First flathead

[Osage1978]

Fished memorial day and caught my first flathead, 25.2lbs. I've spent some considerable money getting a custom x-heavy 7' boat rod built & this guy gets caught on my son's zebco 808 boss hawg combo from Walmart I had with me for a second rig. Caught these all on cut sunfish

 

[TedKennedy]

Great catch!!!

One of the "old guys" I used to know swore by those 808s. 43 lb blue taken on one in the Cimarron, countless in the 15-30 lb range.

I'm an old-school Penn guy myself.

 

[TinkerTanker]

Those 808s are great for beginners. All my kids start with 808s. That's a nice mess of fish, Osage! Thanks for sharing!

 

[HoLeChit]

That’s a really nice first flathead!

 

[bigred1]

Great pictures....i can taste the fish fry now.

 

[Osage1978]

Great catch!!!

One of the "old guys" I used to know swore by those 808s. 43 lb blue taken on one in the Cimarron, countless in the 15-30 lb range.

I'm an old-school Penn guy myself.

I am a Penn fan myself but don't own a single one lol

I was running a Pflueger Rocket 1375 made in the 1960's. The Pflueger is a great old reel, zero plastic or aluminum except for the handle knobs which are bakelite. I bought it off eBay new in the box with the tags still on it. I love it & it taught me to use a casting reel but it's only got about 10-12lbs max drag even with the carbon fiber drag washers I put in it ( Penn 6-155 works in the old Pfluegers ) so I'm going to retire it to a solid fiberglass heavy action rod from the same era and just use that setup for when I'm feeling nostalgic.

I've started using Diawa Sealine 47H reels from the late 80's early 90's . In fact I bought two Monday from a guy off eBay out of Michigan and was so impressed I talked him into selling me a 3rd one he was trying to rat hole.

Honestly the Zebco 808 & 888 reels have right around 30lbs max drag & metal gears they'll bring in monsters with good line and a man who knows how to use a drag

 

[Ready_fire_aim]

Wow nice haul! That’s funny about the expensive rod vs the cheap rod. That’s usually how it goes for me as well. That’s part of what I love about fishing, you never know what to expect!

i’ve had evenings fishing with big old catfish rod/rigs out catching dinks, then wind up landing the biggest catfish of the evening on a darn Crappie jig and 6lb line! Ya never know

 

[Osage1978]

Wow nice haul! That’s funny about the expensive rod vs the cheap rod. That’s usually how it goes for me as well. That’s part of what I love about fishing, you never know what to expect!

i’ve had evenings fishing with big old catfish rod/rigs out catching dinks, then wind up landing the biggest catfish of the evening on a darn Crappie jig and 6lb line! Ya never know

You're absolutely right, I always keep the weakest rig closet by because it usually gets nailed first lol