Flathead Catfish in ND ?

[scrotcaster]

Seen a poster the other day of the fish of ND. There was flathead catfish on it. Are there flatheads in ND? Have you caught one or seen one firsthand ? just curious where they live in ND. TIA

 

[guywhofishes]

James River I suspect. It's got one of the other miserable invasive carp species too.

Here's the drainage basin in ND.

 

[guywhofishes]

https://gfp.sd.gov/pages/catfish-research/

 

[bravo]

Possible in the James River like Guy said and there’s a small number still the Missouri / Oahe. Exceedingly rare.

 

[gunlover]

Possible in the James River like Guy said and there’s a small number still the Missouri / Oahe. Exceedingly rare.

 

[gunlover]

I wood think the RED RIVER has them.

 

[Lou63]

I imagine some of those "snags" in the Missouri river system are probably large flatheads. I know that all 3 large catfish species are in the Missouri farther south so it stand to reason some were trapped in the lakes when the dams were built

 

[Kurtr]

We caught a 20 pound flat head during a tournament a few years ago pulling cranks down here. Thought we had the winning fish on didn’t spin like channel cats and stayed down. It was disappointing when it popped up to the surface

 

[Slappy]

Caught a 24" blue cat near Cattail about 8 years ago on either a jig or bouncer, don't recall which

 

[CatDaddy]

Caught a 24" blue cat near Cattail about 8 years ago on either a jig or bouncer, don't recall which

I'm not saying you're wrong, just wondering if you misidentified the species. Blues and channels resemble each other closely and the channel has different colors it can exhibit depending on the season (tan, olive, blue, dark - almost black). Many people mistake that they catch blue cats in the Red River where they don't exist. What were the key identifying characteristics that make you think it was a blue cat?

Here's a link with key identifiers for each species:

https://www.hookedoncatfish.com/blue-catfish-vs-channel-catfish/

Game and Fish doesn't list blue catfish on their list of fish species in ND

 

[Allen]

Many years ago I would hear of blue cats being caught in the tailrace. Haven't heard yarns of any in quite a while.

I am almost certain I've never caught a flathead, but with the subtle differences between a blue and a channel...if they are still around, there's a good chance I've handled one. Most distribution maps of blue cats put their original range up to somewhere between the Cannonball River and Bismarck area. Which suggests at least a few stragglers would have been in Sakakawea when the dam was originally built.

 

[Allen]

FWIW, stories from divers on Sak often included tales of 100 lb catfish in and around the 4 Bears bridge. If those divers weren't BS'ing, there's only one species it could have been.

This would have been in the 70s and 80s.

 

[Allen]

Game and Fish doesn't list blue catfish on their list of fish species in ND

They also didn't have Atlantic Salmon on the list before I caught one 4 (?) years ago. That one took a little sleuthing to figure out. As it turns out, SD tossed a few thousand into Oahe, and I caught one up by Fox Island. So far as I know, it was the first caught in the state, so I laid claim to that and for also holding the state record for an Atlantic Salmon. Spunky little fart!

Mine was only about 14 inches though, and there were a number of them that were caught in the following weeks from what I heard.

Remember, NDGF didn't list wolverines as a species in the state. And then someone shot one over by Alexander. They have a higher threshold for listing a species as found in ND than I.

LOL, a few years before the advent of cellphones...I am absolutely positive I ran across a ptarmigan up NW of Blacktail Dam (north of Williston). It was hanging on the fringe of a pheasant party, but there's no way it was a white pheasant.

 

[CatDaddy]

Like I said, not saying he's wrong at all - just speaking from experience from people in my boat on the Red River swearing they caught blue cats when in fact they were channels that were blue in color. Without looking closely at the tail and counting anal ray fins you don't know for certain.

 

[Allen]

One thing's for sure, I have now learned to count the rays on my cats. That's some useful information!

 

[luvcatchingbass]

Like I said, not saying he's wrong at all - just speaking from experience from people in my boat on the Red River swearing they caught blue cats when in fact they were channels that were blue in color. Without looking closely at the tail and counting anal ray fins you don't know for certain.

I agree with CatDaddy. I have made this mistake fishing the Sheyenne as a high school/college kid. wasn't smart enough to look up other characteristics besides the color so just assumed, my college buddy didn't argue and think much of it after I convinced him and we caught a smaller blue'ish appearing cat one time we just didn't think to look into it more.

 

[guywhofishes]

anal rays? eew.

 

[MSA]

Ive caught 2-3 blue cats in the tailrace, but not since the late 90s/early 2000s. Havnt seen any credible evidence of flatheads in ND yet.

 

[svnmag]

Caught a 24" blue cat near Cattail about 8 years ago on either a jig or bouncer, don't recall which

Caught/kept/ate a 14in laker from the aforementioned boulder on the West Beach in '05 or '06; on a night crawler. The boy kept catching suckers/drum and I told him his next fish "better" be a trout or salmon (Sept). It was. Even as I knew it was a trout; I couldn't figure out "what kind" until we got home that night...

Never caught a flathead: Took a married couple on one of their first fishing trips in Conway, SC (Waccamaw River) and they got an 8+ on DEAD mullet: DEAD...Flathead AND channels prefer fresh or live. WTF?!!

BTW, when these fish are shallow and concentrated: A top water strike from a channel cat or walleye is not a "pop"; it's a "lunge" worthy of "saltwater" respect.

 

[MSA]

Only flathead I ever caught was on a jig and a crawler fishing for saugeye in kansas