Something to think about
I am actually new to this site and decided that i would reply to this thread because it is something that i feel very strongly about. I am from Ohio so you may be thinking, why evan put in your .02 cents. I step foot onto these grounds saying that I am not just pointing the finger at the man out netting fish out of our rivers, streams, and lakes. I am just a big time believer in cpr and when taking fish use the selective harvest theory. There is plenty of folks out there abusing our state waters with rod and reel as far as im concerned, but i will say here in ohio very rarely do i see people taking big cats out. I will tell you what I do see though..... Trucks with tanks parked at the boatramp with the words LIVE FISH stamped on the side. I myself don't give a crap if they make a living off netting these fish or not, they are a limited resource. Those who think differently, think about it from one dam to the next it is no different than a lake. Yeah SOME fish make it upstream past dams but not very many. On one occasion fishing the big ohio rive I watched a guy take 27 fish out on one netting trip. I will be honest with you, by law he was doing absolutely nothing wrong! I don't care if he is following the laws or not. The laws need to be changed!! In not mad at the guy one bit. According to law he was doing nothing wrong so why be mad at him or anyone else who is out doing things the legal way. The law in my opinion needs to be changed. BY The way of the 27 fish taken out most were below 20 pounds but he had 2 shovel heads that were for sure over 40 and probably close to 50! Keep that in mind when you read what the researchers below recorded. These studies were probably not done on the rivers you fish in Tennessee but the same principles apply!
Alright don’t ask me why I went and did all this research. I guess it is just what happens when you are fascinated by the “catfish” as much as I am. I was interested in finding out What the lifespan was, how many eggs are laid per spawn year, and what the approximate survival rate is on the eggs that are laid. I decided to research the Flathead, Blue cat, and channel cat. All of this information came from test done by biologists on the ohio and Mississippi river between the years of 1991-1997.
The average flathead catfish lives to be between 22-30 years but is not uncommon to exceed 30 years of age. The average flathead lays approximately 1200 eggs for every pound she weighs and will start to breed at 3 years of age. Of all the eggs she lays only 2% of the hatchlings will make it to maturity which the biologists called 3 years of age. The biologists stated that when a flat head catfish was 3 years old and has her first spawn she would lay approximately 3600 eggs but approx. only 2% would make it to maturity. That number would be about 72 hatchlings that would make it to adulthood. They also stated that a 20 year old fish in there studies would be approximately 37 pounds and would lay approximately 24,000 eggs on her 20th year spawn. The approximate hatchlings that made it to maturity would be 888 hatchlings. Now here is what I thought was really neat. The biologist estimated that from ages 3-20 the female would contribute approx. 432,000 eggs over the 17 years she spawned and the 2% that would survive to maturity would be approximately 8,640 hatchlings that she contributed for me and you to catch! I Just think that is amazing! Now for the bad part. The rough estimate was that at the rate of commercial netting, jugging, trotlining, and hook line and sinker fishing,that less than 20% of the 8,640 would ever make it to see there 20 year birthday in the river which they were hatched in. That brings the number down to 1,728 that make it to 20 years of age in the river system. That means that the next time I catch a nice 25-35 pound flat head im gonna tell her how lucky she is cause 423,360 of her brothers and sisters never made it to maturity and of her 8,640 brothers and sisters that did make it, well 6,912 of them were lost to commercial netters, juggers, trotliners and poor harvesting decisions. Then im gonna slide her right back in the water and hope you get the chance to catch her one day.
The study done on channel cats and blues were all very similar. Hatchling #s were approximately the same and survival rate was about the same to. So the same amount of survivors is very close to what you read above. Im no biologist by any means but I just thought all the ohio brothers would think that this was something neat to read about. I thought It was really neat. It makes me realize just how special some of the bigger fish are in our river systems. I Guess that is why I am so rough on the commercial netters, cause the fish they are netting and taking out are already just a small fraction of what is left. So when it is all over 1,728 fish is only .4% of 432,000 eggs laid. That is what the end result was of the study done by the biologists. .4% that is amazing to me. As far as im concerned every fish we catch out of the river with any size at all is very very lucky to evan be in the river. I will definitely look at these nice fish In a different way now.
Im only going by what the biologists studies say. For all I know they could be way off but they are biologists. I know they gotta be smarter than the average (me).
