Another flathead caught in the Potomac

[sega]

Just the other night we pulled up a juvenile flathead in the Potomac River near Harper's Ferry during a night dive.

That makes three I've seen caught in the Potomac (technically 2 because one was caught a little up in the Shenandoah where they connect).

I think they're slowly establishing themselves and it's probably only a matter of time til we start seeing the same size flatheads the James produces.


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[D3NAL1]

im assuming you didnt go to the CCA blue cat tournament at the beginning of the year. the majority of us caught mostly flatheads...

[sega]

im assuming you didnt go to the CCA blue cat tournament at the beginning of the year. the majority of us caught mostly flatheads...

No we went but didn't show up for the weigh in. I didn't hear anything about that that's wild. I did hear lots of people didn't catch much of anything lol.



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[Romo]

Flatheads have slowly infiltrated the upper Susky, lower Delaware and most of the Schuylkill river up here in PA. They are apex predators and will spread really fast especially if there is tidal forage like shad and herring. There are some real pigs up here even though they have not been established here for very long compared to the western PA rivers. I remember reading some study on the PA fish and game site a while back about the accelerated growth rate of flatheads in tidal river systems where they have been newly introduced. In some cases they were growing twice as fast as historical populations in established river systems throughout the south and Midwest. I spent years targeting them from the banks of the Schuylkill before I got the kayak bug. They are pretty fun and addicting to target.

[sega]

Flatheads have slowly infiltrated the upper Susky, lower Delaware and most of the Schuylkill river up here in PA. They are apex predators and will spread really fast especially if there is tidal forage like shad and herring. There are some real pigs up here even though they have not been established here for very long compared to the western PA rivers. I remember reading some study on the PA fish and game site a while back about the accelerated growth rate of flatheads in tidal river systems where they have been newly introduced. In some cases they were growing twice as fast as historical populations in established river systems throughout the south and Midwest. I spent years targeting them from the banks of the Schuylkill before I got the kayak bug. They are pretty fun and addicting to target.

Well when you want to go out after them let me know lol. They've become my favorite catfish by far


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[echo5oscar]

Flatheads are awesome. Better to tasting than blues also.

[kevinfry]

im assuming you didnt go to the CCA blue cat tournament at the beginning of the year. the majority of us caught mostly flatheads...

down by mattawoman? That is surprising. Even in winter i thought that was too salty for flatheads. White catfish have a big flat head and live in tidal waters. I caught this citation white catfish at Marshall Hall and thought it was my first flathead....excited, I called my personal fish biologist, ictalarus Bill. But Ictalarus said it was likely a monster white (flatheads being salt intolerant), and he was right! But look at the head on that bugger! No wonder i was confused!

[Huntrava]

Maybe you folks can shed some light on how and where the flatheads are being caught.

I've fished up and down the Potomac, along with Occoquan, Lake Anna, etc. and I've never caught a single flathead. Nothing but channel cats.

[Redfish12]

There are some big flat heads every year in the Occoquan when the shad are running and they always seem to be caught in the same bend. I haven't caught them any other time or around the Wilson bridge when fishing for blue cats.

[sega]

I caught this one on the tidal Potomac near DC

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sVw...&feature=share



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[kevinfry]

around fletchers, very low saline...heard that was likely place that would hold them

[Romo]

I don't buy too much into that whole flatheads not liking or tolerating salinity thing. Last week there were hordes of blue crabs shedding below the dam that separates the tidal Schuylkill from the upper reaches and it is loaded with flatheads. The salt line comes all the way up to the dam some years and they never seem to suffer a population decline but actually seem to multiply every year.

You also can't generally expect to catch flatheads with the same baits and techniques that are used for blues/channels. They will take dead baits on occasion but they really tend to stick to live meals and hang out closer to structure instead of roaming like channels and blues. Smaller ones will take dead bait and sometimes even bigger ones will when they're keyed in on seasonal shad and herring runs. Find a log jam or thick wood cover and drop a live bluegill, sucker or bullhead back to it at night and wait it out. I'm sure there are flatheads lurking down there but no one is targeting them.

[ictalurus]

The way researchers estimate salinity tolerance is pretty contrived, especially back in the old days when a lot of the work was done (ie, the 1950s ). Back then, they would acclimate a fish to a certain salinity for a while, then chuck it into higher salinity and watch what happened. Even recent studies are pretty artificial. Some studies acclimate fish to higher and higher salinity and measure how growth and weight decrease. However, fish might be able to overcome the negative effects to a degree if they can eat enough. Figuring out that break-even point would be trickier.

Another factor is that fish occupy the primo habitat first, then spread out as competition increases. It took approximately 20 years for blue cats to spread out from the tidal fresh sections of the VA tribs where VDGIF introduced them to down past the fresh/salt interface where the Virginia Institute of Marine Science trawl survey could catch them. Now, the survey has caught them at salinities higher than their lab-estimated 12ppt tolerance.

I'm a little surprised that flatheads would be in the Mattawoman because the places I've seen flatheads in the James, Potomac, and Occoquan are structurally complex--outside channel bends with vertical, often rocky walls, lots of downed trees, and a bit of current like in sega's video. The only place I've seen anything close in the Mattawoman is up by the steel wall. Like everything else, though, habitat preference is variable, and I'm sure not every flathead spot in the Midwest looks like that. Also, IIRC, there are flatheads in the Cape Fear River in NC, so maybe I shouldn't be surprised. I haven't caught a flathead without using electricity yet, so clearly it's time to soak some bluegills and perch!

[DanMarino]

Great post Bill. Information like this is a great example why I enjoy this forum.