GIS Analysis for Flatheads?

[Seanstone]

Ok, so it got your attention. GIS is short for geographic information systems. Most of you have worked with Yahoo maps, or google earth, essentially these are gis creations. They are maps layers (streets, bodies of water, buildings, etc.) that are geographically referenced. I have for some time, bounced this idea around in my head, so bear with me. The sweet, short, and simple explanation of my idea is this: Use a program called Arc Map (GIS program) to analyze bodies of water and create a map that will find areas that are the most likely to hold flatheads. You can laugh now.

But its not that far fetched. Everyone of us that fishes for flatheads or catfish do this, we go through a process of elimination in order to fish the areas with the highest probability of holding fish. You river guys don't fish every spot you pass, instead you survey 5 maybe 10 miles of river for the best holes. You are quite possibly looking for outside bends, cutbanks, downed trees, and a water depth of 7 foot or more. These are all criteria that you have grown to accept as areas that have high probabilities of holding fish. You lake guys do the same, find areas off of the main channel with submerged timber or boulders, at about 8' deep, adjacent to a flat, etc.

Through this program I can create a set of maps that will show lake depth, structure by type, bottom structure, etc. Some of this information may have to be gathered by hand, and I understand that. I will then use a set of tools within the program that will search the map layers (structure, depth, etc.) and produce a data set that will rank each parcel of the lake from 1-100. 1 being worst and 100 being best. However in order to do this I have to know the criteria to look for and to tell the computer to look for. This has been the major sticking point.
For sake of argument lets say I did this for a section of a lake, lets say 200 acres, an upper arm or a channel of a lake.

What criteria should I tell the program to look for? What to mark as good and what to mark as bad? I have mentioned a few above that I feel are necessary, but what do you think.
Is it safe to say that any water over 20 feet doesn't hold flatheads? Do I make a criteria that makes spots better simply because they are far away from boat ramps and are therefore less fished? I'm sure that a few of you are on the floor by now, but this is something of a mystery to me. I don't need it to find fish, and I don't expect to use it to find them. If i did, I would spend more time at my computer than in front of my poles. I'm curious to see if i can use this program to highlight spots that I have found to be successful. I might even be able to use one of your Mwcd Lakes (Sorry if i butchered that), to highlight some of the spots you have found to be successful. You have to admit it would surprise most of you if i could use a program to find flatheads successfully.

Again: What criteria should I look for as good and as bad?

Thanks, I really appreciate you guys taking the time to read through that.

[Catfishrollo]

Im interested in this man. Id say a river or creek channel is the first. Obviously the geo. layout is as important. Maybe incoming tributarys close by? rollo

[Smoothkip]

I've noticed in rivers that a hard rock or gravel bottom is good for flats and a muddy bottom usually doesn't produce as well. Also some of my best holes are up to 30 feet on the river. I like outside bends. I also believe rock is just as good as timber in the water at times. Oh and big baits! Lol. That's my secret.

[Seanstone]

I do not want your spots. The criteria I am looking for would look something like this:

What I look for in a spot: UPDATED AS I RECIEVE INPUT

#1.) Structure
#2) Near a Tributary (100 yards or less)
#3) Within 100 yards of the main creek channel
#4) An adjacent flat/ main lake point/ rip rap

What I will not fish:
1.) More than 25' deep
2.) Less than 3' deep

[Seanstone]

Attached is a project that I had just finished. What you are looking at is a map of the distribution of elk in a national forest. The blue areas are the wintering ranges, and the green areas (which don't show up well) are the summer ranges. Its hard to see from the map but behind the first layer you can see an elevational hill shade. This allowed me to look at the elevations of both of the ranges winter and summer by elevation. From this project i found that the elk confined there areas in the winter months and that they dropped elevation in the winter as well. You can't tell this from the map, but from the tables that were created from the map. This is a very powerful program, so you can see why i want to apply it to fishing. I hope this clarifies things a little.

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[Skyline1506]

Fished to death doesn't always bother me. Some of my best flathead spots (bank) on MWCD lakes are public areas accessible from the bank. It all depends on information, the area is right for flats so i do a survey of what is around. I always see night crawler containers, liver tubs, and strands of low test mono. SO yes this tells me that the area is fished, but not properly or atleast for what I intend to be doing. What it also tells me is that there are most likely small channels and/or bullheads in the area, so there is a food supply for flatheads. So if the conditions are right and we dont have the boat with us I will take a chance on a spot that is fished and like I said a few have paid of.

