Outdoor Writer

The best time for catching big flatheads has passed. Here's an article I wrote more than 25 years ago. Mickey DelRe died quite a few years ago. Verde River Whiskerfish I looked at my watch. It read 3:30 a.m. Even though the brightness seemed to hint the dawn of the May morning would arrive soon, the sun would remain hidden behind the eastern mountains for at least two more hours. Glancing up, I saw the cause of the surprising amount of light. The full moon, nestled among millions of stars, looked like a giant spotlight surrounded by an uncountable number of tiny flashlights -- all pointing their beams down on the Arizona landscape. My two companions, stretched out on their folding cots, had fallen into a steady rhythm. Each of them took turns to provide an unwelcome symphony of snores, frequently accompanied by an assortment of short grunts and low whistles. For me, any attempt to sleep would have been futile, regardless of how deep I poked my head into my sleeping bag to shut out the incessant snoring. Thankfully, my shift to stay on vigil would last another hour. By then I would be tired enough to sleep through the music of cacophony of a rock band. I rolled to my side and peeked around the edge of my sleeping bag, beyond the place where Mickey Delre and Duke Tartaglia echoed the other's snores. Two of the three rod tips, silhouetted against the light playing on the water, stood still and straight. The third, however, was bent and bobbing. I scrambled to my feet, searched for my shoes and yelled, "Fish on." My fishing partners, no doubt still drowsy from the sudden awakening, stumbled toward the water. Delre, seeing it was his rod that was twitching, grabbed it and reared back. The fish returned the tug, then raced downriver, stripping more line from the already depleted reel. Only a few wraps remained on the spool of the level-wind when Delre, still in his stocking feet, began following the shoreline to keep pace with the fish. With flashlight in hand, I stayed close behind to light the way. In the meantime Tartaglia had grabbed the net from inside the boat. Fifteen minutes later, he netted Delre's 14-lb. flathead catfish -- the sixth one over 10 pounds we had caught that night. Many fishermen would consider that a decent trip. But not Delre. "Another guy and I landed five flatheads one night. The smallest was 18 pounds, and the biggest went 41. All five weighed just under 130 pounds. Those were the good old days when Bartlett was still a fishermen's lake." Delre has fished the Verde River, below Horseshoe Dam where it flows into the upper end of Bartlett Lake for more than 30 years and remembers when the road to the 2,700-acre lake was unpaved and quite rough. Only very dedicated fisherman and boaters with good shock absorbers on their trailers challenged the 15 miles of shake, rattle and roll bumps. The dusty shoulders, littered with broken or lost parts, provided testimony to the roads toll on vehicles and boat trailers. About ten years ago, though, Maricopa County paved the first six miles from the Seven Springs Road to the Horseshoe Lake turn-off, and the U.S. Forest Service, as part of its $3.6 million improvement project at the lake, completed the paving of the last seven miles of the gravel road and added a new launch ramp and parking area last year. Future development by the forest service will add six vehicle-access camping areas, covering more than 200 acres, to the one improved site already in existence. The proposal also calls for the construction of four up-lake campsites, accessible by boat only. In conjunction with the public improvements, a private complex consisting of a marina, store, restaurant and dry boat storage dock will be located a few hundred yards south of the main launch ramp. Brian and Eric Church, who won the bid, hope to have a good portion of the operation in place sometime this year. Not too surprisingly, the catfish in Arizona is somewhat like Rodney Dangerfield; it don't get no respect. The Arizona Game and Fish Department conducted a survey in 1991. It showed nearly 36 percent of the state's anglers preferred trout, 25 percent chose the largemouth bass, while only 5 percent leaned toward channel catfish. Anyone with a fondness for flatheads, however, fell into the 5 percent of "all other fish." Many of Arizona's warm-water fisheries contain whiskerfish, but only a few regularly give up monster flatheads. The Arizona Game and Fish Department keeps records for the inland waters of the state and the Colorado River areas. Pat Coleman of Globe took his exceptional 65-lb. inland-record flathead at San Carlos Lake, and Mike Hughes of Salinas, Calif., caught his 57-lb., 4-oz. flathead near Yuma to hold the Colorado River record. Over the years, however, devoted catfish anglers have flocked to the Verdewhere the odds of landing a REALLY big fish are always good. And Delre concurs. "I really think the next state record will come from the Verde. In the last decade or so, a bunch of them have come close, including a few in the 50 to 60-pound class. So I have no doubts there's one bigger than 65 pounds swimming around in the lake. It's only a matter of time." The ideal time for big whiskerfish is early May through June. The cats, which normally roam about in Bartlett Lake, move up the river then for their annual spawning ritual and congregate in the deep holes and eddies near the faster current, where they try to ambush a meal. Many anglers consider the various catfish species as only scavengers. Actually, they are efficient predators and regularly feed on live fish. The bigger channels and flatheads most likely would starve if they relied on scavenging alone to fill their large bellies. This probably explains why many bass fishermen often hook catfish on an artificial lures. Delre uses the fish's predator instinct to his advantage. "A lot of guys still use the traditional baits like chicken livers, dead shrimp, nightcrawlers or the commercial stink baits. These are fine if you want to simply catch some fish for dinner. But when I go after cats, I'm more interested in size than numbers. Nothing works better than a big, live bait. The first thing I do when I get to the river is gather some bait. Bluegills, carp and suckers work great." Sometimes the bait gathering can be as much fun as the catfishing. When we visited the Verde last spring, we left Phoenix at 3 p.m. and launched the 16-foot aluminum boat two hours later. On the way to our camp spot, we stopped along a rocky stretch of shoreline that held an abundance of bluegills. We used ultralight rigs and small hooks baited with tiny pieces of worms to catch a few dozen bluegills. By 8 p.m, we were anchored far up the river, where the shoreline would later provide a place to set up our cots and sleeping bags for the nighttime fishing. Both Delre and Tartaglia take their catfishing seriously, and their tackle reflects it. They use heavy-duty casting rods and either level-wind or large spinning reels spooled with 25- or 30-lb. monofilament. Heavy shank, 4/0 or 6/0 hooks and 1/2-oz. slip-sinkers, rigged above a barrel swivel about two feet up the line complete their setups. The swivel keeps the weight away from the bait, permitting it to swim more freely. Tartaglia was the first one to hang a bluegill on a large hook. He made a long cast upstream, at approximately a 45 degree angle with the current. By the time the slow-moving water pushed the line parallel to the boat, the slip-sinker had settled to the bottom. Before Delre and I could get our bait out, Tartaglia's line began peeling from his reel. He smiled and patiently waited before flipping the reel in gear, wanting to be sure the fish had swallowed the bait. When the slack was nearly out of the line, Tartaglia set the hook twice. The heavy rod bent in an upside-down "U." Ten minutes later, Delre netted a 17-pound Verde River flathead.

