flathead for food

[hanson]

Ahhh... We'll get them next year.

But I'm not quite sure how you'll be able to top a 55 pounder?

[maj330]

I've found one source from a survey done in 1994 on the Minnesota river (17 pools over 11 days) that reported 2200 channel cats caught vs. 49 flatheads caught and over 97% of fish came from deep holes. This comes from a search on the MN DNR HSOforum.

[Ralph Wiggum]

Wow, that explains a lot!

[hanson]

maj330-

It took some searching but I found the article you are referencing on the DNR site. It is an interesting read.

If nobody likes the Reader's Digest version that maj330 posted, I'll be more than happy to copy and paste the entire article.

[I Da Man]

Mr. Hanson (aka Mr. Break off)

I would be interested in reading the long version...if possable.

[Carlcof]

maj330,

Thanks for the info. That was just the kind of thing I was looking for. Pretty interesting. I would never have guessed the difference to be that great. I know that the difference in 2000-50 is enormus and really shows a lot, but do you think that the numbers are thrown off a little due to the flatheads tendancy to hold in really thick cover during the day? Let me know whatcha think.

Thanks again,

Carl

[hanson]

Brian-

Thats a clever little user name you selected there.

It seriously took me about a 1/2 hour to find that article on the DNR site. I never realized how much info was there if you start searching around in the fisheries dept research data.

The search function wasn't helping me out too much either. We live in the state of Minnesota and the river I was searching for was the Minnesota. Frustrating how many topics come up with the word Minnesota.

[I Da Man]

Thanks Chris!

[maj330]

I'm sure we couldc extrapolate any trend we wanted from one data point, especially 10 year old data, but a 50 to 1 difference feels bigger than what I have personally experienced. However, channel cats seem to be open to eating a wider variety of foods than flatheads so it doesn't surprise me that channels are more prevalent. Not sure if I could make an arguement for the difference being caused by inability to capture the flatheads because they were holed up in cover. The study that I mentioned reported fishing with set lines and then electrofishing. These two methods seem like they would be able to produce cats from thick cover. But either way, it's only one data point. However, at the end of the article, the author points out the no species distinction in the bag limit of 5 cats. So, maybe this and other data were good enough to cause the MN DNR to put a species distinction on the cat limit to 2 flatheads. I'll have to do more searching; I'd really like to find more recent information. As Hanson reported, I have found it difficult to search the DNR HSOforum. I've had better luck googling.

[Carlcof]

maj33,

Yeah, 50-1, pretty solid. I had a hard time finding the article you reffered to on the dnrs HSOforum. I would like to read it. Any help?

Thanks fellas

Carl

[Bagley]

I posted a link to a DNR Catfish survey here in July. It was pretty interesting. Check it out.

http://www.fishingminnesota.com/forum/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=UBB55&Number=593293&Forum=f55&Words=&Searchpage=0&Limit=25&Main=593293&Search=true&where=bodysub&Name=6175&daterange=1&newerval=4&newertype=m&olderval=&oldertype=&bodyprev=#Post593293

[jeff042479]

That is an interesting article. It helps answer some of the questions I have had in other threads. We sure are spoiled here in MN. This helps explain why I used to catch them in So. St. Paul in the fall while fishing for walleyes.

[DTro]

I was diggin that article right up to the point where it recommended an 8" sucker and a 1oz pyramid sinker

Good Luck with that 1 ouncer

[hanson]

Thanks for the link Bagley, that is the article that everyone has referenced so far.

1oz Pyramid sinker? What's that? I bet its really cute though.

[Carlcof]

Thanks a lot. Deffinatly one of the most interesting articles ive read on old mr. whiskers.

[Bagley]

That article really gives you a sense on how far these cats travel. 55 miles is a long ways. That can tell you right there that you don't always have to be next to a log jam or a deep hole to catch these fish. Altough these spots are most ideal, you could set up and fish anywhere and catch a traveler.