover don’t move much after eating a bait.”
“Those big fish are happy in their cover and not likely to move much. Their sluggish behavior makes circle hooks less effective. If you want more hook ups under these conditions use a J-hook. Matzuo Sickle Hooks are my hook of choice.”
The sickle hooks will work with either live or cut bait, but they were designed in the first place to keep live bait on the hook better. Knowing how flatties like live bait suggests that anglers better give Jones’s tip a try.
