A Day in the Field: Lake Pleasant Catfish Survey Results for Fall 2016

Fisheries Biologist holding a Flathead Catfish caught at Lake Pleasant Fall 2016
The Arizona Game and Fish Department conducted their annual Flathead Catfish Fall electrofishing survey last week at Lake Pleasant September 20th and 21st. We caught 224 Flathead Catfish in the two day survey! The Flathead Catfish were collected, weighed, measured, tagged with an anchor tag and released unharmed during the two day survey. The reason we are tagging Flathead Catfish is to look at their growth data to learn more about how fast Flathead Catfish are growing in our Arizona Lakes.

Measuring a Flathead Catfish caught at Lake Pleasant Fall 2016
The Flathead Catfish we caught ranged from 3 inches to 46 inches in length, with the majority of the fish falling between 6 and 28 inches. The largest Flathead Catfish weighed in at just over 48 pounds! The Department will continue to monitor the Flathead Catfish population in Lake Pleasant on an annual basis.
For Bartlet Flathead Catfish Fall 2016 results go to A Day in the Field: Bartlett Flathead Catfish Survey! Check out a video of the Bartlett Lake Fall 2016 Flathead Catfish Video! Do you want to learn more about tagging fish? Check out the post on Research Branch’s trout tagging project!

Flathead Catfish caught at Lake Pleasant in Fall 2016

Small year class of Flathead Catfish caught at Lake Pleasant in Fall 2016

Flathead Catfish Caught at Lake Pleasant Fall 2016