Originally Posted By: saint_abyssal
Originally Posted By: jpsdad
Were it possible to set up a self sustaining population in 1 acre BOW where they are harvested at <4 lbs, I would be very, very, tempted to do that when I finally get around to owning my own BOW.

Thanks for the PDF, I found it really informative and encouraging. Why wouldn't you be able to set up a self-sustaining flatty population? Do they not spawn in small BOWs? I thought their spawning was similar to channels'.


It is and there is no doubt they will spawn, it deals with their survival after hatching ... the same is true of CC. If I were to do it, my goal would be harvest between 60 and 110 lbs of flatheads annually where none of them exceed 5 lbs and most are harvested at 2-3 lbs. There is no end to how big one can grow and if they resist harvest ... this scenario would fall apart over time where fewer fish of larger size dominate.

Flathead are really a stream and river fish and these generally don't build large panfish populations. Shad, carp, and other catfish are an important forage in these systems. There is also more habitat typically in those environments that protect young flathead. Even in these favorable conditions there isn't a lot of recruitment as these fish grow large and defend a territory. They can and do kill each other just defending a territory. Its a battle of attrition to reach 30+ lbs. They need room. In the paper above, the wildlife managers worked with these natural tendencies stocking at around 1.2 flathead per acre averaging ~10 lbs per fish. It was interesting that it still took three years to get the full effect. By then, they would have averaged almost twice the original average weight.

My suggestions were geared towards circumventing these tendencies where a larger number of sub-adult fish can co-habit the BOW. Harvesting most just as they reach sexual maturity ... before the territorial instincts really kick in. Was thinking some would still be able to spawn and if the forage didn't go about eating the fry they might reproduce as a self sustaining population where all fish are harvested before reaching 5 lbs. I can point to no examples that this is possible.

Last edited by jpsdad; 08/19/19 11:32 PM.

It isn't what we don't know that gives us trouble, it's what we know that ain't so - Will Rogers