HUGE Lake Winona Catfish

Check out the size of this catfish caught in Lake Winona.

http://www.rushford.net/main.asp?SectionID=7&SubSectionID=7&ArticleID=5003

That’s a pretty big mudcat (AKA flathead), alright. The story simply calls it a catfish, but no doubt it is a flathead. When I lived in Winona I know people caught an occasional big channel cat in there, but I don’t recall any flathead coming from the lake.

I wonder if this flathead found its way up the drainage creek on the east end of the lake, was the result of a midnight stocking, or a old survivor from the DNR’s bluegill-control experiments…

Back in the 1980s, the DNR stocked Lake Winona with flathead, channel cat, and dogfish (yes, dogfish) in an effort to improve the size structure of the bluegills in there. Obviously, none of those efforts worked–turns out the problem was over-fishing of mature bluegiils.

My dad actually caught one about that same size two years ago. That is awesome he released it.

That fish has a face only Briank could love

and I do.

Why measure the distance between its eyes