Indiana flathead size,age study done

[river scum]

here are the results on flathead age from northern indiana water.

21.5 inch flathead: 5yrs.

23.5 inch flathead: 5yrs.

24.0 inch flathead: 9yrs.

28.5 inch flathead: 11yrs

sorry i wasnt goin to kill any bigger fish to donate for the study. but as i see it i wont be eating anything over 5 yrs old. i dont eat many of them anyhow cause of the polution in our waters. maybe this year i can get a toxicology test done on some meat,if so ill pass it along too.

[zappaf19]

i always wondered how long it took to get to what size.
Thanks
Bill

[Ol Whiskers]

Riverscum,

Who did the study, and how do you tell the age of a flathed catfish?

[dinkbuster1]

i caught a fish at a little hole near me a few years back that was 25lb. he had a distinctive black spot on his head, and at the time i had a couple plastic tags with me and i attached one to his fatty fin near the tail. i caught the same fish 2 yrs later behind the same rockpile and he weighed 30.2lb. 2 years=5lbs. that was in 2000, like to know how much he weighs now!

[Ol Whiskers]

Be careful wth that tagging effort:

"-It is unlawful for the public to tag and release fish into any public water area."

from ODN 2005/2006 fishing regulations at
http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/wildlife/Fishing/fishregs/regs05_06.htm

[Ohio_River_Rat]

To determin the age you can look at their otoliths which are earbones that grow through out their entire life and have rings that look like tree rings one ring for every ear of growth. I've done w/bass before but not w/catfish. at least i assume this is how he did it. http://www.afsc.noaa.gov/refm/age/brief_history.htm#Fig.%201 heres a pic of one

[flathunter]

Thats more of a reason to release those flatheads, it takes a long tome for them to reach trophy size.

[river scum]

ol whiskers is rite about the tags, it is unlawfull in indiana too.

i had a friend with experience do it for me. he sectiones the pectoral spine(the one on the side) and shoulder. they do have rings like trees do.

[HoosierPoleCat]

River Scum ty for that information. Very intresting. Oh we got the rain & about 4" of snow. River is up, my poles are ready, I have time. If you got bait.

[centralcalcat]

great study. Good info to know, so what area of IN did those flats come from? Northern Central or Southern?

[HoosierPoleCat]

Those came from the northern part....

[HoosierPoleCat]

Hey River Scum check that member map out...thats pretty cool. Go east of Auburn to my road and it shows my driveway. Only one it shows on that road.

[Salmonid]

An Ohio study I just recd from ODNR showed they clipped the right Pectoral Spine to determine age growths, ( like rings on a tree)
it varied dramitically from location to location and was done on Channels, the results they got from the best lake (Tycoon Lake)
Average was 14" for age 4 and
average 16" for age 5

and slowest growth for worst of 4 lakes in Study (Fox Lake)was this:
14" for age 7
16" for age 8

so even for channels, the age to reach a decent fish is suprisingly long.

Salmonid

[river scum]

brian:

those flats came from a northern indiana river.

salmonid:

good piont bro. thanks for posting

[centralcalcat]

brian:

those flats came from a northern indiana river.




thanks just trying to get an idea of the waters I am going to start fishing this spring. It is always a challenge moving into a new area and learning how to fish new waters all over again.

[river scum]

we will get you on some nice fish brian. ;)

[HoosierPoleCat]

Brian you going fishing we us.....kewl,maybe this time River Scum will bring enough bait :p

[centralcalcat]

we will get you on some nice fish brian. ;)

Thanks, i really appreciate it. It has been a long time since I caught anything other then 5-10lb channels.

[river scum]

im starting a new policy this year polecat. B.Y.O.B.N.B. lol

[Fishgeek]

Hey River Scum, does B.Y.O.B.N.B. apply to me too?! How about I bring bait for you & Polecat instead...a big ol' bucket of wings?!

[river scum]

oh man we wont have time for eatin, with 9 rods out bro! lol no matt i will share my bait with ya. you dont hound me about running out on a hot bite,not yet anyhow. polcat, ribs me for not bringing enough gills one night a couple of years ago! i brought 28 gills to fish with on a new creek mouth. the river was on a rise, and the flats were in there buddy! we ran out in 2 hours time. thats the night we learned about fresh cut gills. the last 20 min. we were useing 1in. pieces.lol i called a buddy that traps gills in his pond for some more bait. we made the bait run for 14 more gills. took a hour to run out again( with cut gills!). let me tell ya, you can catch a 50# flathead on a 1in. piece of bait. hehe

j/k cuz

[river scum]

by the way guys, Matt is the one to thank for getting the age tests done. he didnt want to take credit for it, but he is getting it. lol

[HoosierPoleCat]

Oh no not the B.Y.O.B.N.B rule!!!! lol river scum ur a nut. Well suppose to be 53 today. Might have to venture out this weekend. Cant get my ice fishing "fix" so we might try for ole Mr. Whiskers. A nd that night we ran out of bait...WOW what a night. After that I started packing my video cam.