Bauer and Smith weren't the only anglers to land trophy flatheads on artificials. Here are some facts on "big ones" taken the past two years: Tim Herman of Lincoln, 42 pounds, Lake McConaughy, May, Fat Rap; Bruce Dyer of Aurora, 40 pounds, Sherman County Reservoir, August, unspecified artificial lure; Richard Waldren of Juniata, 36 pounds, Harlan County Reservoir, August, Shad Rap; Dennis Holliday of Lincoln, 36 pounds, Harlan, August, Bandit crankbait; Ryan Windhorst, of North Platte, 34 pounds, Harlan, July, Rapala crankbait; Larry Sabin of Gothenberg, 46 pounds, CNPPID Canal, April, Paddletail Shad; Kevin Wikoff, Lincoln, 44 inches, Branched Oak, April, crankbait; Jerry Randall of Valley, 40 inches, Sherman, September, crankbait; George Huff of McCook, 33 inches, Swanson Reservoir, August, Storm Hot-N-Tot.

According to Rod Badberg, a big flathead on the end of your line is worth a lot of fishing time whether it tries to eat an artificial or a live bait. The Lincoln angler, who catches most of his yellow cats on a jig-minnow or jig-crawler combination, hooked, landed and released around 70 flatheads running from 2 to 45 pounds at Branched Oak last year. He had 16 that qualified for a Master Angler award, which calls for a minimum weight of 15 pounds or 32 inches in length. The total weight of the 16 exceeded 438 pounds.

"I'm hooked on fishing flatheads at Branched Oak," he noted. "I've been fishing there for about 15 years, and no matter how many I catch and release, I can't wait to get hooked up again -- they are great fighters."

Badberg starts fishing for the big cats as soon as the ice goes out and stays with it through much of April. He loads his spinning rigs with 6- or 8-pound-test mono, ties on a 1/2-ounce jig and sweetens it up with a big minnow or a crawler; he then heads for deep water near structure that he's known the cats to use in previous years.

"I started fishing for the flatheads around 1990 after I caught some while fishing walleyes with a jig-minnow rig," he recalled. "I think it was the following year when I got serious about the yellow cats. They were running 2 to 6 pounds that year, and then the next year I was catching fish in the 6- to 10-pound class. Since then they have become heavyweights. I think I had a half-dozen over 40 inches last year."

Last year the Master Angler records showed the top five cats taken by the Lincoln angler as including a 46-incher caught on March 5, a 44-inch fish caught on March 15, a 46-incher and a 43-inch specimen on April 3, and a 45-incher on April 5.

The angler looking for a fight will find the flathead a worthy opponent, Badberg asserted. "If you haven't hooked and played a big one you can't believe the strength they have," he said. "I fish with light line, and my fishing partners agree that the contest equation comes out to about a minute per inch. I have had a couple of guys with me when they hooked into a big one and could barely stay with them until we could get the net under them."