Quote:
Originally Posted by AndyS
What does a 40 pound Flathead Catfish eat in the Delaware river, nymphs ?
Fish are opportunistic feeders, can't see a Snakehead or Flathead turning up it's nose to some of the American Shad in the Delaware river.
Although NJ does stock over 1 million walleye fry in the Delaware river annually.
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Probably same fish that a 40 lb. musky eats. Should we kill muskies too? How many shad succumb to the resident striper population in the Delaware. Should stripers be killed as well?
My point was flatheads don't become active until water temperatures reach into the low 60s in the spring and by that time the majority of the shad have already ascended the river. The biggest concentration of flatheads is in the middle to lower sections of the Delaware and I don't think the shad run is impacted for that reason. Do flatheads eat bluegills, sunnies, rock bass, suckers, perch, channels, bullheads, carp, walleye, eels, smallmouths etc.? Absolutely they do but I don't think because of the timing of the shad run and the timing of flatheads becoming active in the spring they're having any impact on the shad population. As I asked, have you or anyone else ever seen a flathead spit up a shad. I've fished for them for years and have seen them spit up a lot of other fish but not once have I ever seen one spit up a shad or a nymph for that matter.
I'd bet larger flatheads feed on smaller snakeheads and larger snakeheads feed on smaller flatheads so maybe nature will counter balance the two stocks on its own.
Check out haul seine statistics from Lambertville. Whatever's happening with lower numbers of fish coming back to the river is most likely happening in the ocean and not at all a result of flatheads and snakeheads eating American shad unless of course you believe they're eating them before they get to Lambertville. Fish and game should consider inserting microchips or tags into shad fry to collect data on what's happening to these fish when they return to the ocean for the 3 to 5 years they live out their life cycle. How many fish are succumbing to commercial fishing operations, natural predation or pollution before returning to the Delaware to continue the life cycle of the stock. In my opinion, if catches are down in Lambertville the problem is somewhere in the ocean before they reach maturity and return to their place of birth to spawn as opposed to snakehead and flathead predation once they return.