I recently picked up this mount of two Coues I had killed several years ago but had not mounted until now. The one on the left came from Sonora and is on the back cover of the Coues deer book. The other is from 36B. The mount was meant to be a mate to the two Texas whitetails Chris Krueger had done for me a while back. He matched them up pretty well.This pic is both side by side. Although the dimensions are a bit distorted, the height and width of both are about the same. I still need to build pedestals for them.

I probably should have started a new thread in this section, but I didn't. Anyway, if you wanna see a LOT of taxidermy, check out the photos I posted of the Richardson's trophy room in the thread below. http://forums.couesw...15

Yeah, I like them youngin's because they eat good. Besides, if I didn't shoot him, you might have had a chance at him when he became a toad and promptly shot off an antler. Indeed. If I get my sheep in Dec., he'll be doing a lifesize mount for me. He also did these for me last year.

Yeah, it's quite the place. It's a separate building behind Corky's dad's place. Corky lives right next door. There are nooks, crannies and corners that I didn't even post. I'd bet there are at least 30-40 elk mounts and racks alone, and most everything in the place, including most of the African critters, were killed with an arrow.

The LAW applies to CREDIT CARDS. It probably has something to do where folks who don't pay their entire bill each month would then be paying interest on a charge where they haven't received any goods or services. On minimal amounts, the interest doesn't amount to much, but on large purchases, it could be substancial over a few months.

TJ, That would be Corky's wife, Cindi. By several minutes, she was the first person -- and woman -- to take the AZ Big Ten with a bow. Her last critter was a Kaibab bison, which she killed on the same day as Brian Hamm who also did the deed with a bow. When Corky killed his sheep with a bow last year in 22, he also completed the Big Ten deal. Cindi killed her sheep in 15C North, likely the same unit I drew. In fact, somehow Corky found out I drew and called me yesterday from the Bowhunter Happening to let me know he and his dad will be helping me. Having known and hunted with Corky for about 20 years, I can assure everyone that he doesn't need to do any e-scouting to find game. Here's a photo of Cindi with her sheep. The others are the Richardson trophy room, where dozens upon dozens of mounts taken by Corky, his dad, George, Cindi and the three kids reside. These were taken several years back, so there are a lot more now. At one time, George held the P&Y WR for Bison. Now, Corky owns that honor, and the lifesize mount has been added. Son Russell also killed a monster a couple years back.

