Red River Flatheads?

[DARK30]

http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/snapshots/fish/flatheadcatfish.html

I came across this article on the MN DNR site.....Notice what they show as the Flatheads range...the Red River? I thought there were none in there?

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cast,cast,cast,cast......

[Wiskers]

Your kidding?????? Man if there is Flattys in there they are hiding very well.... I guess that gives us just that more reason to hunt them more often.. hummmmmmm Gonna have to do more night fishing now...

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Wiskers Guiding Service
Red River & Minnesota River,for Channel Cats, Flatheads & Walleyes
Crookston, MN
[email protected]

218-280-0442

[This message has been edited by Wiskers Guiding Service (edited 12-10-2003).]

[DARK30]

I sent a couple of mails and I am convinced no Muddys are living in the Red. Sounds like they are going to change that info on the page about the Flathead's range too.

One of the helpfull "fish scientist" guys even wants to go find um in the Minnesota next year...Thanks Konrad, I'll be happy to show you and your son around.

WET NETS!

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cast,cast,cast,cast......

[Ed Carlson]

I do not think any confirmed Flatheads have been caught or netted in the Red proper for many years.

However, the Minnesota River meets up with the Lake Traverse system so their is the ongoing potential for migration back into the Red.

I have not seen any myself or seen any hard data from any of the creel surveys that would suggest a viable population in the Red.

Dark I shot an e-mail to my old boss's at the MN DNR for a clarification on this. Did the same with the NDG&F, so we will see what comes of it.

Once upon a time, many moons ago, there were big flats in the system. None have popped up, to my knowledge, in 100 years except in one tributary.

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Ed "Backwater Eddy" Carlson

Backwater Guiding
"ED on the RED"
[email protected]
><,sUMo,>

[This message has been edited by Ed Carlson (edited 12-20-2003).]

[Ed Carlson]

OK, here is the scoop from the DNR man in the know.
~~~~~~~~

Hi Ed,

I think most of the information is correct, except for the range map, which notes that flathead catfish are found in the Red River.

As far as I know, the presence of flathead catfish has not been "officially" noted in the Red River. Perhaps the best reference list for fish in the basin is Todd Koels "Distribution of Fishes in the Red
River of the North Basin on Multivariate Environmental Gradients (Koel, 1997)."

In that reference, Todd lists the following members of the catfish family (Ictaluridae) as being found in the Red River. He looked at records from the years 1892-1994, and did not list flathead catfish.

Black bullhead, yellow bullhead, brown bullhead, channel catfish, stonecat, and tadpole madtom, were the only members of the catfish family that he listed.

Koel's paper can be found at:
www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/1998/norbasin/norbasin.htm

We (Minnesota DNR) have not sampled flathead catfish in the Red River,
(nor in the Basin, I believe). If someone else knows of a recent substantiation of flatheads in the Red River basin, please let me know.

Else, I will work to remove them from the range map in the MN DNR link
that Ed provided.

Topper

PS. I do know, first hand, that there are some dandy flatheads in the
Minnesota River.

Dennis Topp
Assistant Fisheries Supervisor
MN DNR Fisheries

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(Ya-think so Eh Dark?)

(Topper was in on the studies done on the Minnesota, so he got to play with a lot of big Flats. Dennis is also the man behind the Sturgeon reintroduction programs on many systems in MN, ND, and works with Canada on these projects. He was my boss when I worked with the MN DNR on the Red River survey programs. Nice guy, loves fish with whiskers.)

Ed "Backwater Eddy" Carlson

Backwater Guiding
"ED on the RED"
[email protected]
><,sUMo,>

[This message has been edited by Ed Carlson (edited 12-22-2003).]

[DARK30]

I need to bust that 50# mark!

I was given the name of Henry Drewes (Fisheries Mgr)to contact about the question. I have not done so yet...Probably don't need to. I wonder if the Fattys would be able to survive up there?

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cast,cast,cast,cast......

[Ed Carlson]

Oh ya. I think they can and maybe do?

The Lake Traverse transition is the big stumbling block to a real migration into the Red.

I would love to see documented Flats in the central Red. So far, nothing solid. If one is caught be sure to report it. That would be a big point in the argument they need to be planted to get a better start!

I would love to see them back in the system in numbers. There is more then enough chow to go around for them.

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Ed "Backwater Eddy" Carlson

Backwater Guiding
"ED on the RED"
[email protected]
><,sUMo,>

[Boar]

hey ed, been thinking about this, Theres no doubt they can make it in the red, but dose any one actually fish for em. My understanding from the forum is that they really prefer live bait, well that's one thing I've never fished the channels in the red with, always fresh cut bait of some sort or squased frog. Also The guy I went to stu's with last summer said he had caught a flatty in the red, I said I doubt it, maybe a elepout, but then mabey possible cause having read the history on the red there have been two documented cases of muskies being caught an I doubt that anyone thinks of the red an invisions muskies either. I would like to see flattys roam the red but what would the long term effect have on channels and their prey species? Now that the channels have no barrier from lockport to us due to the dams in drayton a GF,ND taken out it would be nice to see some of big un's migrate south. Is the red really capeble of sustaining a flatty pop. The minnesota and mississippi rivers are huge in comparison to the red in depth and width. any way It would be super cool to see a flatty taken every so often in the red . Later, Boar