Diet of Flatheads in the Susquehanna

Kgregor12 said:
sometimes as an angler I think I am guilty of forgetting the relative proportion of non-sport fish components of the aquatic ecosystem. The study indicated the native stone cats were one of the main prey items so it would make sense if they did not evolve with invasive flatheads it would make sense they might be more vulnerable than the allegheny introduced transplants you mentioned. Same may go for native fall fish, white suckers, northern hog suckers, log perch ect. This is why growth plasticity can peak because when the native forage get unsustainably burned though eventually the food source diminishes as you lose density or presence of native species. Then you get blue cats in the James river, 75% of the biomass all 20 inches long. Flatheads likely will experience the same phenomena at some point if they are burning through stone cat’s unsustainably. Then the question is what else depends on stone cats for anything from food, symbiosis, or taking partial forage pressure off another species.

We all imitate stonecats for nonnative smallmouth so for stone cats you can see the nonnative fish introductions start to compound from a predator standpoint. Question is for me who else depends on these stone cats and what happens to the food web if we lose em.
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Well, we'll find out what the ramifications are when the madtom disappears. This is a crazy world we live in.

I'm very interested to see how the python situation shakes out.
 
Lol just wait till some brilliant bucket biologist dumps in 100 wells catfish and establishes a guide bussiness, and a “conservation” non-profit devoted to “let them go and let them grow” overnight. Will have 8 foot catfish farting out remains of 20 inch smallies and everyother fish that lives in that river. Wonder how long entire susky food web go kablooey in that scenario?
 
On a separate note, those Wels Catfish in Spain really are something, aren't they? Catfish are pretty much top dog predators, or damn near the top, in every ecosystem they inhabit. Usually, somewhere, there is a badass catfish near the top of the food chain.
 
jifigz said:
On a separate note, those Wells Catfish in Spain really are something, aren't they? Catfish are pretty much top dog predators, or damn near the top, in every ecosystem they inhabit. Usually, somewhere, there is a badass catfish near the top of the food chain.
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Yea don’t forget the Goonch of the ganjes
 
jifigz said:
On a separate note, those Wells Catfish in Spain really are something, aren't they? Catfish are pretty much top dog predators, or damn near the top, in every ecosystem they inhabit. Usually, somewhere, there is a badass catfish near the top of the food chain.
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The Wels, flathead, blue, redtail, etc. Fish with whiskers are serious critters. Even though the Mekong eats mostly vegetable matter, it, too, is a serious fish.

I used to be a pretty avid catfish angler. I liked it a lot. A chair, some beer, some weight, and just chuck it out there wait for the goods. Catfish are incredibly good fighters, too, at least in my opinion.
 
You are gonna wanna downsize to a dove dry fly if they are picky. Maybe a Merganser submerger fly. Might even have to get out the parachute ducklings if they get on that midge bite.
 
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