In the early years of this century, anglers, fishing guides and fisheries biologists were beginning to worry about the Susquehanna River, which had enjoyed a reputation as a powerhouse of small bass production.
Something was causing a huge decline in the bass and an invader of monstrous proportions was beginning to make its presence known.
The bass population has since made something of a comeback and the giant, non-native newcomer, which the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission at one time hoped to keep out of the river, has become an established, sought-after source of a new reputation for the Susquehanna.
Mention the flathead catfish today and even many non-anglers know the spreading reputation of the monster.
A 57-pound, 50-inch-long flathead caught Dec. 27, 2020, near the Lapidum Boat Ramp, about 10 miles downriver of the Pennsylvania- Maryland state line, is the largest one encountered to date in the Susquehanna.
In Pennsylvania’s portion of the river, the largest to date is a 50-pound, 7-ounce catfish caught in the river near the Muddy Creek public access in York County on April 6, 2019.
That one held the Pennsylvania state record for more than a year, until a 56-pound, 3-ounce fish was pulled from the Schuylkill River on May 24, 2020. It measured 50 inches long. That catfish also is the largest fish of any species on record with the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission.
Flathead catfish are native to southern and western waters, and in Pennsylvania occur naturally in the Great Lakes and Ohio River drainages.
Anglers have been introducing the species into rivers of the eastern two-thirds of the state, and the species spreads quickly through its new home, where it becomes the top-tier predator.
The fish began showing up in the Susquehanna River around the year 2000. According to the commission, in 2002 several small flatheads were reported downriver of Safe Harbor Dam and upriver of Pequea, Lancaster County. The species was confirmed in the tailwaters of York Haven Dam at York Haven, York County, in 2005. A flathead caught at the Dock Street Dam at Harrisburg in 2009 was the first confirmed catch of the species that far upriver. And, since then the species has been caught by anglers upriver as far as Sunbury and into the Juniata River.
The flathead grows to more than a hundred pounds in some southern and western waters, but 20 to 30 pounds is more common in Pennsylvania.
Rod Bates of Carlisle-based Koinonia Guide Service has been chasing the flatheads on the Susquehanna and guiding others to exciting adventures with the monsters about as long as anyone. He began guiding professionally on the river in 1999, focusing at first on the world-class smallmouth fishery found there, but adding the non-native flatheads to the client menu as the monsters proliferated and spread upriver.
“We were primarily a smallmouth bass company,” he explained. But in 2005, as the decline in the bass was at its height, “we started diversifying into catfish. We said let’s try these flatheads. The first time we went out we only caught 1 fish, but it was a 19-pounder. We’ve been hooked ever since.”
Today, Bates’ clients are boating flatheads 10, 15 and even 20 pounds heftier than the first one pulled into a Koinonia boat.
Several other guide services have also tapped into the new fishery and for many years a fishing guide was about the only way that most anglers found success on the monster fish.
While that remains a means of some certainty today, other anglers have figured out the flatheads and are taking them regularly on their own, both from boat and from shore.
Photos of the huge fish are common enough that they appear regularly on social media, such as the Catfishing the Susquehanna, The Burg, Flathead Catfish Hunters Group and other groups on Facebook.