If your CC was charged, it means you got a permit.

If I recall, in Arizona, it is ILLEGAL to charge a CC unless the product (permit) is actually sold/delivered. That's why when a person orders something that winds up backordered, it isn't charged to the card until it comes back in inventory for shipment.

PHOENIX – Arizona Game and Fish officials are asking hunters to be patient for the fall hunt drawing results because it takes time to process thousands of credit card transactions. “The computer lottery-portion of the draw process has been completed, but until all credit card transactions are processed, the draw process is not complete and we cannot post who is getting a hunt permit tag,” explained Jim Paxon, chief information officer for Game and Fish. That’s one of the reasons Game and Fish asked prospective hunters earlier this month to make sure their credit cards are up to date. Here’s how it works. Once the computer determines someone has been drawn, then the credit card information is submitted. But the process doesn’t end there. If a credit card is denied by a card issuer, multiple attempts are made to get authorization to charge it. When the credit card transaction denial is finalized, Game and Fish personnel must then determine who was next in line to get that hunt-permit tag, and then process that person’s credit information as well. In some cases, it might take multiple iterations to finalize the process on a single tag. “With more than 130,000 applicants this year for the fall draw, it’s just taking time to go through the process,” Paxon said. “If there were a way to speed up the process, we would be doing it.” With any luck it is possible that the draw results posting will become available by the end of July. “If for some reason the process takes longer, we’ll do our best to get the word out to all of you,” Paxon said."

PHOENIX – Arizona Game and Fish officials are asking hunters to be patient for the fall hunt drawing results because it takes time to process thousands of credit card transactions. “The computer lottery-portion of the draw process has been completed, but until all credit card transactions are processed, the draw process is not complete and we cannot post who is getting a hunt permit tag,” explained Jim Paxon, chief information officer for Game and Fish. That’s one of the reasons Game and Fish asked prospective hunters earlier this month to make sure their credit cards are up to date. Here’s how it works. Once the computer determines someone has been drawn, then the credit card information is submitted. But the process doesn’t end there. If a credit card is denied by a card issuer, multiple attempts are made to get authorization to charge it. When the credit card transaction denial is finalized, Game and Fish personnel must then determine who was next in line to get that hunt-permit tag, and then process that person’s credit information as well. In some cases, it might take multiple iterations to finalize the process on a single tag. “With more than 130,000 applicants this year for the fall draw, it’s just taking time to go through the process,” Paxon said. “If there were a way to speed up the process, we would be doing it.” With any luck it is possible that the draw results posting will become available by the end of July. “If for some reason the process takes longer, we’ll do our best to get the word out to all of you,” Paxon said."

My charge of $265 for a sheep permit is now official; it went from "Pending" to an actual charge a while ago.

Yuppers. After 40 years of trying, it finally happened. I had 21 BPs this time around. Not sure what hunt yet, but my first choice was 15CN and 2nd choice was 45C.

Mine got hit for $265. Guess what that is!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mine got hit for $265. Guess what that is!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11

Way to go, Dale. The fox is unique!

Neat setup!

I assume "dropping" means AFTER it was written and formally introduced by Weiers, i.e with no consultation with either the department or the commission? Glad to hear the vote is unanimous.

"We voted to have this tax under the conditions the money be spent on wildlife conservation" Whoops, forgot to ask about this one. Which tax on gear was it that the "we" personally voted on?

Yup, I was aware of all that. When did the G&F go in the red and what did those funds have to do with this? "Prior to this the AZGFD was the only state agency operating in the black , this is because of the xtra sales tax hunters and fishermen pay every time they by gear ... We voted to have this tax under the conditions the money be spent on wildlife conservation , the politicians did the same thing then - Declaring an emergency so the money could be swept into the general fund to pay off Arizona's deficit!"

One more try.... From my earlier message: Can we assume that these 54 auction permits will be in ADDITION to the 30 or so that are already allocated through another state law? Also, did either Weiers or AZSFWC run this by the game commission before going forward with it? If so, what did the commission think of the idea?

This is the second time you have posted this. Do you have a reference for EXACTLY when and where this occurred?

It's actually Jerry's brother, James, who is the Chairman.

Can we assume that these 54 auction permits will be in ADDITION to the 30 or so that are already allocated through another state law? Also, did either Weiers or AZSFWC run this by the game commission before going forward with it? If so, what did the commission think of the idea?

Bingo!! And shades of what Don Peay (sp?)of Sportsman for Wildlife in Utah has done with tags there over the last few years. Lots of hunters in that state aren't happy about it either.