Other freshwater · Freshwater
Flathead catfish
Pylodictis olivaris
Native Mississippi/Gulf drainage predator; introduced widely outside its native range and highly associated with large woody river habitat.
Also called flathead, mud cat, shovelhead, yellow cat, opelousas cat.
- Flowing water
- Stillwater
- Ordinary target
- 4 of 4 overlays reviewed
- Reviewed 2026-08-27
Take this somewhere
This page is the record. The reading is what happens when you add water, a season and a temperature to it — that is where the families below get ranked against each other instead of just listed.
Those three links carry the fish and nothing else. No conditions were declared on this page, so none travel, and the link says so rather than sending an empty reading.
The half nobody publishes
What this record does not know
Everything else on this page comes from a named agency or peer-reviewed source. This is the other side of that: the questions a reviewer went looking for an answer to and came back without, and the fields the record leaves empty because filling them would mean guessing.
It is here rather than at the bottom because a page that only shows what it knows is easy to read as a page that knows everything. For Flathead catfish there are 11 of them.
Named by a reviewer
8Somebody looked for this and wrote down that they did not find it.
- Behaviour
Nobody has sourced:
- species-specific angling-pressure response beyond general cover/light notes
- cold-front / barometric response with primary-source support
- water-level rise/fall response with primary-source support
- Identification
Nobody has sourced:
- introduced-range vs native-range mean length tables
- Forage
Nobody has sourced:
- finer month-by-month diet inside a season, which is waterbody-specific
- complete regional forage-substitution table
- Season
Nobody has sourced:
- month-by-month location changes inside a season, which are waterbody-specific
- population-archetype calendars beyond the species-level overlay (see RPC)
Absent from the record
3No reviewer wrote a gap here. The field is simply empty, which is its own answer.
- Water temperature
No agency or peer-reviewed temperature band for Flathead catfish was found that a review would accept. The reading runs without one rather than borrowing a number from a related fish.
- Identification
No reviewed image. A photograph is only in this catalog when an agency or a named creator labelled the subject, and nobody has cleared one for this species yet.
- Population context
No regional population profile is registered. The species-level reading stands on its own; it does not silently become a local one.
Where the record puts it
Water and range
Flowing water
5 reviewed holding classes- Deep pool
- Submerged wood
- Current break
- Run
- Pool head
Stillwater
4 reviewed holding classes- Wood
- Drop-off
- Basin
- Riprap
DepthDeep cover by day; adults often move shallower at night and in summer while remaining structurally oriented.
Moving waterUses large-river current but commonly holds on the protected side of wood, scour, or structure rather than in the fastest lane.
LightStrong low-light and nocturnal movement pattern, especially for large adults leaving daytime cover to forage.
Thermal band
Temperature
No reviewed temperature band
Nobody publishes a preferred or active temperature range for Flathead catfish that a review would accept. Borrowing one from a related fish would look like knowledge and behave like a guess, so the reading runs without it and says which parts of the answer that weakens.
How it uses water
Behaviour
Texas Parks and Wildlife: adults usually solitary, each staking out a favorite deep-cover spot. Catalog exception: introduced populations can be invasive; presence is not a harvest endorsement.
Missouri DNR: forage at night; adults prefer fish and crayfish; unlike channel catfish they are not scavengers and rarely eat dead or decaying material. Texas Parks and Wildlife: from about 10 in, diet consists entirely of live fish. Minnesota DNR: hunt by smell and vibration. This is not a current baitfish event.
Missouri DNR / Texas Parks and Wildlife: adults move at night from deeper water or cover into shallows to feed. Young on riffles are active at night. Stronger night default than channel catfish.
Seasonal activityMissouri DNR: spawn in late spring or early summer, somewhat later than channel catfish. Minnesota DNR: about 72–75°F. Texas Parks and Wildlife: late May through August at 75–80°F. Winter: Minnesota DNR — deep water with boulders or logs as refuge from current.
Temperature-driven behaviourPreferred band roughly 68–82°F. Cold edge near 48°F; warm edge near 90°F. Large-river wood and pool habitat, not a pond-channel default.
Depth movementDeep cover by day; shallower at night. Winter deeper with current refuge.
