If you ever catch a catfish and think it is a blue here’s about the only way you will able to distinguish the difference. A channel cat has a rounded anal fin with 24-29 rays. A blue has a long, straight-edged anal fin (tapered like a barber’s comb) with 30-35 anal rays. If you catch a smaller catfish and it has spots on it that is a channel because a blue will never have spots.

I have never caught a monster but I do get a good number of flatheads in June. I have not had much luck in april or may. Last year it was a little on the chilly side maybe. I catch some here and there in july, but not as much as in june. I dont know why that is, but I know last year they were spawning in july. That might affect it a little bit.

A rod that I love to use for flatheads is the Quantum Big Cat Rod. I’ve never seen the St. Croix rod but I know the Quantum is pretty close to a Berkley E-cat.

I fish the river near franklin and new ulm. I have never fished the river near saint peter or mankato but I heard it can be good.

The top 4 fish came from 2002 and the others from 2003. Yes those all came from the minnesota river. Anyone else on this site fish for flatheads on the minnesota?

I just found this site and this is my first post. I do not have picture for my profile yet but I do have some pics on a website. http://www.clementslumber.com/fish.html I used both spinning and baitcasting reels for catfish and personally I leave the spinners for the walleyes and the baitcasters tackle the cats…even for channels i prefer baitcasters but I use a smaller rod. I use a 6′ or 6 and a half foot for channels and a seven and a half for flatheads.