Near Spawn Flatheads and the Rising River

I thought I would throw this out there. This will pretty much be a IMHO post, since I am pretty sure no one has done a thesis on this.

Let me set this up. It looks like the river will be rising pretty high here in the coming days, depending where you are. Also the water temps have worked themselves into the lower 70s and have been pretty steady between 71-76 degrees for over a week now. The spawn has to be nearing and for some places, is already happening.

So for arguments sake, lets say that most of them were close to spawning before the rain. Do you think that the faster, higher water would put their love life plans on hold? Will they just seek different areas to spawn with these conditions (For example creeks and backwater areas)?

What say you?

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I’ve been thinking about that all day actually. I fished pool 2 the last two nights and haven’t pulled much. I’m hitting a backwater lake tonight to give it a try. I don’t know how it will pan out but if there is anything going on I’ll report back for sure.

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Thinking about it all day? You and Jakob might need to find a hobby. Wait, fishing is kind of a hobby. There you go.

We managed to pull 3 nice ones one night mid week . All were very chunky, but no spawn marks what so ever.
I’m thinking the fish are getting ready, will it halt them?
No…. there are plenty of spots where they will be okay, the velocity has been up for some time, now the level is just a little higher. I think the higher water levels might help them out. Keeps the stress factor down, with cooler temps.

I’d think that through evolution they would instictivly know where it was safe to spawn, no matter what the conditions. I guess part of what I was thinking is the water will probably come down pretty fast when it does. If they spawned too shallow they could be pulled off the nest prematurely, but again, I would have to be believe instinctually they would know. I was also wondering if this could prolong the prespawn phase.

IMHO, I believe they can successfully spawn no matter what the conditions. They kind of have a small window in Minnesota too, since they require relatively high temps.

Anyone come across information about how long their eggs take to hatch?

We’ve been chasing channel cats but we picked up 4 flatheads this week and they all just hammered the bait. Caught 2 on bullheads and 2 on cut bait and they were mixed in with the channels. They were smaller fish but they looked good with no marks. I think it is still a prespawn bite but that should change any time now. The water was 76 degrees on Thursday. We caught those fish out of shallow water, under 10 feet. I’m fishing my normal early spring high water spots that have a nice current flow and a lot of bait around. When I see white bass and smallmouth hammering bait in a location I will work the area for channels and usually they are there. When I look at my log the bite doesn’t seem to start until about 2030 and lasts until about 2300 and then seems to turn off.

I’m moving a lot looking for active fish. If no action within 25 to 30 minutes we move. When we finally catch a fish we work that spot keeping fresh bait in the water and moving the bait around in the location. I don’t think they are spawning yet.

My good night wasn’t on the MN. The river is ripping in this neck of the woods… I’m thinking if the rain stopped now the levels wouldn’t drop to low levels at least for the next 3-4 weeks.. Its gonna continue to rise over the next week. I concur on the instinct factor as far as spawning too shallow.
When I say temps… it will hold for a longer period of time compared to low water conditions… I remember a couple years back when river temps were close to 85F… in low water conditions…that starts stressing the spawners…

We have needed this (high water)in the rivers for a few years… were overdue… it makes the fishing tougher, but they are still there. Nothing like a good house cleaning to push the reset button.

If it floods enough, I don’t think they try to spawn. This story was 6-24-2008. The river flooded just like it’s scheduled to flood this week and the fish were up under a rock overhang right in the big flow. The thing is, they close access to the spillway so I can’t get in there. It’s ten kinds of suck and if the river leaves the banks, they’ll keep it closed for an “extra” amount of time for some reason.

source

DES MOINES, IOWA (AP) — Workers have rescued about 100 huge flathead catfish from a shallow pond at Saylorville Lake north of Des Moines. The fish were trapped below the emergency spillway when floodwater receded. Brandon Bergquest of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources helped wrestle the catfish to deeper water on Sunday. He said the fish were going to die from lack of oxygen, and they tried to save as many as they could. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officials discovered thousands of fish stuck in the shallow pool that was cut off from the Des Moines River by a barrier of rock and asphalt. They notified the natural resources agency. The catfish, some which tipped the scales at 60 pounds, are valuable as breeding stock.

Me and a buddy have been seeing signs of the spawn on pool 2. At least some of the flatheads are underway with there love lives.

Take Care everyone!
Kevin

Say it isn’t so! I am hoping to repeat the success of the last time I saw the river go to 10’+ in June. And that was mid-June. I guess there is only one way to find out.

The two one P4 from last night were showing a lot of signs or red too.

Flats on p18 are just about done. Channels are in mid stride. Channel cat spawn down here will generally run from Memorial Day weekend till after the 4th of july, sometimes into the Labor Day weekend.
Your window up north will be much narrower.
The rising water has zero negative affect on the spawn. It just gives them a larger feeding area and more hollow logs and stumps to lay eggs in.

I have been hearing about more and more channel cat catches… I’ve been thinking the channel spawn is either well under way/over or delayed enough that they’re doing another round of binging beforehand. I thought it was the former, but either way I’ve been hearing about a lot more channel bites lately.