- Appearance: Flat, broad head, no scales and four pairs of barbels. Its lower jaw sticks out farther than its top jaw, distinguishing it from other catfish.
- Size: Flatheads can grow quite large. The Minnesota record weighed 70 pounds and came from the St. Croix River in 1970. Flatheads aren't common in North Dakota; the Game and Fish Department lists the state record as a 29-pound, 6-ounce flathead that came from the Heart River in 1985. It's the only flathead catfish listing in the department's Whopper and Catch and Release club's database.
- Weight: Typically 10 to 20 pounds.
- Color: Blotchy yellow and brown, turning to gray or olive as they get older.
- Food: Young catfish eat insects and other invertebrates. As they get older, they add fish to their diet. A flathead catfish will lie on the bottom of the river with its barbels poised above its head. When the barbels sense a meal swimming past, the fish sucks it in. Sometimes, a catfish might open its mouth to look like a cave and then eat animals that go inside looking for protection.
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- Habitat and range: Near sunken logs in the backwaters and pools of big, muddy, slow rivers. They commonly are found in the lower St. Croix, Mississippi and Minnesota rivers.
- Status: Minnesota has a healthy population of flathead catfish in large rivers.
- Regulations: The aggregate limit of channel catfish and flathead catfish in Minnesota is five; not more than two can be flathead catfish. Season is continuous.
- Minnesota River: The Minnesota River flows about 335 miles from its source at Big Stone Lake on the South Dakota border to the Mississippi River south of the Twin Cities near Fort Snelling.
