I am new to native fish collecting and have been reading a bit about some species I would like to obtain. I am from the Western NY area and was wondering if anyone could tell me where the most likely habitat to find Stonecats would be? I have only been out using my minnow trap and im pretty sure I wont find any that way. Should I be concentrating on fast moving streams, under rocks? I havent found too much info on the web to help me out. Any insight would be appreciated. Thanks!!

I am new to native fish collecting and have been reading a bit about some species I would like to obtain. I am from the Western NY area and was wondering if anyone could tell me where the most likely habitat to find Stonecats would be? I have only been out using my minnow trap and im pretty sure I wont find any that way. Should I be concentrating on fast moving streams, under rocks? I havent found too much info on the web to help me out. Any insight would be appreciated. Thanks!!

I am new to native fish collecting and have been reading a bit about some species I would like to obtain. I am from the Western NY area and was wondering if anyone could tell me where the most likely habitat to find Stonecats would be? I have only been out using my minnow trap and im pretty sure I wont find any that way. Should I be concentrating on fast moving streams, under rocks? I havent found too much info on the web to help me out. Any insight would be appreciated. Thanks!!

hi jeremygr82, i find most of them (N flavus) in or just below a rifle. look for this small cat in fast water under the rocks.
get a friend to kick and shuffle as you hold a net down stream this should work.
here is a few good links for you to read.
http://pond.dnr.corn...e/stonecat.html
http://pond.dnr.corn...yfish/fish.html
http://www.scotcat.com/common_name.htm

http://www.planetcat...p?species_id=76
http://www.srd.gov.a...df/stonecat.pdf
http://www.discoverl...=Noturus flavus
http://www.natureser.....oturus flavus

most of this is dry reading but good info.
i hope it may help you along your way.
have fun! and keep an eye out for snakes in the riffles when your netting.

Thank you very much for the info. Its a rainy night here so i will get to reading.

Hey I used to have a stonecat. I brought it home because I thought it was a tadpole madtom. Turns out it wasn't. I caught it on a small hook tipped with worm (or maybe it was a baby crayfish). what I would do is (in a shallow river in my area) walk along the rocks that were causing the riffles looking for them, or a likely home ie:between rocks, little caves. then I would drop my little hook and worm down there and watch. Usually caught rockbass this way, but sometimes stonecats, and even burbots. I also sometimes catch them in the big rivers while fishing for channel cats, and the like. Good luck.

Hey I used to have a stonecat. I brought it home because I thought it was a tadpole madtom. Turns out it wasn't. I caught it on a small hook tipped with worm (or maybe it was a baby crayfish). what I would do is (in a shallow river in my area) walk along the rocks that were causing the riffles looking for them, or a likely home ie:between rocks, little caves. then I would drop my little hook and worm down there and watch. Usually caught rockbass this way, but sometimes stonecats, and even burbots. I also sometimes catch them in the big rivers while fishing for channel cats, and the like. Good luck.

Ha! Same thing happened to me, except I thought it was a brindled, then a tadpole. When they are young, stonecat's markings look a little like brindled madtoms. At least to me, it did.