You’d think they wouldn’t mind people handicapping themselves by only having half the anglers!

Wow, that’s a beast.. conga rats!

Ah nice, gotcha. Thanks for putting the effort in of getting the information out!

I might give them a call later and find out the details! (how the ranking works and such).. Might just see me out on my kayak up there Saturday night!

Gotcha. What town is that fire department out of?

Marine on St. Croix fire department, Lower St. Croix department? (I’m not very familiar with the tourney stuff… but starting to sound like it might be fun to get into!)

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That first pic might be a little close for comfort…

Nice flathead for sure

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Thanks. Hah, well I guess if he took a bite I’d be less concerned about the other kind of kitty out there, and would have more time to chase these ones, lol.

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PS Welcome back to Ido! Haven’t see you for a while.

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Thanks Brian! I kinda focus on whatever my hobby is at the time, and last year people seemed a bit…hostile(hyperbole) towards harvesters ; ), and after our long winter, and monsoon season this year I didn’t make it out on the river much till this last month.

Then in conversation with one of our DNR friends about some of the flathead regulations he actually suggested you might have an idea where they were at with removing harvesting flatheads during the winter.. and I was like.. “Oh yeah, I used to chat with those guys.”

Is there info for it anywhere on the web? Might be interested in giving a shot!

Haha,

Yeah everyone thinks the first picture is funny (something about having a predators mouth near your frank and beans seems counter intuitive), unfortunately I’ve found it hard to take selfies while holding a flailing 30lb cat up with one arm, and a phone in the other.

It was pretty fun, getting the bigger ones in is usually just a grab for the lower jaw, since I don’t have room for a net or anything like that.

Spawning injury you say? Hadn’t considered anything like that, or seen such a thing before. Figured it was a boat/muskie bite at first but it seemed like an entrance/exit wound to me(granted I didn’t torment the guy by seeing if I could stick my pinky through).

I’d have to take your experience on it though, I’m sure you’ve seen far more injuries than me!

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Nice catch Josh! Suckers or minnows for bait?

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Just a chunk of sunfish believe it or not o.O Caught a flat head later as well off a piece too… so much for ambush predators!

PS: In a place in which it is legal to do so

I thought poorman’s lobster was burbot?

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From the article:

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“As water temperatures go up, water is not able to hold as much oxygen, which fish need,” said Scot Stewart, DNR south central district fisheries supervisor, in a statement. “Respiration by plants can reduce the amount of oxygen to levels lethal to fish. That’s when summer fish kills occur.”

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Now, is it just my ignorance, or don’t plants consume carbon dioxide and produce free oxygen into whatever medium in which they may be growing?

That is to say that “respiration by plants” SHOULD be increasing the available oxygen in the water.

Then again I’m neither a biologist nor do I work for the DNR. And it’s possible that my 3rd grade teacher was a crackhead.

Sheesh! (unless there’s something I don’t know, then scratch the SHEESH! part)

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It’s more of a physics thing than biology.. There’s a certain temperature range in which water holds oxygen well.. Too warm and you “boil” the oxygen out of water.

About 23C/75F is when the oxygen levels start to noticeably drop. So you could have an underwater forest cranking out oxygen, but the water isn’t going to hold it like it would if it were say, 60 degrees.

Sure they were money shots or just poop? I know just about everyone I’ve ever caught empty their bowels as soon as I get them out of the water.. I didn’t notice the last one I pulled up a few weeks ago left a huge batch on the front of the kayak… Then when driving home it fell and plopped on the windshield o.O

Hah,

To be fair, I’ve only caught one so far this year, a 23lb tagged flatty.. Otherwise I don’t have much room to talk! However, I’ll be voracious once again once the darned river slows down a lil bit more… that crest was a lil scary.

Otherwise.. Pug, I’m just Joshing yah! dunnn pppshh…

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It’s a brotherhood!

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Har, and probably a good thing it’s a small one! Couldn’t imagine if we had the harvesters up here like they did in the south.. We’d catch less catfish than Pug

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As you shouldn’t! The only way to tell if you have a keeper is if they ask you!

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Oye, I never understood that. I mean you have inches between one thing that was made for it and another that was made for something completely different. And that taint no lie.

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Lol, at the end of the day I’d agree. Having dated my share of deviant women, the hype is just that. I think it goes back to the frat boy story telling for most people that obsess over such things.

But hey, I don’t judge what makes people happy either way(unless it’s walleye fishing, it’s fine if they like doing that in the privacy of their own home, but keep it outta public please!)

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Josh, in Joel’s research they’ve found flats to be different ages at the same size. I don’t recall the exact numbers, but they aged a 23ish pound flat that was older then a 30+ pound flat. Genetics and food sources played a roll in it’s size it was summarized.