[ducky]

Its a great idea sean and should help but you have to think some lakes that look great and have the right structure and depth still does not hold a fishable population of flathead. and as for boat ramps and areas that get fished alot dont be surprised that they hold flathead there is a certian lake that we have 7 spots that i can think of right now, that produce flathead every year and have trash and or boatramps and lights right beside them! people just dont think to fish for flathead there and the people that do fish there dont no what they are doing or break off of a flathead with 8lb test just thinkin it was a big channel ;D except us ;D

[Seanstone]

Thanks, for the input guys. This is exactly what I was looking for. Keep the comments coming.

Brock, this is hypothetically speaking, but what if this program could tell you why you didn't catch a flathead there. Maybe it lacked proper feeding locations like a main lake point, or a shallow flat? You guys have way more knowledge on this subject than I do, thus the reason I ask for your help. Like I mentioned above, I don't plan on using this to find flatheads it would take too much time. I would like to take one of your lakes, one that alot of people fish on this forum, and use it as a reference. I don't wanna know where you catch flatheads, rather I want to see how close I can get this program to find those areas. Then you guys could tell me if the program was close, or way off. (Nothing site specific though.)

[Seanstone]

A few days ago I spoke to a few professors about this project and they gave me some helpful ideas. One even gave me a head start on a lake, Acton Lake. So for now most of the analysis will be done from that lake. One of my professors mentioned the idea of leaving out structure from the analysis and instead focus on bottom composition, depth, main channel, lake points, tributaries, and feeding areas such as the beach/ rip rap areas. So for now I will leave structure out and assume that if a piece of structure is in a high ranked area it will hold flatheads and a high ranked area without structure is less likely. Since structure is constantly shifting, being added, etc., I feel that this will work best. I'll let you guys know how it turns out. I'm still free to any advice.

[Smoothkip]

I dont have much insight on lakes but what ive gained on the rivers is, the more you understand the bait fish the better you do at locating flatheads. Such as rocky areas seem to hold crappie, green sunfish and bass. Sand bars and gravel flats seem to be key locations also for suckers, bullheads. etc. I spend more time thinking where the bait is instead of trying to figure out them wiley old flatheads. Find the bait find the fish. Just my opinion.

[Seanstone]

That is definitely true, it is easier to find the baitfish than it is to find the flatheads. Just another dimension to the whole process. I once read an article in a magazine that stated how flatheads move throughout the day. It stated that once spawn had occurred flatheads stayed in structure until dusk. At this point they would travel to their feeding areas. Essentially the author broke down the flathead bite into three categories. 1) At home in the structure, 2) In transition from the structure to the feeding area, 3.) At the feeding area. If only they were that easy.

[Smoothkip]

alot of trips my first setup will be just upstream from structure. Then later i might move to a hole or travel way to get to an eddy, sand bar or shallow flat. Some nights i just sit on 1 spot and wait the fish out. I usually dont catch many numbers of flats in a night, but we usually hit some good ones. My biggest flatheads have came from big baits that have soaked a few hours in one location.

[Seanstone]

Here is what I have so far. This is simply digitizing the lake map. I started with the lake polygon and 3' contours. I then added main lake points, tributaries, fish attractors, rip rap areas, and the beach area. I haven't started the analysis part yet, but I have a good idea how to approach it. I'll make a buffer of 100 yards from the set criteria (still working on the list), and create an output feature from the results. Still open to comments/ opinions.
Oh, and the lake is 625 acres.

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[Seanstone]

Step 2: The buffers. I used a 150 yard buffer. This is a little larger than I would have liked to used, but it illustrates the patterns better. (Tracking studies on lakes have shown that flatheads typically stay in a 100 yard diameter area after spawn.) I only added the buffers to the Main lake points, the main channel, tributaries, rip rap, and beach. I just felt that these aspects were more important. Heres a pic of what it looks like.

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[Smoothkip]

Christ Sean, Your way to smart for me! LOL!