I love eating Flatheads

To keep this anonymous, I thought I would make a poll.

Just wondering how popular flatheads are to eat in the general IDA population.

I would like to try one sometime if a successful release was not possible, but I have no plans to intentionally kill one for the table.

Anyone who hasn’t tried eating flathead catfish is truely missing the boat. First of all there is absolutely no comparison between flathead and channel catfish in flavor. Flathead is much better to eat by a long shot. Flatheads are not scavenger fish like channel cats but instead are preditor fish much like a walleye or a bass. They eat live bait not decaying stuff on the bottom like a channel cat does. I’ve caught several big flathead while trolling/casting crankbaits and I get an occasional nice one when jigging. The flesh of a flathead is as white and sweet a meat as you can find with a much firmer texture than a channel cat. Very comparible to lobster when broiled and dipped in lemon butter. I’d say that flatheads are one of, if not the best eating fish in the river and I’m a walleye fisherman. Plus, pound for pound, they are one of the best fighting fish in the river. I’ll always keep eating size flatheads. Yum.

Eyehunter

Eyehunter, what is eating size?

I keep saying that I’m going to try one…but it doesn’t happen for a couple reasons. The biggest reason is that I’m not really interested in cleaning a fish a 2 a.m.

Also, do you keep the belly meat? I’ve heard it both ways.

I keep flats from around 3Lbs up to say 15Lbs but I’ve heard of people keeping them to eat much larger that 15Lbs.
As you know a good 1/3 of a flathead’s body is head so a 2Lb fish really doesn’t have a great deal of flesh on it.
I filet flats with my electric filet knife just like I do a walleye which means I don’t keep the belly meat. I personally don’t keep belly meat from any fish as I’ve heard it is the belly meat that contains the toxins. I do however keep the cheek meat from flatheads as I do with walleyes and saugers. My daughters used to fight over who got the cheek meat when I fry up walleye and flatheads.

I can understand not wanting to clean fish at 2am but remember flatheads are tough fish and will live in a pail full of water or a filled livewell much longer than most fish which means you can clean them after you get out of bed the next day. I go walleye fishing in the evenings at least a couple times a week and I almost never keep fish when I fish in the evenings. I don’t enjoy having to clean fish at night after I get home but I will keep a nice flathead as I know he’ll survive until the next morning in my livewell.

Eyehunter

I’ve harvested 2 flatheads on 2 seperate occasions back in ’04…a 5-lb and a 12-lb. The 5lb flat was the first one I kept and I had brought it to my grandma. She loves catfish, but didn’t recall ever having flathead. Well, later on that day, she called me raving about how delicious the flathead was, even more so than channel cat! After that it was always, “Have you caught any more flatheads?”…I guess I created a monster. Ended up catching the 12 lb’r while catfishing with granny and uncle and she just had to have it.

Haven’t kept any since then, even though I’ve had countless opportunities to do so. One day, I’ll satisfy my own curiosity and keep an eater-sized flathead, but it’s not high on my list of priorities.

eyehunter, you’re making my mouth water! I still don’t know if I could actually toss a flathead into my meat bucket though. My only hope now is that an eagle will be flying over with a two pound flathead in it’s talons- and like the commercial, release it to drop into my boat (well,canoe). I think it will be long wait for that. I don’t have a problem with people utilizing a renewable resource, and certainly wouldn’t have a problem chomping into some heavenly fish flesh…It just would be hard for me to do the deed personally. Perhaps If I lived in the south where these fish were more plentiful and available for more months out of the year I would feel differently. To me, there is quite a mystique and respect surrounding the flathead.

A good way to see the difference between a channel and a flat’s meat is when you are cleaning the fish. A channel’s meat is yellowish and leaves a fatty residue on your hands and knife. A flat’s meat is snow white (sometimes a little pinkish) and leaves absolutely no fat on you or your knife. I like to cube up flathead filets and either broil them and dip them in butter or bread and deep fat fry them. Absolutely no comparison to eating channel cat. Flats may not be the prettiest fish in the river but they are one of the best eating fish anywhere on the planet IMHO.

Eyehunter

Flats are much better eating than channels are. Like most people here, I would only eat the small ones, and those seem too much like babies to me now. They are much more valuable as a rod bender than table fare. Especially when cat guys are sticking 25-30 inch sewer pike. Now those are good eating.

