Interesting article I thought…
Freshwater anglers in the Florida Panhandle are being convinced to catch and eat the ugly flathead catfish, which is an invasive species.
By SUSAN COCKING
[email protected]
WEWAHITCHKA — It might be the ugliest fish in North America — with mottled brown torso, mean little wide-set eyes, and a huge maw fringed with whiskers. It’s the flathead catfish — an exotic invader of river systems in the Florida Panhandle that gobbles just about any native fish (and other assorted wildlife) that doesn’t eat it first.
But the flathead also tastes really good, so the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, with a big assist from North Florida catfish guru Don Minchew, is enjoying success in convincing anglers to catch and eat them.
Like most invasive species in Florida, these pesky predators are nearly impossible to eradicate.
“The flathead is a very tough, durable fish,” veteran FWC fisheries biologist Dan Dobbins said. “You could throw them in the back of a pickup, cover them with a wet tarp, and drive a couple hours, and they’d still be alive.”
The flathead is native to the Mississippi River drainage but started showing up outside its range in the 1950s and ’60s. Dobbins said the first ones appeared in the Apalachicola River in 1982 and have since spread to every Panhandle river from the Ochlockonee west to the Alabama line. The world record for the species is 123 pounds, caught in the Elk City Reservoir in Independence, Kan., by Ken Paulie in 1998. The Florida state record is 49.39 pounds, caught in the Apalachicola in 2004 by Tommy Fowler using a live bluegill for bait.
Minchew, 61, city manager of this tiny Panhandle town, started fishing for flatheads in the late 1990s after being challenged by his wife Angie.
“I only started because she said I didn’t know how,” Minchew said. “I said, ‘I’ll show you.’ I caught 36 of the 37 we hooked.”
His personal record is 44 pounds and his largest one-night bag was 27 fish.
For the past 15 years, he has been running a popular catfish tournament trail, which drew 130 anglers to his hometown from as far away as Illinois and Arkansas for the Florida Catfish Classic, held Sept. 23-24.
“I promote catfishing and I promote this area,” Minchew explained.
The tournament targeted flathead and blue catfish — another exotic freshwater species that has less impact on native fish because its preferred diet is the non-native Asian clam. A flathead weighing just under 30 pounds took the $1,500 first prize.
Minchew said fishing for flatheads in North Florida rivers is a lot like bottom fishing for big grouper in the Gulf. Anglers need heavy conventional tackle, large hooks, egg or bank sinkers and live bait, such as bluegill, warmouth, shellcracker and other bream species. Stink baits and dough balls don’t work, he said.
Minchew prefers to fish at night when the big cats are known to emerge from the deepest parts of the river and lurk near fallen logs just off the banks to ambush prey. Like grouper, flatheads often dash for cover when hooked, so it’s common to lose multiple leaders, weights and hooks in a night of fishing. To counteract that tendency, he favors 6/0 conventional reels on stout rods loaded with 50-pound-test line and 80-pound fluorocarbon leader.
“Structure is important,” he said. “They’ll lay up there and eat whatever comes in there. Our fish are on steroids. They fight a lot harder than in other waters.”
Over the years, Minchew has extracted a variety of stomach contents from the flatheads he fillets, such as baby ducks, squirrels and snakes, in addition to the usual bass, other catfish and bream species.
The flathead’s ability to adapt and thrive means it likely will spread south and east to the St. Johns and Suwannee rivers, Dobbins said.
“They’re survivors,” he said.
