"Flatheads can decimate native bullheads and introduced channel catfish," Garrett said. "Blue catfish do OK in association with flatheads because they occur together on their native waters. But there are no blue catfish in Sutton Lake."

The arrival of flatheads was bad news to Garrett, who would rather see flourishing populations of native sunfish, which are also eaten by flatheads. He was involved in a tissue sampling survey of the big catfish prior to publicizing the excellent fishing in store for flathead catfish anglers.

"Our tissue sampling showed there is nothing in the flatheads that would make them unfit to eat," he said. "Flatheads are one of the best tasting catfish species and I would like to see them caught and retained by anglers. There is enough flow in the lake to stimulate natural spawning behavior and they are successfully reproducing."

A stocking program was begun to shore up the channel catfish population. The NCWRC has always been a partner in the lake's management. In the late '90s, the commission stocked about 30,000 channel catfish over a three-year period.

"We stocked 83,000 more channel catfish at Sutton Lake in November and December 2004," said Bob Barwick, fishery biologist with the commission. "The stocking was not necessarily to offset predation by flathead catfish, but basically to enhance the fishery. The stocked channel catfish were 4 to 6 inches in length."

In October 2003, the commission completed an electrofishing survey of flathead catfish. Electrofishing gear caught nine flathead catfish averaging between 20 and 28 inches in length per hour. The survey was conducted along the entire central dike, the Catfish Creek channel, Bay No. 1 and all wing dikes from Bay No. 3 to Bay No. 8. This survey covered the deeper water along the dikes where channels were excavated to generate the material used to build the dikes. Some of the fish were greater than 40 inches long and close to 30 pounds in weight. The largest fish turned up during any electro-shock survey weighed 39 pounds.

"It was so big, the tail stuck out of the holding tank," Barwick said. "The odds of catching a big flathead catfish at Sutton Lake are pretty good. We found them in all of the deep-water areas, with a slightly higher number along the dikes near the discharge canal."

What is interesting is that, although channel catfish disappeared from sampling surveys, it was probably due more to the method of sampling than the fact that the fish were no longer there. Lots of anglers fish for channel catfish and do very well at catching them.

Sharkey Stocks is a commercial and recreational catfish angler. Five years ago, he dropped some chum block made of coagulated blood into the deep hole at Bay No. 3. He came back a few hours later and dropped his fishing lines to the bottom. They were baited with a blood bait of his own making.

"Everyone had told me there were lots of flatheads in the lake," he said. "But I caught over 20 channel cats in a couple of hours of fishing. The biggest one weighed about 20 pounds."

Other anglers were having similar results. Eddie Trusch and Gregg Cross fish the lake often and catch mainly channel catfish. They use unsophisticated baits to catch them.