Lol @ ‘sewer pike’!

I would have a hard time keeping any large fish…if only for the toxin reasons…although at my age, my smoking will take care of me before the stuff in any fish.

We here in MN can’t legally take a live fish home…much less move lake or river water in our livewells/buckets. <sigh>

Broiled with drawn butter? I need to go have lunch…my keyboard is getting dripped on!

If I want lobster-like meat, I go buy some lobster.
IMO catfish are MUCH more valuable when they are swimming for guys like us to catch.

I’ve never killed a catfish, of any species, in over 11+ years of fishing for them.

I’ve even paid cash out of my pocket to strangers to get them to release a flathead they were going to keep.

JMO

I’ve kept them in the 4 to 6 pound class and I can attest that they are truly tasty! Anyone reluctant to try the fish should just do it. It’s incredibly tasty and you truly are missing out. There’s more meat on a cat than you might think. Regarding the belly meat, I take small enough fish that I don’t think I’m really hurting myself. I kept 2 flats all year last year and I only eat a meal of fish about every other month on average. According to the dietary guidelines, I’m not in any danger.

I’m not sure about reproduction and numbers of fish in the system but if you look at daily limits, is the DNR really concerned about keeping a couple smaller ones per year? Fishing pressure is low compared to other game species and I don’t know a lot of people in this part of the world that long to eat it. I could be wrong, but I don’t think I’m threatening anything by keeping a couple small ones each year.

RB…what’s a 30+ fish that I’m going to catch and eat tonight worth to you?

The WI limit is 25…

I was going to comment on the commercial fishing…but I don’t want this thread to go the wrong way.

Stillakid? Do they taste better or worse than muskie?

If I even gut hook one, that’s when I will try one. That pretty much goes for all species with me. I would definitely like to try one after reading this though. Usually every year the only thing I keep are panfish from time to time from cool water, like in spring, winter and late fall.

Bag limits on catfish are dangerously high. On a big river without setlines, the flathead harvest is probably low enough just because of the relative lack of fishing pressure on them and the CPR practices of the guys who are good at it.

I’ve been reading and studying a lot of flathead population data from a recent DNR study in my area. The growth rates, reprodution rates and life spans are far more shocking than the average person realizes. Such as a 42 pound flathead positvely aged at 30-31 years old. Even a 10-12 pound flathead is a very valuable fish IMO.

I’ve been told to keep the info to myself until formal publication, but from what I’ve read, when they ask for suggestions, I am going to suggest a no kill rule on flatheads for the next 10 years.

RB, I hope I run into you on one of the rare days I catch a nice flathead. With the money you give me for releasing the fish I can go buy a lobster or two. Actually I don’t target flatheads but I do pop a few every year when fishing wingdams for walleyes. I had one on last summer for over 45 minutes and never got him off of the bottom. I’ve caught them up to 34 Lbs and this one had to be close to twice that size although we never got a glimpse of him. I’ll keep a flathead but do not keep channel cats. I think I might have kept a half dozen flatheads last year all 12 Lbs or under. I have had a DNR biologist tell me there is absolutely nothing wrong with keeping any legal fish for consumption and there is not a finer eating fish in the river than a flathead. If the DNR thought population was a problem they would put tighter restrictions on the number of fish you can keep. I believe in CPR and practice it often. I seldom keep fish to eat except for a few walleyes/saugers, panfish and flathead catfish.

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If the DNR thought population was a problem they would put tighter restrictions on the number of fish you can keep.

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That is not really the way it works.

The DNR doesn’t have the money nor the time to to study every species and come up with a proper management plan.

As Brain posted, WI has a state wide 25 fish bag limit. In my area, the flathead population got so low that the setline fishermen complained to the DNR that they weren’t catching any fish. This was in 1996. The DNR admitted they had no clue about the flathead population and no management ideas other than to create a local flathead bag limit of 2 fish per day and to ban the sale of any flathead meat.

It took until 2001 to get a study underway. It fishished in 2006. The data review will be done in 2007 and the rules commitee will take up the matter in spring 2008.

That will be 12 years after the complaints from fisherman got so bad the DNR decided to fund a study. Obviously the bag limits were way too high for many years before this to damaged the fishery enough to cause the complaints.

