Description: Pylodictis
Flathead catfish are a much larger and more common fish species. However, it is one of the ugliest freshwater catfish species due to its larger size. You will find them giving a good fight on the hook and line. Flathead catfish are crucial for both recreational and commercial use, often occurring at night. We will cover everything you need to know about the iconic flat!
How much does a flathead catfish grow per year?
Flatheads are one of the fastest-growing fish in the country, except for grass carp. Flathead catfish are quick-growing. Usually, it weighs around 10-15 pounds when it is young. However, adults can reach three to four feet in length and weigh over 100 pounds, well on another day, becoming a record.
Flatheads gain 2-5 pounds per year between the ages of 3 and 8. Monster cats grow upward of 10 pounds a year. Cats have increased in weight by as much as 30 pounds in some southern rivers and reservoirs over the past 10 years. Flathead catfish reach sexual maturity between the ages of 4 and 6 and have an average life span of 20 years.
Keep in mind that this is only an average. A 70 lb flat could be 40 or 50 years old, a 123-pound fish could be older, but it could be in a fishery with more food. One common ingredient is that good water quality seems to help the bigger ones grow.
What does a Flathead Catfish Look Like?
Flathead catfish have a distinctive appearance; you cannot confuse them with other fish species, and we’ll cover that here. Besides having a flat head, it has a forked tail and a relatively long body. As they near a medium to large size, they establish a potbelly. It has beady eyes and a broad head. The eyes highlight the head’s flatness.
Its head has an oval shape. The lower jaw protrudes further than the upper, accentuating the head even more. This one has a short anal fin along the base compared to other catfish species. There are 14-17 fin rays.
The fish doesn’t have a specific color. Because it varies with the environment, it is usually mottled with different shades of brown and yellowish sides. It tapers to a whitish or lighter mottling on its belly.
Like the other catfish, flatheads also come with sharp and heavy dorsal and pectoral spines. Nicknames are not uncommon due to their appearance, also known as the mud or yellow catfish.
What do Flathead Catfish Eat?
Flathead catfish are predators. It ambushes its prey by waiting for it under cover—the fish usually feed at night. Adult flatheads are opportunistic feeders and eat only other fish like gizzard shad, bullheads, and carp. On the other hand, young ones feed on insect larvae until they become about three inches long, when their diets enlarge to include other small fishes. Young flatheads usually feed on clams, crayfish, insects, and assorted small fishes such as shad, shiners, and sunfish.
So, while you fish, live fish can be good bait for flatheads, as they are unwilling to consume smelly or old bait.
Even though flatheads aren’t exclusively nocturnal, they tend to be more active at night and around June. Thus, they are usually shallower and will feed at different levels. So, it might be inactive during the daytime in the deep water or can be undercover.
What is the Habitat of a Flathead Catfish?
Flatheads are commonly found in large bodies of water. They usually prefer a big river and a reservoir as their tributaries. In a river, fish generally like to be in a deep pool where the water is slow-moving. It is also commonly found in tailraces present below dams. Usually, their local has a rigid bottom and is made of timber or driftwood.
In a large reservoir, it is found deep in the river beds at the point where the channel submerges. Commonly found throughout the Ohio River, Mississippi, and Missouri basins, Flatheads may also appear in records from Lake Erie to North Dakota.
Unique Habitat
This massive cat species, specifically the flatheads, is primarily located in large water bodies, huge rivers, reservoirs, long channels, and tributaries. In rivers, the fish prefer deep pools where the water is slow with depressions or holes and bottom areas with eddies. It could be docks, underwater structures, railroad crossings, dams, or bridge pilings.
Flatheads can position themselves on hard channel bottom or a piece of debris on the lake bottom, like old timber or driftwood. In large lakes or reservoirs, a cat is in deep water more often than not. On old river beds, cats enjoy submerged junctions in underwater channels and near the headwater tributary, all great spots to fish.