Facing the currentMissouri DNR: prefers slow current; avoids high-gradient or intermittent streams. Holds on the protected side of wood, scour, or structure rather than the fastest lane.
CoverDeep pools, submerged wood, current breaks, runs, pool heads, drop-offs, basins, and riprap — as occupied cover, not as a crowd.
Open waterNot a pelagic rover. Open water is a night intercept off a home cover object.
Predator avoidanceWood, depth, and darkness. Open sand without cover is a poor default.
TerritoryMissouri DNR: each individual normally has a favorite resting place. Nesting males guard eggs and fry. Cover objects and cavities are excluded from target guidance.
AggressionMinnesota DNR: after spawning the male may drive the female from the nest. Texas Parks and Wildlife: males defend the nest and eggs aggressively. That is spawning biology, not a catch claim.
Spawning (conservation context)Missouri DNR: saucer in a natural cavity or near a large submerged object; male guards fry about 7 days; young remain in a compact school near the nest for several days then disperse. Texas Parks and Wildlife: hollow logs, caves, or areas beneath banks. Cavities and fry schools are excluded from target guidance.
Where the general rule stops
- Adult flatheads are strongly piscivorous; generic insect-scale catfish logic is a poor fit for large fish.
- Introduced populations can be invasive; presence is not a conservation or harvest endorsement.
What it can eat
Forage
- Larger prey fish
- Small forage fish
- Crustaceans
Missouri DNR: adults prefer fish and crayfish; unlike channel catfish they are not scavengers and rarely eat dead or decaying material. Texas Parks and Wildlife: from about 10 in, diet consists entirely of live fish — shad, carp, suckers, sunfish, bass, and other catfish. Minnesota DNR: primarily other fish, hunted by smell and vibration. Aquatic insects are an agency young-of-year note off this catalog list.
- Feeding style
- Specialized
- Feeding zone
- Mixed
Through the year
- Winter
- Remaining live fish around deep wood and current refuge. Not a carrion default.
- Spring
- Live fish and crayfish as water warms. Spawning overlap is conservation context.
- Early summer
- Live prey around wood and pools. Nesting is conservation context.
- Summer
- Night intercept of live fish off deep cover. Crayfish remain capacity. This is not a current baitfish declaration.
- Fall
- Live fish along wood, pools, and remaining structure.
By life stage
- Young of year
- Missouri DNR: smaller than 4 in eat insect larvae. Texas Parks and Wildlife: young feed mostly on invertebrates. Insects are not a catalog class here.
- Juvenile
- Texas Parks and Wildlife: invertebrates, then live fish by about 10 in.
- Adult
- Live fish and crayfish. Not scavengers.
Ontogenetic shiftInvertebrates to live-fish specialization. Stronger piscivory than channel catfish at the same length.
SubstitutionsRivers substitute different live fish than reservoirs. Do not import channel-catfish carrion or insect defaults. Introduced-range diets stay waterbody-specific.
Diet capacity is not proof that a hatch or prey event is occurring. Observed current forage still comes from a user observation or Hatch Match.
Through the year
Season
Winter
- Where they sit
- Minnesota DNR: deep water with boulders or logs as refuge from current.
- Feeding
- Slow intercept of remaining live fish around home cover.
What that changesBottom contact, slow drag, and live / natural bait suspension. Flowing water: bottom-contact drift and stationary bait.
What would count against it
- treating winter as a roaming open-channel problem
Spring
- Where they sit
- Deep pools, wood, and current breaks as water warms.
What that changesStationary bait, pulse / jig, and bottom-contact drift along cover.
Early summer
- Where they sit
- Wood, cavities, and protected pools as water holds in the low-to-mid 70s, often somewhat later than channel catfish (Missouri DNR).
What that changesStationary bait and bottom contact off the cavity, not in it.
What would count against it
- using nesting cavities as holding water
Cavity nesting; male guards eggs and fry. Cavities and fry schools are excluded from target guidance.
Summer
- Where they sit
- Day: a favorite deep-cover object. Night: shallows and pool edges off that cover (Missouri DNR / Texas Parks and Wildlife).
- Temperature
- Preferred 68–82°F. Texas Parks and Wildlife: spawn can continue at 75–80°F.
