TEXAS FISH & WATER
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Worth · Individual fish profile

Flathead Catfish

Pylodictis olivaris

Worth · Keep or release
Daily bag
5
Length rule
18 in minimum

For channel and blue catfish, their hybrids and subspecies, 25 (in any combination - only 10 can be 20 inches or greater in length). For flathead catfish, minimum length = 18 inches and daily bag limit = 5.

Flathead Catfish
Flathead Catfish · Identification features below.

Identify your catch

Broad flattened head, projecting lower jaw and a tail that is not deeply forked.

Habitat on Worth

Standing timber, boathouses, docks, piers, rocky shoreline and brush provide habitat.

Fishing approach

Lake guide guidance: TPWD describes bass near rocky banks and boathouses, crappie near reed beds and dock brush, spring white bass upriver, and catfish throughout the reservoir.

Fishing guidance describes documented approaches, not a promise of fish activity today.

Eating guidance · Flathead Catfish

Women of childbearing age and children younger than12; four-ounce meal: DO NOT EAT. Women past childbearing age and males12and older; eight-ounce meal: At most 1 meals per month; 8 oz per meal.

Harvest permission and eating restrictions are separate.

General species guide

Prefers cover such as submerged wood and feeds mainly on live fish as an adult.

General Flathead Catfish profile →
Sources & lake evidence

TPWD lake guide and reviewed fisheries evidence establish the listed species or group. Historical survey records do not establish current abundance.

Lake harvest rules ↗Eating guidance ↗Lake habitat & fishing guide ↗Fisheries survey · species evidence ↗Species identification ↗