The Search for Flatties - aka Flat bullheads

[Johnsfolly]

One of my obsessions as many on here may know is keeping lists of fish. Two years ago we came down to NC to fish the shad run and were successful in catching some nice American shad. During that trip I drug my wife and daughter to a small creek system that has the flat bullhead, which I had not caught before. Since I am working towards catching all seven species of bullhead, I need to catch this one. It was cold, we caught fish but not the flat bullhead. On this trip I had targeted a return trip to that location.

I did come down to NC for some business that paid for my flight and rental car 😉. My plan for Friday was to go to my meetings and be back at the hotel by 12:30 to get ready to make a 2 plus hour trip down to Lumberton NC for spotted sunfish then another 35 mins to Lake Waccamaw for the Waccamaw killifish. Well my business meeting kept me until almost 2 pm. No time for the long-distance trip so stuck with plan B, head after the flat bullheads. It's a 35 to 40 min walk to the creek for a fat guy like me, but it is a biking and running trail so it's a nice and an easy walk. I was armed with redworms, a medium and light action rod and was very out of place amongst the runners and bikers.

Started fishing up by the bridge. We fished the other side on our last trip here.

First drop was down into a brush pile near my bank and got a bite nearly as soon as the weight hit bottom. A bluegill.

This would be one of many on this trip. At least I won't get skunked 😉. I cast across the creek and also up near the bridge pilings. I caught more bluegill and had something large break me off on one of the pilings. I tried fishing downstream to try and avoid the bluegill.

Well, I got into a pocket of white perch instead 🙄.

I got a cast close to some brush and hooked up a catfish, a white catfish (which is a bullhead species just not the one I was looking for).

They do have the light chin barbels but lack a dark spot on the dorsal fin which would be the characters of a flat bullhead.

I moved further downstream looking for deeper pockets and brush or downed trees. Still kept catching bluegill and white perch (ended the night with 20 bluegill and 9 white perch). In one spot I made a cast and hooked a longer fish. Hoping it was a bullhead it ended up to be a yellow perch instead.

It was getting later and I had plans to fish another spot for a snail bullhead. Running low on time, I found a submerged log in deeper water. I pitched my bait upstream off of the end of the tree. The bait got pounded and I knew that I had some sort of catfish. Hoping that it wasn't another white or worse a channel cat. The coloration told me that it wasn't either of those species. It was my first flat bullhead😁! I have mentioned to @Ham that one key feature of white catfish is that you can lip them and they won't bite the crap out of your thumb like channels and other bullheads. Well to get better photos I lipped this guy. He bit the crap out of my thumb😅! You can see the dark spot on the dorsal and the light chin barbels. Also it has 22 anal fin rays if you really wanted to count them (which I did 😉). The snail bullhead only has 18 to 20 rays in case you wondered. This was my first lifer of the trip and hoping for more.

After catching this guy, I had to head out to the next spot while I had enough time to find the spot before it got dark. On the way back I found a dead tree with some oyster mushrooms that made me wish that I had a kitchenette in my hotel room.

 

 

 

 

[Quillback]

Another species I had not heard of until reading your post - the flat bullhead.  Neat that you caught one!

[Johnsfolly]

19 minutes ago, Quillback said:

Another species I had not heard of until reading your post - the flat bullhead.  Neat that you caught one!

Jeff I'm  sure that there will be more in the very near future and some that you are likely familiar with already😉.

[Ham]

That’s Awesome John! I saw you lipping that little guy and I immediately thought about them snapping down on your thumb. You got the great picture, but I ain’t ever making that mistake again.

I trust you a lot, but I ain’t lipping a White Catfish either. 

[Johnsfolly]

54 minutes ago, Ham said:

That’s Awesome John! I saw you lipping that little guy and I immediately thought about them snapping down on your thumb. You got the great picture, but I ain’t ever making that mistake again.

I trust you a lot, but I ain’t lipping a White Catfish either. 

Let's get one on the line for you then we'll see😉