Is Catfish Good to Eat?
Flathead catfish is one of the oldest fish species in freshwater. It adapts to the environment so well that it is found worldwide, except in a few places with high temperatures.
You will find catfish on restaurant menus everywhere. Flatheads are good to eat, and when prepared in different ways, can be pretty delicious. It is known for being rich in omega fatty acids, vitamins, and minerals. The fish comes with a plethora of health benefits.
- It’s an excellent source of lean protein, the most crucial source of energy in your diet. Protein can also build and repair muscles and tissues. It serves as a building block for different enzymes, hormones, and other molecules. Including flathead catfish in your diet can help with weight loss by making you feel fuller.
- One of the highly recommended reasons to include flatheads in your diet is that they offer more omega-3 fatty acids than other food items. It may help improve your mental and neurological health. Individuals experiencing memory loss can benefit significantly from this fish.
- Many fish are high in vitamins, but flatheads are a particularly great source. A significant level of vitamin B12 is related to several health benefits. It protects against heart disease and can treat anemia.
How to Fish for Flathead Catfish?
Firstly, make sure you have a local fishing license. In most areas, fishing permits can be obtained online from the local fish & wildlife government agency’s website. These permits help to provide resources for restocking and maintaining the fishery, and in some cases, prevent overfishing when necessary. Fishing without a license can result in a substantial fine; in extreme cases, it may even lead to the seizure of property.
So, you want to go fishing and catch flatheads on the hook and line? A regular-size fish exceeds 50 pounds and is 3 to 4 feet long. Even though they belong to blue or channel catfish, the shovel-headed fish is much different in their physical characteristics and habits. Ensure you understand how they differ from their kin to identify fish correctly.
Flathead catfish are popular with catfish anglers in the river and large lakes. It provides a stubborn, deep-digging, and intense fight. Larger ones might take some time to subdue and are pursued with heavy tackle, mainly as they exist in snag-filled environs. So, bottom fishing with prepared or natural bait is a widely practiced way to fish for flatheads.
Essentially, getting big flatheads by the lower jaw is often the best way to land them, no matter the technique. This practice could lead to a way to land your record game fish. Other anglers near you may record and keep a record of fishing at night, and even in wintertime. The fish’s pounds may not matter to you, but keep in mind the game of choosing the right bait. Covering usually leads to winning the game and getting the record.
Continue to read; below are a few tips you can follow while fishing for flatheads.
How do you catch flathead catfish?
When fishing for flatheads, you can use a hand line or a fishing pole. Many others refer to the third technique as catfish noodling.” It’s a unique approach to fishing but effective once mastered. These options could yield an angler’s dream catch of a delicious fish.
If a conventional method is chosen, the best tackle recommended for catching flatheads is at least a 7′ medium/heavy action rod (minimum size), and a bait-casting reel is best. 4/0 to 8/0 hooks are best, not smaller or larger, based on your bait and the size of the fish in the water, with no float. This might sound overkill; the gear is too much for freshwater fishing. But flathead cats are giants with big mouths, and your equipment, line, baits, and tackle should be significant too.
If you plan to keep one of these fish, you should focus on the smaller ones under 10 pounds, as they are more common and easier to catch. The daily and possession limit is 10.
Think Like a Predator
The first thing to do while fishing for flatheads is to grasp the bushwhackers. They may hide behind driftwood piles, submerged logs, snags, toppled trees, and riverbank cavities to ambush their passing prey carefully. They aren’t like their cousins and cannot go for extended chases. They roam very little during the night.
Knowing these will improve your chances of catching flatheads. Make sure you fish during the daytime and focus your efforts on shady near-shore and dense cover as you would for a Grass carp fish. Extracting them from their spots is not that easy. Nevertheless, if you fish using heavy, tough tackle, it is possible.
Drift in the bait afloat and be alert.
