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Here is an article quoting FBC Mike about Flatheads in the Susky:
Posted: Thursday, June 23, 2011 10:00 am
By P.J. Reilly Southeast Correspondent – Pennsylvania Outdoor News
Lancaster, Pa. - The Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission has resigned itself to the fact that flathead catfish are now established in the Susquehanna River.
"We have a large population of flatheads on the lower Susquehanna," said Mike Kauffman, the agency's southeast region fisheries biologist. "They're there and they're reproducing and there's nothing we can do about it."
Recently, the agency removed from its website a recommendation that anglers kill every flathead they caught from the river.
"Now that they have spread, we don't think ‘kill upon capture' is an appropriate request of anglers," said commission spokesman Eric Levis.
Anglers now are encouraged to release back into the Susquehanna flatheads they catch that they don't want to eat.
"They should treat them like any other game fish when practicing catch and release," he said.
It was only in 2002 when the Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission confirmed the existence of flathead catfish in the Susquehanna River. An angler fishing below Safe Harbor Dam in Lancaster County caught a 15-inch flathead, photographed it and sent the photo to the commission for identification.
That photo was visual confirmation of something the agency had suspected for some time. Flatheads - feared as voracious eaters that might gobble native fishes into scarcity - had somehow found their way into the Susquehanna.
Biologists still don't know how they got there.
Immediately, the commission put out news releases and posted signs at popular fishing spots along the river begging anglers to kill every flathead they caught to keep the population in check.
Kauffman said commission data showed that Susquehanna anglers were able to put significant pressure on other species in the river. When the agency increased the minimum creel size of smallmouth bass on the river from 12 to 15 inches several years ago, biologists saw a marked increase in the number of smallies 12-14 inches.
"That showed us the significant impact angling pressure had on those fish prior to the change," Kauffman said.
So the agency hoped anglers could help curb the growth of flathead populations on the Susquehanna.
"We never thought they'd eradicate flatheads," Kauffman said. "But we did think they'd at least slow them down from spreading."
They were wrong.
"There's no real sense in continuing to enlist anglers in controlling the population," Kauffman said. "They haven't been able to do it on the Schuylkill, and on the Susquehanna, if they had any impact at all, it wasn't enough to keep flatheads from expanding their population and range."
Flatheads now can be found in healthy numbers on the Susquehanna River below the York Haven Dam.
"We know people occasionally catch them above York Haven, but they don't seem to be as widespread," Kauffman said. "During our sampling above the dam, we have never caught one."
Flatheads are prolific breeders, according to Kauffman. They grow their ranks fast. And individual fish grow to impressive sizes.
A 36-pound flathead caught on the Susquehanna last October was recognized by the commission as one of the biggest of that species caught anywhere in Pennsylvania in 2010.
In Pennsylvania, flathead catfish are only native to the Ohio, Allegheny and Monongahela river watersheds in the western part of the state. They are not native to the eastern half of the state, where they are now found in the Delaware, Schuylkill and Susquehanna watersheds.
Link to source: http://outdoornews.com/pennsylvania/news/article_0a8078e6-9cec-11e0-b82b-001cc4c002e0.html
Posted: Thursday, June 23, 2011 10:00 am
By P.J. Reilly Southeast Correspondent – Pennsylvania Outdoor News
Lancaster, Pa. - The Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission has resigned itself to the fact that flathead catfish are now established in the Susquehanna River.
"We have a large population of flatheads on the lower Susquehanna," said Mike Kauffman, the agency's southeast region fisheries biologist. "They're there and they're reproducing and there's nothing we can do about it."
Recently, the agency removed from its website a recommendation that anglers kill every flathead they caught from the river.
"Now that they have spread, we don't think ‘kill upon capture' is an appropriate request of anglers," said commission spokesman Eric Levis.
Anglers now are encouraged to release back into the Susquehanna flatheads they catch that they don't want to eat.
"They should treat them like any other game fish when practicing catch and release," he said.
It was only in 2002 when the Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission confirmed the existence of flathead catfish in the Susquehanna River. An angler fishing below Safe Harbor Dam in Lancaster County caught a 15-inch flathead, photographed it and sent the photo to the commission for identification.
That photo was visual confirmation of something the agency had suspected for some time. Flatheads - feared as voracious eaters that might gobble native fishes into scarcity - had somehow found their way into the Susquehanna.
Biologists still don't know how they got there.
Immediately, the commission put out news releases and posted signs at popular fishing spots along the river begging anglers to kill every flathead they caught to keep the population in check.
Kauffman said commission data showed that Susquehanna anglers were able to put significant pressure on other species in the river. When the agency increased the minimum creel size of smallmouth bass on the river from 12 to 15 inches several years ago, biologists saw a marked increase in the number of smallies 12-14 inches.
"That showed us the significant impact angling pressure had on those fish prior to the change," Kauffman said.
So the agency hoped anglers could help curb the growth of flathead populations on the Susquehanna.
"We never thought they'd eradicate flatheads," Kauffman said. "But we did think they'd at least slow them down from spreading."
They were wrong.
"There's no real sense in continuing to enlist anglers in controlling the population," Kauffman said. "They haven't been able to do it on the Schuylkill, and on the Susquehanna, if they had any impact at all, it wasn't enough to keep flatheads from expanding their population and range."
Flatheads now can be found in healthy numbers on the Susquehanna River below the York Haven Dam.
"We know people occasionally catch them above York Haven, but they don't seem to be as widespread," Kauffman said. "During our sampling above the dam, we have never caught one."
Flatheads are prolific breeders, according to Kauffman. They grow their ranks fast. And individual fish grow to impressive sizes.
A 36-pound flathead caught on the Susquehanna last October was recognized by the commission as one of the biggest of that species caught anywhere in Pennsylvania in 2010.
In Pennsylvania, flathead catfish are only native to the Ohio, Allegheny and Monongahela river watersheds in the western part of the state. They are not native to the eastern half of the state, where they are now found in the Delaware, Schuylkill and Susquehanna watersheds.
Link to source: http://outdoornews.com/pennsylvania/news/article_0a8078e6-9cec-11e0-b82b-001cc4c002e0.html