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Species·Species guide

Flathead Catfish: Identification, Size, Live Bait and Where They Live

Flathead catfish: square tail, jutting jaw, 1–45 lb with a 123 lb record, a live-fish diet past 10 in, and where they hide by day and hunt at night.

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A flathead catfish (Pylodictis olivaris) photographed for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Photo: Eric Engbretson, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (public domain)

The flathead catfish is the predator of the catfish family: once it is ten inches long it eats nothing but other fish, it hunts at night from a hole under a log, and it grows past 100 lb. It lives in the deep, slow pools of rivers and reservoirs, and the bait that catches it is a live bluegill fished beside its cover. Anglers call it shovelhead, yellow cat or Opelousas. East of the Appalachians it is an invader that has reshaped whole river systems.

Ken Paulie’s 123 lb world-record flathead ate a crappie angler’s minnow at Elk City Reservoir, Kansas, in May 1998, on tackle meant for fish of a pound. The fish did not care about the tackle.

How do you tell a flathead from the other catfish?

Look at the tail. A flathead’s is squared off with only a slight notch, where channel and blue catfish have deeply forked tails. The head is broad and flat with small eyes set on top, and the lower jaw sticks out past the upper, the reverse of the other catfish. The anal fin is short and rounded, with 14–17 rays against 24–29 on a channel and 30 or more on a blue. The color is pale yellow to light brown, heavily mottled with black and brown, over a pale belly. One more mark for the doubtful: the tooth pad in the upper jaw has a backward extension on each side.

Mark Flathead catfish Channel catfish Blue catfish
Tail Squared, slight notch Deeply forked Deeply forked
Jaw Lower jaw projects beyond the upper Upper jaw longer Upper jaw slightly longer
Anal fin rays 14–17 24–29 30–35
Color Yellow-brown, heavily mottled Olive to slate, spotted Bluish silver, unspotted
Common size 15–45 in (38–114 cm), 1–45 lb (0.5–20 kg) 12–32 in (30–81 cm), 1–15 lb (0.5–6.8 kg) 20–44 in (51–112 cm), 3–40 lb (1.4–18 kg)
Maximum About 100 lb (45 kg) in Missouri’s data; record 123 lb (55.8 kg) 58 lb (26.3 kg) 143 lb (64.9 kg)

The channel catfish and blue catfish pages cover the forked-tail fish in the same detail.

Where do flatheads live?

The native range runs through the Mississippi River basin, from western Pennsylvania to North Dakota and south to Louisiana, and along the Gulf slope from the Mobile Bay drainage to Mexico. Within it, flatheads live in reservoirs and large streams with slow current, never in headwater creeks. They want deep, turbid pools of streams, rivers, canals, lakes and reservoirs. Adults hold near submerged logs, piles of drift or other cover in those pools; the young live on riffles among the rocks.

Adults are loners. Each one stakes out a favorite spot under a tree or in a cove, in deep water, and moves into the shallows at night to feed. That is the whole location puzzle. A flathead has a fixed home for the season in heavy cover, leaves it after dark to hunt, and is back before daylight.

Which cover? A 1997 Missouri Conservationist guide to flathead set lines is blunt: “Large brush piles or log jams will be the most consistent locations for catching flatheads.” It adds that “lots of cover combined with deep water often produces larger flatheads.”

Water By day After dark
Big river The log jam or drift pile on an outside bend, a cut bank below a wing dike, the deep hole beside it, in 2–25 ft (0.6–7.6 m) of water Shallow flats, the heads of riffles, drops near tributary mouths, the upstream side of a hump
Small river The one deep pool with wood in a tight bend; under an undercut bank or a bridge piling The riffle above and the tail of the pool below the home hole
Reservoir Standing timber and the submerged creek channel that runs through it; main-lake points and secondary points when the water is 60–70 °F (16–21 °C) in late spring The flats either side of the channel; the mouths of feeder creeks; stump fields in a few feet of water
Hot summer Moving water: the headwaters above the lake and the tailrace below the dam The same current, with the fish out on the gravel bars

Three details sharpen the table. The big fish keep apart: Keith Sutton’s trophy guide notes that a prime piece of cover rarely holds more than one heavyweight adult. After a good fish, the next bite comes from the next log jam. The river level matters more than the weather. In smaller rivers and streams, the same Missouri guide says, flatheads “will not bite well if the water level is falling, but may bite more readily with rising water levels.” A full moon, it adds, “generally means poor fishing.” And the deep hole is no exaggeration. Two Pennsylvania state records came from deep water: a 2019 Susquehanna fish from 22 ft (6.7 m) in April, and the 2023 record from a channel about 50 ft (15 m) deep in Lake Aldred, near Conestoga, in May.

