and if so, where do you put the hook so it pierces the air bubble? im assuming you do this and it still flops around right? and how do i rig it?

i have a pond on my property which is great for bass, not sure about cats though.

tj, don't know what size pond you have, but if you want to have some fun and have a lot of bluegill in it, release a couple flatheads in it. Gonna take a couple years, but man, you will be amazed how big they get and how quick they slim down that bluegill population.

i have a one to one and a half acre pond with a ton of bluegill/perch. where can i get them?

Flatheads love perch! Hit the trinity river if you wanna pick up some flatheads.

They're a very underrated bait. As hard as shad can be to keep alive or at least keep dead and fresh, I'm surprised more people don't use them.

You can hook them through the eye, in the tail, under the belly, just about anywhere depending on which way you want them to swim.

One other small point, just make sure you're not using white perch if thats how you refer to crappie. They can all look pretty similiar when they're realy small.

That is a terrible catfish bait, at least in the eyes of your friendly neighborhood game warden.

UF, good point. If you are using a cast net and catching perch, those small white perch, or crappie, do seem to get mixed in with the perch. You have to really go through them to be sure you do not have any game fish.
As far as I know, you will have to catch the flathead. You might be able to purchase small ones or even get them through TPWD. Now, I am unsure of this, but I think if you stock with TPWD fish, you then fall under their rules. I could be wrong on this.

Oh yeah, on putting the flatheads in your pond. I would not put more than five or six in your pond. They will wipe out the bluegill population when they get big. In the size of pond you have with a bunch of bluegill, they can grow to forty plus pounds and require a lot of food. You might consider stocking with channel cat. You are really fortunate to have a pond of that size since there are so many things you can do with it.

I've got 5 off my dock within the past 2 weeks all on bluegill.

Got this one on a perch head 5/26/09 in Lewisville lake with crappie terorist

getting off topic but an old friend of mine told me the best bait to catch catfish is...well cut up catfish anyone tried that before? Cause i want to know if its a joke before i try it...or if its illegal.

Yup.. That would get you fined...

yep it's illegal in texas .. using any game fish is illegal in texas and it'd be a good idea to read the regulations before you even go fishin again if you haven't read them already. it's a bad deal to find out you're doing something illegal by getting the education via a big ole nasty fine. they get an attitude towards you too if they catch you doing illegal stuff like that too ... it's hard to even go fishin or huntin after that and they see you they'll really give you a going over to make sure you're not illegal.

but I didn't see where this ole boy wanted to wipe his bluegill out of his pond. I think he just asked if bluegill/perch are good for catfish bait. I'm not sure why he'd want to bust their float bladder either cause that's not good to do as it'll not serve any purpose at all and it'll shorten their life span while on the hook. if you want to ruin a small pond like that then by all means ... throw a few flathead in there ... my grandpa did that with a few of his ponds thinkin he could grow the flatheads up some ... they were probably 20 lbs ... the ponds were really healthy ... had a good supply of bluegill and green sunfish in them ... two years later after three 20 lb flathead were put in the ponds they were almost completely void of smaller fish and the flathead only grew about a pound each. putting a large species of fish in a small pond will end up just ruining a healthy pond where you can go out and enjoy catching your bait for catfishing trips and throw a lure at some small to medium sized bass and what not ... put a flathead in there and the pond will just be a wet spot with one flathead and a few bluegill left that have been educated by the flathead and learned to stay out of his clutches hahaha.

Did he say cut them up or cut them open to see what they've been feeding on? One of the most fundamental rules of fishing since I was a little kid is to figure out what they're eating so you can 'match the hatch'. I'll still sometimes do this on certain types of fishing - gut the first fish I catch to see what's in its belly, then try to use the same kind of forage as bait.

Cutting them up & using them as bait is, as noted by Tiny, a bad idea and illegal.

He may have been talking about bullhead. Yes, they are technically cats, but no, they aren't game fish in Texas. I'venever used them, but hear they make good flathead bait.