LIVE BAIT ONLY
Be prepared to try a new form of catfish fishing. Angling for flatheads is much different than targeting channel catfish. Oddly enough, traditional catfish baits such as night crawlers, chicken and beef liver, stinkbaits, sardines and anchovies can be left at home. The best way to catch flatheads, hands down, is with live bait: small carp, goldfish and bluegills. These fish are looking for a meal, rather than a snack.

"It's a whole different kind of fishing," said Smothers. "I mean, once you set your clicker, and you hear the bite for the first time, you'll be hooked."

As you probably know, it's against the law to fish with live bluegills just about anywhere in California. However, the Colorado River region has an exemption that enables anglers to use live baits.

"It's exciting to get hit with a huge live bait in freshwater. It's something that we don't get to experience in most California waters," Smothers said. "The strikes are very exciting, especially at night."

Flatheads are more likely to take live prey, be it tilapia, bluegills, redear, crappie, carp or goldfish.

"I don't know why," Smothers says. "But the locals say that the flatheads will only take the live bait."

Smothers has tried the Catmando bait and mackerel. The channels will take it, but the flatheads haven't yet, he said.

You can use live bait here, but you can't bring it from any other body of water. California law prohibits anglers from catching bluegills or other panfish in one water and transporting them to another for bait. Therefore, most anglers arrive in the evening and catch a dozen or so bluegills from sloughs or canals leading into the Colorado River. Then as night falls, the bluegills become bait. Catching them is easy as long as you can cope with the extreme heat.

Some anglers head to Asian fish markets and buy live carp and goldfish for bait as well. But this can get expensive -- quick.

Smothers said that at night, the river is a different world. It's incredibly dark, and the only sounds you'll hear are frogs. That, and line screaming off your reel.

"And you know they are biting a nice-size bluegill, so you are thinking that it's a pretty big fish to eat a bluegill," said the catfisherman.

TACKLE
While most anglers here haven't been exposed to braided line, it may be the best option. The reason is simple: You have to handle 50-pound fish, and for anglers heading into the tules, that spells doom.

With mono line, chances are you aren't going to be able to horse the fish out of the weeds and tules. Nevertheless, most locals employ 30- to 40-pound mono anyway.

When using the live bait, Smothers fishes with an 8/0 octopus circle or 10/0 Big River Bait Hook by Gamakatsu.