When do they bite?

Flatheads follow water temperature more tightly than the other catfish, because they are the one species that shuts down in the cold. Wisconsin DNR’s catfish plan has them feeding most actively above 50 °F (10 °C) and little or not at all below about 43 °F (6 °C). In a feeding study, none took food at 45 °F (7 °C) or below. Below 50 °F a flathead lies nearly inactive in a deep hole until spring, while blue catfish keep feeding.

Water What the flathead does Where it is How to fish it
Below 50 °F (10 °C) Dormant, barely feeding The deepest hole of the stretch Most anglers do not bother; a live bait left in the hole for hours is the only chance
50–60 °F (10–16 °C) Wakes up and feeds hard to recover from winter Still near the wintering hole, moving a little more each warm week Live bait on the bottom beside deep wood, the warmest afternoons
60–70 °F (16–21 °C) Pre-spawn roaming, the second-best bite of the year (March–May in the South) Main-lake points and secondary points, channel edges, the first wood outside the hole Live bluegill under a slip float or on a slip-sinker rig along the points at dusk
70–80 °F (21–27 °C) Spawns at 75–80 °F from late May into August, and generally bites poorly while it does Hollow logs, caves dug into clay banks, root masses, under undercut banks Fish the pre-spawn banks before the spawn and the current after it; noodlers’ season
80–85 °F (27–29 °C) and up Hunts at night; moves to current in the heat Tailraces, river headwaters, the shallow flats after dark Night fishing with a big live bait on the flat beside the home cover
Cooling from 67 to 55 °F (19–13 °C) Feeds hard before winter: September and October produce the most and the biggest flatheads Deep holes with wood, outside bends, the channel below a feeding flat Live bait anchored tight to the wood, afternoons into the first hours of dark

The spawn explains the summer lull. Flatheads are cavity spawners, like the other catfish, but they wait for warmer water and choose bigger holes. Texas puts the spawn at 75–80 °F (24–27 °C) from late May through August; Missouri says late June and July. A female produces about 1,200 eggs per pound of body weight, up to 100,000 in a large fish, so a 50 lb (23 kg) female lays around 60,000. The eggs hatch in four to six days, and the male guards the fry for about a week. Fish mature at three to six years old, at around 18 in (46 cm). The catfish water-temperature page sets these bands beside the channel and blue catfish bands.

How do you catch a flathead?

The bait is what separates flathead fishing from the rest. Above 10 in (25 cm) a flathead eats only fish: shad, carp, suckers, sunfish, largemouth bass and other catfish. It is not a scavenger; when it comes to what catfish eat, this one wants its food alive. So the bait is alive: bluegill, green sunfish (Arkansas’s “ricefield slicks”), perch, goldfish, bullheads or big shad, hardy and lively. A 4–7 in (10–18 cm) bait covers an average fish. For the giants Sutton goes to “eight ounces to two pounds or more”, the biggest legal bait you can get.

Hook it through the back behind the dorsal fin, or through both lips, on a circle hook. Hold it on the bottom or under a float beside the cover the fish lives in. Fresh cut bait takes flatheads too, mostly in current, where a live bait hides under the cover (South Carolina’s record ate a piece of it), but live bait is the rule. Chicken liver and dip bait catch the juveniles.

The law comes before the bait bucket. Texas’s rule is typical of the strict states: “It is unlawful to use any game fish, or part of a game fish, as bait.” Only goldfish, common carp, native shrimp, crabs, crawfish and nongame fish may be used, and live bait may not leave the lake aboard a boat in that lake’s water. A sunfish is nongame in Texas, so a bluegill is legal; a chunk of catfish is not. Arkansas gives the same advice for a different reason: take the bait from the lake you fish. The best catfish bait page compares the Texas, Kansas and Missouri bait codes line by line.

Part The number Why
Rod 7 ft 6 in to 8 ft (2.3–2.4 m), heavy power; a stiff 6–7 ft (1.8–2.1 m) casting rod from a boat in tight wood (Phillip Gentry) Power to turn a big fish before it reaches the log
Reel A heavy round baitcaster with a bait clicker The clicker lets the fish run against light resistance until the hook finds the jaw
Main line 40 lb (18 kg) line in most waters and 70–80 lb in heavy snags (Keith Sutton); 40–50 lb braid from a boat in wood (Gentry), 50–65 lb braid in heavy timber Braid hauls a big fish out of the log jam fast; mono stretches, and Pennsylvania’s 2023 record came on 25 lb mono
Leader 40–60 lb mono, 12–36 in (30–90 cm) Abrasion against the log; a leader you can replace after every fish
Hook 7/0–8/0 circle hook on a 4–6 in (10–15 cm) bluegill, the size Missouri’s set-line anglers use; 9/0–12/0 on a hand-sized bait The point must clear the bait’s back and still catch the corner of the jaw
Sinker 2–6 oz (57–170 g) for live bait in timber, up to 8 oz (227 g) in fast current; a 1 1/2 oz (43 g) sinker took Pennsylvania’s 2023 record in a 50 ft channel Enough to pin a lively bait beside the cover and no more
Rig Slip-sinker rig as the default; three-way rig in current; slip float over shallow wood at night The fish takes a bait it cannot feel the weight of

