Thanks for the report.

Never done well on Bullhead with anything other then plain old night crawlers, or dead pieces of fish. I have done well on Channel Cats with chicken liver. In the case of Hog, it appears that the fish are Brown Bullheads if the picture given in January is true representation.

Bullheads can be a real problem as they can overpopulate. They spawn in May so I wish I could fish it at night and get some of the larger ones. In my day, any bullhead 12" or more would be on my stringer. Yum Yum. I see that some 16" were caught, and that is almost unbelievable....... almost. I have caught them that size before and if there are some that big then the cats are not overpopulated yet.

I see Hog as a real problem in that with Catfish in place, they have no higher tier predator to keep the populations down. Because it is a winter fishery only, we humans cannot do our job in keeping them down either. Catching cats through the ice is not a high percentage method. Catching them this time of year is not a high percentage proposal either.

Still, if I remember correctly, the season at Hog is over the end of this month, so catch them now if you can. Wish I could join in them, love the bullheads, filleted, soaked in milk for 10 minutes, drained, dredged in flour and cornmeal, fried....... getting hungry now.

I caught lots of bullhead through the ice this year at night and as I was trying to catch crappie it was not a welcome experience. I was using a light that may have attracted them. I caught tons of channel cats through the ice this past winter using cut bait. If there are channel cats under the ice they will find your bait. They like fresh perch or bluegill. I have never tried liver though.

@anglinarcher & @bullpine, thanks for the tips; Any east side lakes that are open to fishing at night? I was under the assumption that the "parking areas" and lake access closed at sundown. Makes it hard to catch fish that tend to be active at night. @bullpine, have an east-side lake you'd like to share that has a plethora of bullhead that need thinning?

Actually, eastside waters are all open at night unless noted otherwise. Liberty Lake public docks and launch is closed at night, but Newman is open. Newman has a bunch of bullhead, but IMHO the launch dock is too shallow except for early spring. Liberty Lake is open at night, and is loaded with bullheads, but you cannot fish at the launch.......I have launched my boat, had my wife take the trailer and come back in the morning. Sprague Lake was killed out, but there are bullhead back, and a few channel cats, so they will be increasing in numbers. Fishing at night at the state launch is legal and worked well in the past. If you camp there, Long Lake, aka Lake Spokane, also has bunches of bullheads. There are others, but this will get you started.

Sprague Lake used to be real good for catfish and is probably right now just no ones has tried it lately or said so if they have. I had my bullhead experience on the chain lakes in Idaho, all you want there.

I did fish Sprague several times last year at night for Cats. The State asked me to see if I could locate any Channels yet.

I struck out, but the current fisheries manager with the state did catch a couple of bullheads. Fishing at the state launch at night, about now, might just work.