baby flathead cats

[silentmajority]

Smallest flathead I have ever seen here was an 6" little guy that took a 3" live sunfish on a 6/0 hook.

They are such awesome fish I could only dream of keep a little one. I've heard from the people who take care of Cabela's Native tanks that flatheads are particularly hard to take care of. All the worlds luck to you though, I would LOVE to see some pics someday.

 

[bettadaze]

I kept one in a tank for about 4-5 months before I got a RTC. Not too hard to take care of, not picky about food will eat anything that moves. Kinda boring just lay on the bottom till the lights went out. Then anything in the tank was dinner. Redtails and channel cats are better in tanks, more active in daylight. Flatheads are slow growers, they take several years to grow to any size. The one I had in a tank was 6" when I released him in the pond 2 years ago and when caught over Labor Day weekend he was only 9 or 10" long. I would like to get some more little ones where in NC is a good place to look for some?

 

[catman]

I catch bigger flatheads all the time but would love to know how to catch the little 3-4" ones.

 

[Danyal]

haha, i refer to my channel cat as a pussy fish, he never moves during the day and only in the middle of the night and if you turn any sort of light on to see him, he bolts. I raised one from 3" to ~6" as a kid before i let him go in a pond and he was really really awesome, everything my current 10" is not.

 

[Venom SS]

Best thing I could suggest is get a buddy, a 10 foot minnow seign, and go drag some rivers and creeks that feed larger bodies of water sometime in early to mid summer. Flatheads spawn when the water gets around 66-75 degrees. So in Texas for example, thats sometime in spring / early summer. The reason why no one ever really has true Flathead fingerlings is because of their habitat. They spawn in heavy cover such as logs, rock piles, and undercut banks, and the fingerlings will hide inside logs and things. This makes use of a standard seign very difficult due to snagging. Also, these fish are very solitary, and leave the nest after only a few days and head their seperate ways. So catching a fingerling would probably best be done with live traps in the above stated kinds of areas. Use traps with smaller openings so that larger fish cant get in, bait the bait box heavily to draw in small baitfish and enough food to sustain them for awhile, which in turn could draw in small flatheads. Let the traps soak undisturbed for a solid 3-4 days. With good placement and a hell of alot of luck, you just might get one.