The catfish rigs page ties the slip-sinker, Santee Cooper and three-way rigs step by step. The rods are heavy catfish rods, the hook size follows the bait, and the hooks and rods hubs cover the rest of the heavy tackle.

The bite is slow. The fish picks the bait up, turns and moves off, so leave the clicker on, let it run a few feet, then reel tight. The circle hook sets itself, and a hard strike pulls the bait out of the mouth. Set the drag firm enough to turn the fish from the wood, fight with the rod held high, keep the fish away from the cover, and have a big net ready.

One or two fish in a night is a good trip; flathead fishing is patience, not numbers. In the states that allow it, noodling, catching spawning flatheads by hand from their holes, is a summer tradition with its own rules.

How big do flatheads get?

Fish Weight Age Source
Sexual maturity – 3–6 years, about 18 in (46 cm) Texas Parks and Wildlife, Missouri Department of Conservation
Average lifespan – 12–14 years; one recorded fish lived 24 years Texas Parks and Wildlife
Oldest aged – 28 years in Animal Diversity Web’s account; 36 in a slow-growing population of the Ohio and Kanawha rivers Brodd 2012; Siegel et al. 2023
Common adult 1–45 lb (0.5–20 kg) – Missouri Department of Conservation
Big fish 100 lb (45 kg) – Missouri maximum; Texas trotline fish over 110 lb (50 kg)
World record 123 lb (55.8 kg), 61 in (155 cm), girth 43 in (109 cm) At least 22 years, most likely male Elk City Reservoir, Kansas, May 1998, examined by state biologists

The record belongs to Ken Paulie, who was fishing for crappie at Elk City Reservoir in southeast Kansas in May 1998 when the 123 lb flathead took his minnow. Outdoor Life has him on a Zebco 33 and 14 lb line. In-Fisherman dates the catch May 14, on a jig and minnow; the IGFA list says May 19. The light tackle and Paulie’s remark that the fish barely fought raised eyebrows for years. Then Kansas biologists examined the fish, confirmed the weight and put its age at 22 years or more.

How old is a 20 lb flathead? No agency gives one number. As an Arkansas Game and Fish biologist put it, “The relationship to age and a fish’s size will vary among lakes and rivers.” The aging studies give the frame. Animal Diversity Web puts the typical lifespan at 5 to 22 years and notes that flatheads “do not normally exceed 1000 mm” (39 in) until they reach 10 years of age. The biggest fish are old: Paulie’s was at least 22, and South Carolina’s biologists roughly estimated Joe Driggers’ 113 lb fish at 23.

The state records show where the giants live. In 2014 In-Fisherman counted nine record flatheads over 80 lb, three of them over 90; South Carolina’s 2026 fish has since topped them all but Paulie’s.

State Record Water and year
Kansas 123 lb (55.8 kg), the world record Elk City Reservoir, 1998
South Carolina 113 lb 7 oz (51.5 kg) Big Pee Dee River, June 10, 2026, on cut bait and 50 lb mono; heavier than any other state’s rod-and-reel record
Texas 98 lb 8 oz (44.7 kg), 53 in (135 cm) Lake Palestine, 1998, by a bank angler fishing for crappie
Georgia 83 lb (37.6 kg), held twice Altamaha River, 2006 and 2010; the first on a bluegill and a 7/0 circle hook
Iowa 81 lb (36.7 kg) Lake Ellis, 1958
Arkansas 80 lb (36.3 kg) on rod and reel; 85 lb 6 oz (38.7 kg) on a trotline Arkansas River, 1989; Blackfish Lake, 2019
Oklahoma 78 lb 8 oz (35.6 kg) El Reno City Reservoir, 2010, on a crankbait
Pennsylvania 66 lb 6 oz (30.1 kg), 50.25 in (128 cm) Susquehanna River, 2023, on a live trout, released alive

A 139 lb 14 oz fish from the Arkansas River in 1982 is the folk record: it tipped certified scales, but it came off a snagline, not a rod and reel. Do 200 lb catfish exist? In North America, no certified fish comes close. The only catfish over 200 lb on record are the European wels and the Mekong giant, both on the world-record catfish page.

Can you eat them, and should you keep them?

