25 flatheads a day, what limit? Channels are a diffrent story and unless they are pounded theres no need for a closed season.
Because flatheads winter up by laying in holes and don’t move much its easier to take them, and quite a few if the conditions are right. They say theres supposed to be sport involved in catching a fish, wheres the sport in snagging a wintering flathead, I don’t see any sport there, hooking a fish yes, but not sport.
Getting any information from down south might be ok if it makes a connection to the flatheads up here, but what about the diffrence in growth, its completely the opposite. I suspect a 40 lber may grow an ounce or two all winter up here, maybe even loose some weight though fat loss and Id almost bet its the latter. I can see a closed season on flatheads in some impoundments and areas where they might be taken more often, just because of thier slow growth rate and vulnerability, unlike channel catfish. They are a resource that can be over harvested, if it caugth on by quite a few people. Theres the old meat and potatoes theory catching them but in some areas they are more vulnerable, especially over a wintering hole, heck thats hard to do in the spring months of prespawn, something doesn’t make sense there, I see your point Brian. Kind of like duck and pheasant hunting with an open and closed season, for alot of reasons.
Spring time is diffrent even during the prespawn feed when thier vulnerable because they spread out covering much more water looking for food and a place to spawn. In winter if a guy finds a wintering hole he litteraly could over harvest that section, everybody knows you can over harvest a section of river eigther in spring or winter with effective fishing. Its also the technique that is used fishing for them in winter, snagging. You find a good hole with an underwater camera and you could make a big dent in that area of the river, kind of like telephoneing during the spring spawn, both ways the odds are highly against the fish. With modern technology couldn’t they put a camera down and zero in on just the big ones leaving the smaller ones? It sounds like what makes them the most vulnerable and at what time of year.
At the minimum and maybe thats all thats needed instead of a total ban is drop the limit too 2 fish a day and not over 15 pounds during the winter months.
