Lookin' for Madtoms

[Aquaman01]

Hi,
I'm setting up a native fish tank and I have caught one madtom accidentally once, but would like to target them for this tank. Any suggestions on how & where?

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Aquaman
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"I think we're gonna need a bigger boat."

[mistermom]

I can't answer your question Rob; but I have a question. Whats a madtom? I see these mentioned all the time but don't know what they are. Thanks!

carpsnagger

[Aquaman01]

Well, Carpsnagger, they are a small member of the catfish family which look sort of eelish. We caught one up in Little falls - about 7" long, black, and we caught it with a piece of crawler on the bottom of some fast current (the dam's side-diverter!) I hear they are really hardy in a tank.

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Aquaman
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"I think we're gonna need a bigger boat."

[Lunker]

I think I caught one of those in mille lacs during the winter. I was fishing the bottom and caught it, about 6 " long. I thought maybe it was a baby pout, but had doubts, then seeing a pic of one later I thought it maybe was a tom. Is that possible in the winter?

[fish4ever1000]

Madtoms generally are found in streams, and do not grow larger than a few inches. You may try netting. If you try to fish for them with a tiny ice fly you'll probably only catch creek chubs, suckers, or bullheads.

[ricqik]

Well, if you live in St. Paul there are plenty of them in Phalen Lake. I used to catch them with an aquarium net for my fish tank all the time. These are the smaller ones, growing only to 5". When it warms up(mid May or later) bring an aquarium net 5"-7" and wade in knee deep water and lift over every sizable rock and you'll find them. If you go out at the right time when they're spawning you can bring the clutch of eggs home and it'll hatch too. Since I live in St. Paul I'll post back here when they are in the shallows spawning. Now is still too early.

[Aquaman01]

Thanks to all! Hopefully the info should take some of the error and trial out of trial and error

Meatballsinatra - welcome, and that's a really cool screen name!

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Aquaman
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"I think we're gonna need a bigger boat."

[Fisher Dave]

Alot of times when you get a scoop of fatheads and have the litlle *bullheads* in there they are actually madtoms... not always, but some of the time.

[Guest]

Good to hear people are interested in madtoms! We have three madtoms in Minnesota: Tadpole Madtom, Slender Madtom, and Stonecat. The tadpole is a very stout fish and looks similar to a small bullhead. You can tell the difference by the adipose fin (the one behind the dorsal fin). Madtoms have their adipose fin fused to their tail fin, whereas bullheads have a separate, much larger adipose fin. Slender's and Stonecats are much more slender bodied. They are all primarily nocturnal and the best way to catch them is a baited minnow trap placed in a stream over night. Also, if you have a seine you can set it up just below a rapids on a stream and have some peolple upstream kick the rocks around. They will swim downstream into your net.

Good Luck

Meatballsinatra

[Aquaman01]

Cool. I'll ask Buffalo Bob if he'll set some aside for me this year. I got a trap out in a culvert, we'll see tonight how lucky I am.

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Aquaman
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"I think we're gonna need a bigger boat."

[Roughfisher]

I've caught a lot of Stonecats in the Root River at night. On every cast actually. I've also caught many stonecats in the riffly portions of the upper St. Croix. Tadpole madtoms can be found in the Pomme De Terre river in huge numbers. In college we did a bioassay on the river and I caught 44 tadpole madtoms in one sweep of the net in that river.

[hydro]

Aquaman,

I used to catch madtoms all the time when seining for minnows on Clearwater. They like cover such as matted weeds. I've also had them in an aquarium but they are not worth bothering with. They will sit motionless and hide all day.

Ps. Your idea of fishing the Buffalo carp trap sounds interesting. I live just NW of the lake so maybe I'll see you over there.