hello, i live in indiana. sunday my father and i went on a trip to try and net a madtom or two. i have a small tank and love catfish, but since i will not have much space for a large tank for about 4 years, i cant go out and pick up some more common breeds. i looked up some small breeds and decided that madtom catfish were the way to go. especially tadpole madtom, as they are the smallest it seems. they cant be store bought i dont believe, so catching them in the wild is the way to go- or so i thought.

heres the problem. if anyone could help i would greatly appreciate it.
i did quite a bit of research on how to catch one, or some. i looked in what i thought was a good shoal, me and dad used a sieve downstream as i kicked rocks and hand rolled over larger ones. and i read in a forum that there were many species of madtoms native to indiana. we caught alot of fish. minows, darters, and what i think may be some baby bass and perch. but no madtoms. not even a sign of them. my inability to net one of these fish in contrast with the implied ease that others had caught them with makes me suspect that there were simply none in that creek at all. we spent atleast an hour and a half there, maybe more.

heres my question to you all- do any indiana natives know of any specific areas where i could catch madtoms? preferably tadpole madtoms? i live in avon which is about 10-15 miles west of indianapolis. could eagle creek(lake) have some? should they be spread out evenly through out all of indianas creeks? i may have to order one, but i would hate to spend 22 bucks on a fish that i could drive 40 minutes and grab myself. thank you all in advance for the help and take care

-josh

I've found them to be locally abundant. In some locations they're quite common and in others they're nowhere to be found. Similar habitats and all. As far as habitat goes, shallow creeks with some current, muddy substrate, beneath rocks, in cans, etc. I know one location where I find them hiding in clumps of hornwort but not in the vegetation along the shore.

In short, keep plugging. I spent a lot more time than that before I finally found them.

In general it looks like northern Indiana is better for tadpole madtoms. You really want to target swampy marshy areas for this species. The new Fishes of Indian book just came out, and would probably be a great resource. There is a thread about it somewhere around here.

In general it looks like northern Indiana is better for tadpole madtoms. You really want to target swampy marshy areas for this species. The new Fishes of Indian book just came out, and would probably be a great resource. There is a thread about it somewhere around here.

http://forum.nanfa.o...hes-of-indiana/

I have found the to be very common along sections of the creeks here. What I have found to look for is large flat rocks in areas with slow current. I have found them in areas with a hard rock stream bottoms with large rocks for cover as well as sandy areas with lots of small rocks.

What you might try to is place a couple of larger flat rocks in different sections of some of your local streams and see what calls them home after a couple of days. That should give you an idea of who is in the area and a great excuse to get back out to the stream. Good luck and keep us posted.

i find all of mine in a smaller sized river where tall grasses over hang the bank. Usually under these grasses there is an undercut on the bank as well. I take my net and place it on the bottom, sliding it into the undercut in the bank and the lifting to the top of the undercut, ususally shaking my net a little. I usually check only a strech of 50 or so feet of river and end up with 20 or so each time (most of which are set free as I have only kept a few smaller specimens in hope of breeding again this year.)

Thanks for the feedback. Do any of you have specific lakes/streams where you found them? I'd be willing to take a trip somewhere to have a better chance of finding them.

Also, how deep is the water you tend to find them in? Is it clear?