There are DNR reports of flats living to 30. I don’t have time to look for them right now though.

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I know environment plays a huge role in fish size (hence the fish you can get that grow to “fit the tank”)

I didn’t come across any of the reports of 30+ years old (one spoke of 24 as if it were outstanding)

Up here I know they grow slower too than in the southern climates since half the year they’re napping and not nomming on everything that swims by.

Not that I have the illusion of ever being put in the position of having to decide (I doubt my tack would handle it, and I don’t target them, they just like cut bait more than the channels do apparently when I’m around o.O)

I’d be hard pressed to give anyone a bad time for turning in a state record, but anything big and under the state record is kinda foolish to take out of the ecosystem I’d totally agree. Especially since there’s only like, four of us on the forums here from MN that don’t think walleye is the only edible fish

Neato catch. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a brown bullhead come up (several hundred yellow bellies but never a brown)

Thanks for the info! (I won’t be waking, can’t quite paddle the kayak that hard!, but someone at work asked if I knew where you could find out, but that information didn’t seem to be readily available on the internet)

So thanks for letting me tap your brainmeats!

Where are you located at Grub? Microcenter in St. Louis Park has the external hard drive hookups (usually around 15-16 bucks)

It doesn’t sound like the hard drive is your problem, if the hard drive was dead the computer would at least still post.

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Not that I will ever be in the position, but I won’t give it a second or first thought to snap pictures and release a record fish. Does anyone know the name of the guy who caught the record bass on Auburn or any other record for that matter?

Don’t get me wrong, I’d plaster pictures of the fish all over the place and puff out my chest.

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I’d personally have a really hard time not claiming the state record if I had it without a doubt. I could puff my chest out all I wanted, but without the proof, it’d just be another fish story.. Then again they all are I reckon.

According to the data I can scrounge up, average life span for flatties that made it to adulthood is 12-14 years of age, with 24 being the longest recorded(Different studies argue 20-24 years old.)

The last tagged fish I caught was 23lbs and 15 years old.. I don’t know how much they can grow in those last 5 years, but I have to imagine any fish pushing state record sizes may not be long for this world anyways. (Still wouldn’t take it out unless I was sure.

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More specific… hrmmm…

Rhymes with rut rex? lol

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Ah. Now I know why. I would never ask for something like that.

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As you shouldn’t! The only way to tell if you have a keeper is if they ask you!

I think them not biting is a myth either way. You’ll catch fish sometimes when you go against all conventional wisdom, and you’ll get skunked sometimes when fishing “perfectly”.

The changing conditions thing I think is simply just because the fish find food in different places depending on the water activity.. They’re still out there and they are still eating, just might be in a different place. People tend to have their favorite spots they fish when conditions are normal, so when things change and the fish move, they think the fish simply aren’t biting.

Channels will be more abundant around inlets and smaller bodies of water flowing into the larger ones say, when the river is rising, since the concentration of food coming from the stream into the river will be ten fold (numbers might be exagerated!) since they are more or less getting food from the equivalent of the entirety of the stream/inlets length plus that of the river.

So I’d recommend if your normal spot is dead when the weathers changing, try a few spots that you might not have otherwise.. Make a science project out of it!

Articles from scientific standpoints on feeding habits of fish and such have helped me find fish far more than conventional angler knowledge, I know that for sure!

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He came back to tell you in fact it was a channel or a blue?

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It was a blue colored channel……..of course.

Josh, have you ever seen a pug shaking it’s head in a tug O war with it’s owner. That’s Pug and I…I “OWN” him.

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This is sounding like some scary BSDM stuff now.. Apparently those catfish tours have a lot more than fishing included in the cost!

He came back to tell you in fact it was a channel or a blue?

Aye, it sure will!

Being a skeptic, I should have known better.

Least I know now that if I’m ever bored I can make a ghost account and post about the big blue I caught and watch the fun unfold!

C-c-c-c-c-ombo breaker!

Bah! I think you were taunting Pug in the post where you posted something about a blue cat being caught on one of the rivers south of the cities (it was on one of the highly volatile threads where someone claimed to catch a blue, and subsequently got tore up!)

I guess the sarcasm didn’t translate through text to me.. I was just like, well this BK guy seems to know what he’s talking about most the time, noted it and moved on!

Maybe if I could toggle it, I’d start catching channels again!

Your flatheads love cutbait for some reason Brian.. I think them being predators is a myth!

Might try some bamboo poles, they’re all over right now being the beginning of gardening season (Fleet Farm/Menards/Gurtens ect)

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There’s been a few confirmed blues caught around the south parts of MN/WI,

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Start running Josh!

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Lol, didn’t you post a picture of a blue caught in Southern MN?