Arkansas’s agency rates the flathead for its “impressive table quality”: the firm white fillets of a fish that eats nothing but other fish. Regulations differ by state and by water. Texas lists the flathead as a game fish with statewide limits, Arkansas allows ten catfish a day of any species combined, and on some invaded Atlantic rivers you are asked not to put one back. Read your own state’s page before you fish.

East of the Appalachians the flathead is an introduced species and, by any measure, an invasive one. The Atlantic-slope story starts on the Cape Fear River in North Carolina, where 11 mature fish were released near Fayetteville in 1966. By 1980 the population occupied a 125 mi (201 km) stretch of the river. Flatheads made up 10.5% of its fish by number and 64.7% by weight. The native bullheads collapsed within 15 years, and the flatheads switched to eating shad.

Georgia stocked the Savannah and Altamaha in the 1970s. In Pennsylvania the species turned up in the Schuylkill in 1999 and the Susquehanna in 2002, and it has moved through both basins since. The state record went from 56 lb 3 oz in 2020 to 66 lb 6 oz in 2023, a sign of a population still growing into new water. The USGS now lists flatheads in every state except Alaska, Hawaii, Montana, Utah and New England.

That is why Georgia’s wildlife agency has staff removing flatheads from the Satilla River to save the redbreast sunfish. Maryland asks anglers to kill every flathead they catch, and Pennsylvania Sea Grant encourages anglers in the Delaware and Susquehanna watersheds not to release them, “regardless of size.” The blue catfish page tells the same story for the Chesapeake, where the two invaders now share the rivers.

The names, if you want them

The flathead is Pylodictis olivaris: the genus name means “mud fish” and the species name “olive-colored”. In Texas it is the second-largest freshwater sport fish after the blue catfish. The catfish hub sets it beside all the other species, with the baits and the rigs.

Gear for catfish

Related

Sources

  1. SCDNR, South Carolina state record freshwater fish (weights in lb-oz)
  2. Bourret, S. L., Tingley, R. W., Kanno, Y. and Vokoun, J. C. (2008), Maximum daily consumption and specific daily metabolic demand of juvenile flathead catfish, Journal of Freshwater Ecology 23(3):413–419
  3. Wisconsin DNR (2016), Distribution, biology and management of Wisconsin's ictalurids
  4. Carolina Sportsman, Joe Driggers' 113.7-pound South Carolina record flathead (June 2026)
  5. Texas Parks and Wildlife, flathead catfish
  6. Missouri Department of Conservation, flathead catfish field guide
  7. Missouri Department of Conservation, catfish: tips for fishing
  8. Missouri Conservationist, Hunting flathead catfish (Doug Clemons, May 1997)
  9. USGS Nonindigenous Aquatic Species, Pylodictis olivaris factsheet
  10. Smith, G. D., Massie, D. L., Perillo, J., Wagner, T. and Pierce, D. (2021), Range Expansion and Factors Affecting Abundance of Invasive Flathead Catfish in the Delaware and Susquehanna Rivers, Pennsylvania, USA. North American Journal of Fisheries Management 41(S1): S205-S220
  11. Pennsylvania Sea Grant, Flathead Catfish Fact Sheet (2025)
  12. Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Flathead Catfish
  13. Georgia Department of Natural Resources, flathead catfish (invasive species)
  14. Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, new state record flathead catfish recorded (June 2023)
  15. Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, new state record flathead catfish recorded (May 2019)
  16. Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, Flatheads: big, good eating and challenging to anglers
  17. Texas Parks and Wildlife, general fishing regulations (bait)
  18. Neely, B. C. and Lynott, S. T. (2016), Examination of the World Record Flathead Catfish Captured from Elk City Reservoir, Kansas, in May, 1998. Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science 119(3-4): 353-359
  19. Brodd, N. (2012), Pylodictis olivaris, Animal Diversity Web
  20. Siegel, J. V., Welsh, S., Taylor, N. and Phelps, Q. E. (2023), Size Structure, Age, Growth, and Mortality of Flathead Catfish in the Robert C. Byrd Pool of the Ohio and Kanawha Rivers. Journal of the Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies 10: 10-16
  21. Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, Spines help catfish live another day (July 29, 2020)
  22. Outdoor Life, the biggest North American catfish of all time
  23. In-Fisherman, Record catfish: giant flatheads (February 2014)
  24. Bass Pro Shops 1Source, Tips and tactics for trophy flatheads (Keith Sutton) (archived copy)
  25. Outdoor Life, Tips for catching trophy flathead catfish (Keith Sutton)
  26. Mossy Oak, Your guide to flathead catfishing (Phillip Gentry)
  27. Catfish Edge, best time to catch catfish
  28. Catfish Edge, best catfish bait