Learn About the Loner
The large flatheads are aggressive fish. They tend to be aggressive towards their kind. Thus, a primary piece of flathead habitat hardly has more than a single heavyweight adult. Hence, it might be useless to keep fishing around the same spot after you have caught one. So, grab one in one location and then move over to some other place. A common practice is to see more flatheads when fishing.
Do Not Drop Deads
Several anglers think that large flatheads can eat almost anything. Flathead catfish typically scavenge and are not particular about their bait or food. However, this is only applicable to small flatheads when fishing. Young ones’ weigh only a few pounds and get attracted to chicken livers, stink baits, crawfish, worms and bait like live fish on a line.
However, if you seek heavyweight flathead fish, remember these baits will not work for all fish species. They don’t eat invertebrates for dinner; water temperature may differ in how the flatheads eat. The bait for a giant flathead is another live fish. Consequently, it would be best if you used that to entice them. Some right choices are suckers, chubs, goldfish, carp, sunfish, and bullheads. Keep in mind that conditions can vary significantly when fishing in a lake versus a channel versus a river.
What to do with flathead catfish?
Flathead catfish are a favored freshwater fish among amateur and professional anglers. Let’s cover a favorite native species to North America; this cat is found in less than favorable underwater environments.
But the flathead catfish’s delicious taste also provides an excellent reason to fish for the species. Flatheads, Channel Catfish, Blue Cats, and Bullhead Catfish are excellent table fare. Many hardcore catfish fishermen believe a young flathead has a delightful flavor that is preferable to the other cat species. Some say it’s got a buttery flavor and prefer flathead over its plain-tasting cousins any time.
Another question has been asked: where does the aged deceased fish go? I mean, being this big, do you think you would notice these things floating everywhere? In theory, supported by the Fish & Wildlife Department, a sick fish will float to the surface when it is deceased, and a healthy fish sinks to the bottom, becoming food for all the other species in the water.
Keep Things Clean
Flathead catfish can taste and smell specific compounds in water, even in smaller quantities. It can be beneficial, as it helps zero in on the bait when fishing. However, ensure you observe how you handle items like sunscreen, gasoline, insect repellent, and tobacco. It can scare them away from the most attractive big fish-catching baits.
The flathead catfish are the toughest ones to catch of all catfish around. They are solitary and difficult to find and see. Once you hook flatheads, they put up a great fight day or night. Even the most experienced anglers are happy when they get one large catfish in a single trip.
Flathead Catfish are not the only Catfish Species.
Channel Cats, a Cousin
The channel catfish is the most famous pound-for-pound catfish family member. It’s primarily found in reservoirs and rivers of any size. Channel cats are often stocked in ponds, providing fish that are easy to hook for novice anglers, unlike the flathead.
Freshly killed baitfish may be your best bet; try shad or suckers, both make excellent fishing bait. Catfish anglers’ standard is to make batches of homemade stink bait, a favorite for Channel cats.
They use baits like chicken, cheese, blood, and fish parts, allowing them to be mashed together before smearing them on the line and hook. It can also be used solely as a dip channel for cats, who have superior senses. Overwhelmingly, most are caught at the bottom of the lake. In cleaner water, channel cats can suspend, providing the opportunity to land them on a hook, line, and tackle with a float.
Win against the Flathead Catfish?
It helps to understand their movements, habitat preferences, and seasonal behaviors to succeed in fishing for any species. Channel cats are unique and have different habitats in bodies of water. Their movements in creeks and rivers, including small streams, find them going upstream in the spring. In these cases, you can locate them by locks and dams. Due to the changing currents and depths of water, tributary mouths can be hotspots. Look for places where smaller creeks enter larger rivers.
In summer, giant channel cats are in holes in streams, rivers, and mid-depth runs. The river that stretches through the wooded valley is often the ideal place. Look for channel catfish in the larger rivers near dams and other structures, such as bridges. Even barge mooring areas that break up the current and create habitat diversity. Don’t overlook areas with logjams, either.
