closing flathead season?

[aanderud]

Nice try, Darren but his receiver is turned off. He transmits loud, but he can't hear you. Best to just give it up.

LOL -- how timely. This is a true story. Last Sunday I had a radio in our lab that was unable to receive packets. After 3 hours of debugging, we determined that his receiver was on, but the problem he was having was that his power amplifier on his transmitter was STUCK in the ON position. He couldn't power that amplifier down in between transmits to properly receive, and thus his receiver was being saturated and he heard nothing.

Same situation we have here. Between all the talking, he's missing the point. Harvest of vulnerable fish is generally frowned upon with any species -- like walleye during their spawn, etc. Similar vulnerabilities exist for flathead during the winter, and so a similar tactic seems like it should be employed. Is the regulation going to stop the snagging? Not entirely, but at least you'll stop them from being harvested during this vulnerable state.

[GooBack]

Then, maybe the season should be closed until the end of July, as the fish are vulnerable during their prespawn feed...when fishing is the best.

Maybe, the season should be closed year round. No angling. No harvest. The flatheads will thrive and will never suffer through any vulnerable period.

[harvey lee]

Tis thread has turned into a silly town thread.

All they seem to want to do is give you a hard time Darren, you will never win this one, never.

[merkman]

I truly don't understand the logic of thinking that its OK to be able to drop a jig into a pile of dormant trophy fish, foul hook one and then drag it home to eat.

[DTro]

My last words in this.

Snagging doesn't kill em, bringing them home does.

[merkman]

My last words in this.

Snagging doesn't kill em, bringing them home does.

Yet another thing we disagree on....

A certain percentage will be killed with catch and release....

there are no limits or restrictions on catch and release...

In Minnesota you can kill as many fish as you like practicing catch and release; as long as you return them to the water. Even if you snag them and kill them (while targeting another species of course ) all you have to do is return them to the water...

Of course that's acceptable loss....

Can you tell me why a harvest tag/tags wouldn't work?

.

[Rick]

Bottom line is that Flathead catfish are highly vulnerable to snagging during the winter months. Anyone fishing for them in that time period is irresponsible, at the very least unethical and really should be criminal.

To make it easily enforceable the season needs to be closed when they are vulnerable like that.

It's no different than the closed season for walleye.

Anyone who doesn't see that clearly does not care about the future of flathead catfish fishing nor are they a protecter of the Flathead catfish resource.

[TruthWalleyes]

If there is one fish i long for the most...its got to be the flathead. I'm ok with keeping them big fish in the river systems. They've brought me so much joy, and many more nights in the boat with a skunk. Makes them huge fish all the more memorable.

[nsnutter]

Who in the heck said snagging a flat kills them?!? Sure, if a guy were to snag them with a harpoon or richter anchor ... But we're talking walleye jigs folks. Give me a break ... Talk about arguing for the sake of arguing ... Starting to sound like my ex-wife. The problem is that you can snag a flathead, in the winter when they're vulnerable and inactive, and harvest it, claiming it "bit". Closing the season is not going to affect anything except prevent this from happening (the harvest) whether intentionally being caught or not ... I'm all for it. Perhaps it's time to step off the soapbox and go whine somewhere else. Cripes, its not like the dnr wants to take your guns away.

[CarpinMNRiver]

Isn't spearing pretty much the same as snagging? I think we should ban that.

[fiskyknut]

How about a designated winter snagging season for the Flatheads.

Could draw in some much needed tourism dollars for the area maybe and it would open up a whole new different fishery for these underutilized fishes !! I mean look at the mass influx of anglers we see up here on the Rainy the past 5-6 years do to special regs on the Sturgeonfish. Local tackle shops could be making money selling snagging gear, motels and resorts may see more business and so on and so on. Good for the economy of the area perhaps !!

Maybe a 1 per day limit, special regs and tags and such kinda like ND does with them there Paddlefish.

This may not go over well with the Catfish elitist's though I spose !!

[Alagnak]

Comparing catch and release fishing for sturgeon to snagging to keep and kill 'maybe one per day limit' of flathead cats is not really comparing apples to apples but- nice try at fanning the fire. Just a worthless comparison that's all.

How about a designated winter snagging season for the Flatheads.

Could draw in some much needed tourism dollars for the area maybe and it would open up a whole new different fishery for these underutilized fishes !! I mean look at the mass influx of anglers we see up here on the Rainy the past 5-6 years do to special regs on the Sturgeonfish. Local tackle shops could be making money selling snagging gear, motels and resorts may see more business and so on and so on. Good for the economy of the area perhaps !!

Maybe a 1 per day limit, special regs and tags and such kinda like ND does with them there Paddlefish.

This may not go over well with the Catfish elitist's though I spose !!

