During the daytime, flatheads seek out woody or rocky cover from which they can ambush passing prey. Photo by Keith Sutton.

The first thing that a European angler strolling into a Missouri bait shop and pausing to examine its "bragging board" might notice is that a plurality -- if not a majority -- of the photos tacked to it would show a man (occasionally a woman) straining to hold a catfish clear off the ground. If the pictured angler were a veteran of such photo shoots, both hands would be thrust into the fish's mouth, the better to get a death grip on the protruding lower jaw. Who'd blame the angler from across the pond for assuming that catching fish like the ones in the photos is an everyday occurrence?

The bait shop owner, being an honest person, would tell the customer that the fish in the photos were flatheads (or -- depending on exactly where in the state this particular bait shop is located -- "shovelhead cats," "yellow cats," "mud cats," "goujons," "appaluchions" or "Johnnie cats"), explain that most flatheads are caught on setlines -- and suggest that a newcomer to the area would be much better off fishing for crappie. One imagines the visitor from the Old World buying two dozen jigs and, after a last, wistful glance at the photos, exiting, stage right.

Ironically, despite the logical truth of what he'd have been told, that redirected crappie angler might actually catch a flathead. Hundreds of "long-as-your-leg" Missouri flatheads chomp 1/16-ounce crappie jigs every year, and a few dozen of them are landed. In fact, the current world-record flathead, which weighed 123 pounds and was caught just across the border in Kansas, bit a crappie jig.

BY THE NUMBERS
Getting the attention of a fictional foreigner took nothing more than a few keystrokes -- but how do real Missouri anglers feel about the most mysterious of the state's three big cats? In 2002, the Missouri Department of Conservation used data it had collected from anglers in 2001 to compile the agency's most comprehensive study of catfish and catfishermen, based on fill-in-the-blank forms mailed to a randomly-selected 15,000 of the 664,208 permit purchasers in the state. Anglers filled out and returned 5,486 of the forms, which, in the survey business, is considered an excellent rate of return. In fact, it represents the opinions of almost five times as many people as national pollsters use to extrapolate the opinions of the entire population of the United States.

Almost 64 percent of the respondents fished for catfish in 2001. Of these, 60 percent spent 10 days or less catfishing, but 17 percent went catfishing more than 25 days. When asked which species they fished for most in 2001, 14 percent favored flatheads. By way of comparison, 75 percent chose channel cats, 9 percent opted for blues and 2 percent remained loyal to bullheads.

A whopping 87 percent of survey participants used rod and reel "most often" for catfishing, 11 percent favored various untended lines, and only 3 percent preferred jugs. A person with a keen eye for numbers might well notice the percentage of anglers who use methods other than rod and reel and the percentage of anglers who prefer flatheads are equal.

While some correlation between the two figures undeniably exists, owing to the fact that the flathead's nighttime feeding habits make it vulnerable to setlines, flatheads -- including trophy flatheads -- are legitimate targets for rod-and-reel anglers. All that's required is a working knowledge of how flatheads use the underwater "landscape" of the reservoir, lake, river or stream they inhabit.