Another Cousin, the Blue Catfish
Like many of their cousins, the Big “blues” live in the river channel or reservoirs. In the Southeastern regions and the Eastern side of the U.S., they are not picky about their diet, as they will eat live baitfish or dead bait off the bottom. These big blue catfish are more likely to be caught suspended in open water when feeding, mostly when shad or other baitfish are nearby. Again, this is uncommon for flatheads.
Favorite foods for blue cats include skipjack and shad. It’s not uncommon to catch giant blue catfish over 80 pounds on cut chunks of bait. They particularly like to eat Asian carp—your line and hook size depends on the fish’s length in your water. More giant cats use a whole baitfish or cut chunks for medium-sized fish. A variety of baitfish types is good practice; adjust your bait for the size of the fish.
Blue catfish, unlike the flathead, like the current. In rivers, they are along steep dropoffs, ledges, dams, flats, and channel edges. These habitats depend on all seasons; they all function as long as there is water flow. In colder water during winter, they generally look deeper in lakes and rivers. However, even in winter, a few days of mild weather can draw them shallow to feed due to the water temperature. Lakes with underwater structures, such as humps, extended points, and submerged channels, attract baitfish, including shad, over cover. Look for the blue cats to feed on them by the pound.
As described earlier, Blue cats, like most catfish, migrate seasonally, typically moving downriver in winter and upstream in June to their summer destinations. Common on big lakes, rivers, and reservoirs, where a cat looks for deep water near the structure, moving up the lake into shallow creek arms and feeder rivers in spring. They settle into summer patterns after spawning, following, and feeding on baitfish schools in the central basin. However, they can be found lake-wide depending on how widely distributed the baitfish are. Blues can also suspend in open water.
A standard rig for all cats is a slip sinker rig, which is great for catching blue cats when you want to go bottom fishing and want it to stay stationary. An old favorite is the three-way rig, which works as a drift rig along the bottom.
On the three-way rig, a single line holds the sinker, using a leader that terminates with a hook. The key with this rig is the dropper’s length, which keeps it off the bottom, and the leader depends on the depth and current. A shorter leader or longer when you want to position the bait farther off the bottom. Shorter when you may be fishing around structures on the bottom. Most big cat anglers like a J hook or circle hook, even using up to an 8/0 hook size, which may help hold them in the lower jaw. Depending on the bottom and current conditions, you may want to use a rod with a length of 7.5 to 8 feet and a medium tip. Always use a float indicator.
If you have boat access, drifting for big catfish can be accomplished using the wind, current, trolling motor, or kicker motor to move the boat. Using this technique can provide all the control over your speed and bait position. Start drifting your baits at 0.5 to 1.0 mph, adjust based on current, and when you get a strike, vary the speed until you catch the first fish and duplicate. The key is to drift along with the structure and ledges that hold fish, so precise boat control is essential, precisely where good depth finders and using your electronics will be very helpful.
MORE INFORMATION ABOUT FLATHEAD
Conclusion
In size, flatheads are the second-largest sport fish in many states, such as Texas, Mississippi, and others. Its cousin, the blue catfish, is the most popular and widely fished species in most countries.
These fish have rapidly accumulated in large freshwater rivers and basins ranging from northern Mexico to the lower Great Lakes region. Aside from its flat head, this fish looks like any other catfish.
Since agencies have begun collecting data on flats, numbers have dramatically increased nationwide, specifically in upper Potomac River sections.
Because they fished commercially, the larger fish seemed to be caught by trotlines. Rod and reel anglers have the most success with an average number of fish. The most successful locations appear to be those situated below reservoir dams. Their popularity with anglers has skyrocketed since they were introduced in many other states, where they have adapted very well. However, they have outcompeted native fish species in some cases. Other native fish populations decline sharply, disrupting some natural ecological processes that rely on a dominant species.
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