[SteveD]

God grant me the serenity to accept those things I cannot change, the courage to change those things I can and the wisdom to know the difference.

This seems like one of those times when I need some wisdom. To those that support the effort, thank you. To those that don't support the effort - I respect your right to an opinion. Life is to short to get worked up over differences of opinion. This topic has seemed to run out of effective discussion - be interesting to see what the final outcome is.

[fiskyknut]

Ooops another feeble attempt at levity on the Catfish forum on my part. Should have added some smiley gremlin deeleybobs. Figured the exclamation points would've conveyed the humor I intended. My bad !!

[Rick G]

Ooops another feeble attempt at levity on the Catfish forum on my part. Should have added some smiley gremlin deeleybobs. Figured the exclamation points would've conveyed the humor I intended. My bad !!

It's not nice to mess with the cat folks we are dang near as high strung as the bass guys but not quite to the extreme as the muskie guys

[fiskyknut]

Imagine those Giant Bullheads taking flies !

Has anyone taken a Mudcat on a fly ?

Imagine fly rod only sections !

[Gordie]

God grant me the serenity to accept those things I cannot change, the courage to change those things I can and the wisdom to know the difference.

Thanks Steve, I needed that!

[merkman]

be interesting to see what the final outcome is.

I dont think there is a person out there (including me) who dont think the winter season on flatheads will be closed.

And you are 100% right that each person can have their opinions whether overharvest of flathead catfish does indeed happen and if closing fishing seasons is the proper way to limit harvest.

In the end it will be implemented anyway.

That dont mean you have to hate it, or I have to like it.

And it certainly does not mean that we both can't express our opinions.

.

[I Da Man]

Well, I'm not sure if I'm going to help or just fan the flames as it seems Mr. Merkman is pretty set in his ways and not interested in looking at this from all angles.

My disclaimer is that I fish the Mississippi River border waters and really don't have much of an idea what's going on in the inland waters. But I feel I've done some research in these areas. I'm for closing the winter season as with most other responsible people that are interested in fishing for these unique fish.

The first task for me was to talk to a number of the commercial fishermen on the Mississippi. I'll admit, I couldn't talk to each and everyone one of them, but the ones I did speak with didn't care about closing the commercial season on flats in the winter because they were too hard to capture. They generally use a gill net in the warmer water months to capture them. Because of where they go dormant, it would be too expensive to repair their nets that were damaged. On a side note, the price of "in the round", live flats goes up in the winter months because of lack of supply. 61 cent per pound is normal.

I've talked with the largest spearing group in the midwest. They haven't heard of anyone spearing them. They are not opposed to totally closing the season during their wintering, vulnerable times.

Snagging. It is against the law. Many folks from out of state come to my stretch of the river to open water fish walleyes and sauger in the winter months. Some of these folks knowingly or not snag a flat, then continue to drift the same area looking for more. Once a flat is in the boat, it's pretty hard to tell if it's been snagged, so they end up taking it home. 10 fish of any size is the limit on the MN side and 25 fish of any size is the limit on the WI side. (Yes, there's an issue there too)

Even with all the time I've spent watching and video capturing wintering flats, I can't say they, some, one won't ever bite in the winter. Everything in my videos point to them laying dormant without eating anything. We have a biologists report that shows in a lab that flatheads stop feeding at 51 degrees.

Now your argument Merk is, are the flats in danger of being over harvested while they are in the winter dormant mode. I would say "no" from my armchair. But then again, bear season is closed during their hibernating months as well.

But to sum up my ramblings, the only people that will be effected by closing the flathead season in the winter, dormant months will be the poachers. I'm not saying they won't stop poaching, but it will be easier for enforcement to catch them and it's going to be hard to take a 40 pound flat in to collect the $24.40. X 10 (MN's limit) $244.00.

I hope that my and the other comments above will help folks that don't fish for flats understand that closing the season in the winter months is the right thing to do.

[50inchpig]

[quote=Rick G It's not nice to mess with the cat folks we are dang near as high strung as the bass guys but not quite to the extreme as the muskie guys

[merkman]

Well, I'm not sure if I'm going to help or just fan the flames as it seems Mr. Merkman is pretty set in his ways and not interested in looking at this from all angles.

[Alagnak]

Brian K- thanks for a great post/ explanation and pics. Your vids have helped me education MANY people on how vulnerable they are in their wintering areas.

50inchPig- you're hooked on the flatties. :-) Gotta love it. I hope the flats get the respect they deserve as the ULTIMATE freshwater game fish in MN. 50" ski vs. 50" flat- who wins the battle? lol

[nsnutter]

Good post Brian. Thanks for sharing

[GooBack]

Who (specifically) buys flatheads?

[Shawn Kellett]

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50", drop me a line this summer, I've been dieing to hit some flats but my boat is too pretty to make it a habit.