When does hardhead bite slow down?
 

When in the fall does the hardhead bite slow down?

We need to schedule a study when hardheads are very easy to catch, and we're trying to squeeze it in this year before the bite slows in the fall.

If you're wondering, "What the heck?" We did a study earlier this summer showing that magnetic hooks can decrease the catch rate of hardhead catfish. These results hinted that the outcome depends on whether or not there is moving water, so we have designed a follow-up study where moving water is an explicit experimental variable.

when the fronts start passing through and the water cools down

MathGeek, any stall at Heberts you can 2000 of them a day

or the cleaning station at cal point...

I don't think it ever slows down.

Throw a shrimp under a cork about 3' down.

Catch all you want at most any cleaning table along Hwy 56 lower Terrebonne parish. They hear the electric knives.

Granted probably not the most random sample for scientific study.

Yes, this is great advice, and we completed the first study at Heberts earlier this summer. But to test the "moving water" hypothesis, we need a location where fishing is allowed and there is reliable water movement. Bobbylynn's is actually a better location in this regard, and we have some other good locations also, but we're working to schedule the trip at a time when they are still readily biting, because we're hoping to catch 100 fish in moving water and 100 fish in still water. Our catch rates were awesome at Heberts in June.

We're trying to decide between an early Sep or a late Sep/early Oct window to complete the study with still and moving water.

I've never been to Cocodrie, but it looks from the aerial photo that there should be regular rising, falling, and slack tides along that bayou that parallels Hwy 56. Is this what you have observed?

I'd say grand isle is the hard head capital of the world! Hate them damn things! We fileted one and threw it back......it swam away!!! I swear they are like cockroaches!

Yeah they are usually pretty thick at the docks by sand dollar and that is definitely a moving water situation

Random thoughts from a sting survivor
 

I always bring a bat and play hard-head homerun. No more than three swings and I can separate the head from the body. Remove hook from mouth and throw back in water. All without being stung.

I once posted a video on youtube called hard-head homerun and it didn't go over well.

But to answer your question when it gets cold.

id like to see that vid. link please..cant find it

I rip gills out of every gafttop and hardhead i catch

I can appreciate the reasons why, but I would politely request folks to release the gafftops alive, because they make quite good eating and also provide great sport for young enthusiastic anglers. There is some disappointment when we realize that all that pulling is from a gafftop rather than a redfish when the fish reaches the net, but we throw 'em in the cooler just the same, and 10-15 gafftops in the 4-7 lb range make for a few good meals. It's a much better experience than getting skunked. When the next LA Records are published I think my son and I will likely own three of the top ten spots in the gafftop records, including my son in 3rd place unless someone else bumps him down this year.

Hardheads are a much lower level of angling experience, but their abundance, combined with the known electroreception in catfish and the lack of knowledge regarding magnetic deterrence in teleosts (bony fish) provide an opportunity for an interesting research project.

Noaa is gonna start a 2 fish per person limit. Open only in the winter months.

You have an English version of this?!:rotfl:

BTW, I think it's great that you get to spend the amount of time you do with your kids in the name of science. Teaching from two angles is certainly admirable!;)

MG, I git a question for ya.........What are the rocks in Redfishs foreheads for?

I took it down within 3 days. It got hot real quick. Lots of people that didn't understand to say the least.

Electroreception: Many species of fish, including catfish, are known to be able to detect electric fields. In some cases, the detection of electric fields is used to detect nerve impulses in prey species and it assists in locating prey. In some cases, the ability to detect electromagnetic fields, combined with the ability to generate larger fields than produced by ordinary nerve impulses (known as electrogeneration) may be used to assist some species in locating mates.

In other cases, fish may combine electroreception in salt water to detect magnetic fields. The law of electromagnet induction tells us that an electric field is induced by a conductor (salt water) moving in a magnetic field. Some fishes with the most sensitive electroreception may be able to detect the earth's magnetic field this way.

Several scientists have shown that some elasmobranches (sharks and rays) are deterred from biting magnetic hooks, presumably because their sensitive electroreception is able to detect the magnetic field. But these scientists have opined that magnetic hooks will not deter teleost fishes (bony fishes, which includes most species of commercial and recreational interest) from biting because they lack sufficiently sensitive electroreception. Whether or not bony fishes have sufficiently sensitive electroreception to be deterred by magnetic hooks is the question we are working on. The hardhead catfish simply combines a number of features to be a convenient test species.

The wiki article on otoliths is pretty good:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otolith