My point is that just because there is a bag limit on the rule books, it doesn’t mean anybody has studied the situation. It doesn’t mean that is the correct bag limit for that species.

I do not think the flathead population in the upper Mississippi or the MN river are in any danger. Selective harvest there is fine with me.

When you say you caught flatheads for a living do you mean you went noodling for them? That is something I don’t think I could ever do but I do know a couple brothers that have done it for many years on the lower Yellow River here in NE Iowa. I know noodling for flats is popular in some areas of the country.

There are lots of commercial fisherman harvesting catfish from nets, traps, and set and trot lines. If you do decide to take one. I always cut off a catfishes tail and bleed them prior to cleaning. Makes a huge difference. I agree with RB, not much studying going on on river cats.

I like to eat fish. I love fish. But before I sink my choppers into a river fish, I’d like to know how old a 10lb flat is?

Give me a blue from a farm pond in Texas and I’m all over that……….but a big cat from the river kinda make me quiver………..ish

Gary,

I think you’ll find that cats from a pond in Texas are 10 times more polluted than a river cat.

nope……no………no………no………..
SSSHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Haven’t had a good cat in a long time……..

yup its true. When the refineries aren’t down for rip offs errrrrr maintenance, you get mercury and petrochemicals, and they probably feed them with chinese dog food to top it off.

There have been some really good points here overall.

Flatheads are excellent eating. There is no comparison to the other species. I have heard flatheads are great no matter what size they are, I have never eaten a large flathead. I have kept 5 or 6 flatheads in my life, all between 5 – 15 pounds. The one fish I kept around 5 pounds was nearly worthless, as it had a minimal amount of meat(big fish sticks). They have respectable amount of meat compared to size at 10 pounds.

I am sure I will eat flatheads again sometime in my life.. and it will be a 10#-13# fish that gets harvested when that time does happen. I really dont think taking one small fish from the fishery every few years is going to hurt the fishery.. nor do I think that very light harvest of smaller fish will have a negative impact in larger bodies of water in most areas.

Answer to the earlier post about the age of a 10# flathead… probably the same age as the 15″-17″ walleye you prefer to put on the table. Flats grow fast.

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yup its true. When the refineries aren’t down for rip offs errrrrr maintenance, you get mercury and petrochemicals, and they probably feed them with chinese dog food to top it off.

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Thanks Kev…….I needed that.
By the way, when is Palousy going to lower our gas prices?

I keep one a year 8 – 10 lbs for a treat. After that all other cat fish are released.

I would probably not kill one now but years ago, I was in the Army – Ft Riley KS. We’d trotline in the upper end of Milford Res. Man, that was fun… half dozen good friends, campfire, beer – – late into the night. We’d hang trotlines along shore – 20 hooks or so just on 18″ droppers. Usually baited with 2″ goldfish we’d buy at the bait shop. Flats and channels. One of the older guys wives would cook them for us the old southern way. Probably some of the best eating I’ve ever had!

I’m not sure I would admit that I know POACHERS because noodling is not legal in Iowa.

RB, your words strike a cord with me. The “limit” where I live is 15 and it basically means nothing. And yes the DNR gives that vague talk about everything will take care of itself and it gets kinda fuzzy. Because the fish are kind of hard to catch or whatever the factors are, I just can’t put into words but accidental “harvest” accounts for a lot of the take and there is a lot of “take” around these parts.

I’ve been eating channels for a few years now and they seem fine to me. There are literally thousands of them out there and they seem like more of a renewable resource.

One thing that really irks me is when I read about things like the muskie limit being too lenient? There is a lot of money spent to stock the fish in waters they aren’t native and insane rules to protect them. Eyes have seasons up North to protect them too and in a lot of places smaller limits than flats. It is stupid not to protect trophy fish at least a little bit just because you don’t have to stock them.

I like this place because the general attitude suits me quite well. A lot of places have more of a hand to mouth attitude and also a lot less success. We all need something to daydream about.

I’ll give Minnesota inland waters regulations credit for one thing.. the cat regs are excellent on what may be harvested.

Catfish(Channel cats and flatheads)

Daily limit 5 which only 2 may be flatheads, 1 fish over 24″.

Awesome way to protect mature fish.