- Cover
- One occupied wood or scour object, not a crowd.
- Light
- Strong nocturnal default. Bright open sand is a mismatch.
What that changesBottom contact, slow drag, and live / natural bait suspension. Flowing water: stationary bait, bottom-contact drift, and pulse / jig.
What would count against it
- forcing a channel-catfish omnivore default
- forcing a reservoir-roaming blue-catfish default
Fall
- Where they sit
- Wood, deep pools, and remaining current relief as water cools.
What that changesBottom contact, slow drag, and stationary bait.
Spawning · Early summer, Summer
Late-spring to summer cavity spawner as water warms, commonly near large submerged structure or protected cavities.
Recorded as conservation context. No spawning site, staging concentration or migration bottleneck is named anywhere in this catalog, because naming one is how a population gets fished out.
Telling it apart
Identification
What to look at
- Missouri DNR: lower jaw projects far beyond the upper jaw except in the smallest young. Channel and blue catfish have the reverse overbite.
- Tail mostly squared off with a slight notch — not deeply forked (Missouri DNR / Texas Parks and Wildlife / Indiana DNR).
- Missouri DNR / Indiana DNR: anal fin rounded, 14–17 rays — far fewer than channel or blue.
- Body often strongly mottled with brown or black. Texas Parks and Wildlife: pale yellow to light brown, highly mottled; young may be almost black. Mottling can be weak in turbid-water adults (Missouri DNR).
- Missouri DNR: upper tip of the tail fin lighter than the rest of the fin; adipose a free lobe widely separate from the tail. Those are supporting marks, not the only key.
- Average adult length
- Missouri DNR: commonly 15–45 in. National Park Service / Minnesota DNR: often larger-bodied than sympatric channel catfish.
- Common angling size
- 18–36 in in large rivers and reservoirs with wood and deep pools.
- Typical weight
- Missouri DNR: commonly 1–45 lb in the documented adult band. Texas Parks and Wildlife: 50-pounders are not unusual where mature populations exist.
- Maximum documented
- Missouri DNR / Texas Parks and Wildlife / Minnesota DNR: about 100 lb class, with larger commercial reports. Maxima are waterbody-specific.
- Longevity
- Texas Parks and Wildlife: average lifespan 12–14 years; one recorded fish lived 24 years. Mature at about 4–5 years or about 18 in (Missouri DNR).
What it gets confused with
- Channel catfish
- Channel catfish have a deeply forked tail, an overbite, and 24–29 anal rays. Flathead have a square tail, an underbite, and 14–17 anal rays.
- Blue catfish
- Blue catfish are forked-tailed, usually unspotted, with a straight anal fin of 30 or more rays. Flathead are mottled, square-tailed, and under-jawed.
- Yellow bullhead
- Yellow bullhead are small square-tailed Ameiurus with white chin barbels. They are not a 20–40 in shovelhead. Do not collapse ‘yellow cat’ nicknames.
What follows from all of that
Presentation families
Flowing water
Stationary bait
Hold a scent or food form in one feeding station and wait for a fish to move to it.
- anchor the presentation
- keep bait in the pocket
- detect takes without sweeping
- refresh often
What it asks of the tackle
- Depth control
- High
- Sensitivity
- Moderate
- Casting distance
- Short
- Weight range
- 1/4–1 oz
- Cover resistance
- High
- Line visibility
- Moderate
- Retie frequency
- High
Bottom-contact drift
Tick or crawl a food form along the substrate through a feeding lane without snagging constantly.
- feel the bottom
- short hops
- reset after hang
- weight just enough
What it asks of the tackle
- Depth control
- High
- Sensitivity
- High
- Casting distance
- Moderate
- Weight range
- 1/8–3/8 oz
- Cover resistance
- Moderate
- Line visibility
- Low
- Retie frequency
- Moderate
Pulse / jig
Lift and drop a compact bait so it occupies a pocket, seam, or head without leaving the water column.
