Published DVL flathead catfish study

[kwin]

http://www.dfg.ca.gov/publications/j.../contents.html

The above link has the recently published results of a flathead catfish population estimate/population assessment from Diamond Valley Lake.

[Stormcrow]

Just printed it out....breezed the abstract...looking forward to the read....Thanks man.

[HuskerRod]

Interesting read............................their must be a helluva lot of flatheads in DVL from their data. I knew they were there, but I didn't think their was an overabundance of them as you see them so infrequently. When I targeted catfish I have only ever caught channels and blues...............never a flathead.

[DEVOREFLYER]

Flatheads prefer live bait, caught them in Arizona on the Colorado river and in Texas on live Bluegill. The bigger the bait the bigger the Flathead.

[Stormcrow]

I only knew they were in there after I came upon a 10-15 lber choking on a dead 12" largie right around the left corner of the East dam during a tournament. She was stuck on the surface...I netted it and it my partner and I pulled the dead fish out...Man it stunk. And for helping her she bit me.

[shinbob]

Kwin, Great stuff, very interesting, thanks for sharing!

So could it be the flatheads that are responsible for the LMB population declines that some on this board report? 7000 of them could gobble up a lot of forage. How does that compare to the estimated population of LMB in that lake? What other lakes in so cal have similar FCF populations?

Also, the size distribution graph is interesting -- if they can grow to such large sizes, and there is no significant predation or fishing pressure, why is the size distribution bell-shaped? What is keeping the population of really big ones down? And I assume on page 655 the mean weight of all tagged fish was 1.066 kg, not g?

Any other similar studies of so cal reservoirs exist or are planned?

[DarkShadow]

Kwin,

While we love to see what the flatheads are doing at DVL, has there been a DFG study published to assess the predation rates that striped bass have on that fishery, and how that affects the populations for other game fish at the lake?

[HawgZWylde]

Flatheads prefer live bait, caught them in Arizona on the Colorado river and in Texas on live Bluegill. The bigger the bait the bigger the Flathead.

I caught a small one last year while on your boat using a bluegill colored blade.

[shinbob]

How does that compare to the estimated population of LMB in that lake?

Ah, never mind, just saw your other study of LMB populations at DVL -- 3-10 times higher, at least in 2008.

[DarkShadow]

...at least in 2008.

Something (fish counts, tournament results) tells me that something has changed since 2008.