Flathead Catfish in ND ?

[svnmag]

Wow. Thanks MSA!!

 

[Slappy]

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

Entirely possible I am mistaken as I did not count rays but the anal fin came much closer to the tail fin and color was outside the spectrum of the bronze/yellow to gray typical of channel cats on that stretch of river.

 

[luvcatchingbass]

I thought at one time there was Flatheads in Moon Lake, anyone have any idea about this

 

[Bfishn]

https://gf.nd.gov/magazine/2017/jul/look-back

 

[BDub]

https://gf.nd.gov/magazine/2017/jul/look-back

I met that guy. He was a commercial fisherman out of Linton. He lived by the lake in a small house by Beaver Bay. Talk about a character!!

 

[scrotcaster]

https://gf.nd.gov/magazine/2017/jul/look-back

Thank you for posting that ! very interesting

 

[Casey Buchholz]

A buddy and I caught two small flatheads on the James down by the state line spillway while walleye fishing. It was after the 97' flood around this time of year. I thought they were giant weird looking brown bullheads around 3-4 lbs until a few years later when I seen a video of people catching flatheads down south. I had never seen a flathead before then.

 

[Tinesdown]

A buddy and I caught two small flatheads on the James down by the state line spillway while walleye fishing. It was after the 97' flood around this time of year. I thought they were giant weird looking brown bullheads around 3-4 lbs until a few years later when I seen a video of people catching flatheads down south. I had never seen a flathead before then.

Dont think i caught anything beside channel cat but did get a whitefish in sak (whitearth bay) years ago thought it was a big cisco years ago kept it in the freezer not knowing this was before smart phones. Was like a young carp longer body but sucker mouth around 4 to 5 pound.