- short lift
- controlled drop
- stay in the pocket
- repeat on the same piece
What it asks of the tackle
- Depth control
- High
- Sensitivity
- High
- Casting distance
- Short to moderate
- Weight range
- 1/8–3/8 oz
- Cover resistance
- Moderate
- Line visibility
- Low
- Retie frequency
- High
Stillwater
Bottom contact
Keep a bait on or just above the substrate along a break, flat, or inside a weed edge.
- feel bottom
- drag or hop
- pause on the break
- stay in contact
What it asks of the tackle
- Depth control
- High
- Sensitivity
- High
- Casting distance
- Moderate
- Weight range
- 1/8–1/2 oz
- Cover resistance
- High
- Line visibility
- Low
- Retie frequency
- High
Live / natural bait suspension
Present a natural food form with enough life or scent to hold in a station without looking mechanical.
- keep it alive or fresh
- match the holding depth
- minimize hardware bulk
- detect without pulling it away
What it asks of the tackle
- Depth control
- High
- Sensitivity
- High
- Casting distance
- Short to moderate
- Weight range
- As light as conditions allow
- Cover resistance
- Moderate
- Line visibility
- Low
- Retie frequency
- High
Slow drag
Move a bait along the bottom slowly enough that it stays in the feeding layer of inactive fish.
- continuous contact
- very slow travel
- pause at changes in bottom
- do not hop out of the zone
What it asks of the tackle
- Depth control
- High
- Sensitivity
- High
- Casting distance
- Moderate
- Weight range
- 1/8–3/8 oz
- Cover resistance
- Moderate
- Line visibility
- Low
- Retie frequency
- Moderate
What moves them for this fish
Reviewed rules that push particular families up when the conditions match. Each one names the conditions it needs and why it exists, so you can disagree with it.
Daytime flathead catfish are unusually cover- and cavity-oriented; reinforce precise stationing at reviewed cover classes.
When
Submerged wood, Deep pool, Wood, Riprap · Bright or Mixed
Moves up
Stationary bait, Bottom contact, Live / natural bait suspension, Bottom-contact drift
Reviewed 2026-08-27
Large flatheads are strongly piscivorous and move from cover in low light; natural/prey-station mechanics outrank insect-scale catfish logic.
When
Small forage fish, Larger prey fish · Low light or Night
Moves up
Stationary bait, Live / natural bait suspension, Bottom-contact drift, Slow drag
Reviewed 2026-08-27
Where every sentence came from
Sources
Agency
USGS Nonindigenous Aquatic Species flathead catfish profile
Used for habitat, thermal band and presentation families; identification. Read 2026-08-30, next check 2026-11-27.
Agency
Missouri Department of Conservation flathead catfish field guide
Used for behaviour; season. Read 2026-08-30, next check 2026-11-20.
Agency
Texas Parks and Wildlife flathead catfish account
Used for behaviour; season. Read 2026-08-30, next check 2026-11-20.
Agency
Minnesota DNR catfish biology
Used for behaviour; season. Read 2026-08-30, next check 2026-11-20.
Agency
Used for identification. Read 2026-08-30, next check 2026-12-01.
Agency
Used for identification. Read 2026-08-30, next check 2026-12-01.
Agency
Indiana DNR catfish identification (square tail, 14–17 anal rays, mottling)
Used for identification. Read 2026-08-30, next check 2026-12-01.
Agency
Minnesota DNR catfish biology (largest native MN catfish, live-fish diet, cavity spawn)
Used for identification. Read 2026-08-30, next check 2026-12-01.
Agency
Missouri Department of Conservation flathead catfish field guide (night forage, live fish and crayfish, not scavengers)
Used for forage. Read 2026-08-30, next check 2026-11-21.
Agency
Texas Parks and Wildlife flathead catfish account (live fish from about 10 in)
Used for forage. Read 2026-08-30, next check 2026-11-21.
Agency
Minnesota DNR catfish biology (primarily other fish; shun dead bait relative to channel catfish)
Used for forage. Read 2026-08-30, next check 2026-11-21.
Peer reviewed
Peer-reviewed flathead catfish habitat and movement literature summarized by USGS
Used for habitat, thermal band and presentation families. Read 2026-08-27, next check 2026-11-27.
A source with no link predates the rule that one has to carry a URL. It is still a real citation and still checkable; it just takes a search rather than a click, and that is worth knowing before you rely on it.