Catfish ID

[MarshMonkey]

Posting this for a friend..... He never put catfish in his pond behind his house but saw about 4-5 in there a while back. Earlier this week he found out they apparently reproduced. Can any of you help ID this kind of catfish? Is it a good type of catfish to eat? have in a pond? If not how do you get rid of them? He has about a 2-3 acre pond. Thanks!

[capt coonassty]

Looks like Bullheads, ive seen them school like that before. Birds and floods usually bring them into ponds.

If he wants to get rid of them he would have to rotenone the pond killing everything else. Or kill those and try to catch as many as possible.

[MarshMonkey]

Are bullheads good to eat? He's willing to keep them if they're good to eat, otherwise we have some work to do to get rid of them.

[capt coonassty]

They taste like catfish.... I couldn't say if they taste better than channels or spotted hopefully someone else can chime in. They do eat smaller fish but if he feeds his fish it shouldn't be a problem. I will say depending on how old his pond is he may want to fertilize. Water that clear will only help aquatic grasses take over.

[keakar]

if just a few produced that many then I would worry about them overpopulating the water in a year or two. I would think he needs to introduce predator fish that will eat them to keep the numbers of them down to a reasonable scale weather he wants to keep them or not or maybe they will eat each other, im not sure how those fish act.

[MarshMonkey]

Thanks, appreciate the help.

[MathGeek]

I like bullheads. They taste like other freshwater catfish. The only negative is that they don't usually get big enough to fillet without losing a lot of meat, so I usually just skin and gut them.

It can be a good time having youngsters catch them and then cooking them up. They will produce a higher level of meat per acre than the typical bluegill/bass pond, but they will reduce the number of bluegill and bass.

I'd accept the bullheads as a blessing and go with it. If you decide to kill them, then whatever brought them in the first time might bring them in again.

[fishfighter]

Originally Posted by keakar

if just a few produced that many then I would worry about them overpopulating the water in a year or two. I would think he needs to introduce predator fish that will eat them to keep the numbers of them down to a reasonable scale weather he wants to keep them or not or maybe they will eat each other, im not sure how those fish act.

what kind of predator fish will eat a catfish?

[CAMP CANARD]

Those are the best flathead bait around ! We use them just for flatheads on the last hook of a 5 hook line.

[rustyb]

I had em in my pond and you have to kill em if you want other fish. They take over. I think if you have water that comes in from high water or a ditch you will always have em. I killed all of mine redid pond and never had that problem before. And they don't get big enough to eat. unless you want to clean 6 inch fish. Looks like he got em bad!!

[Pull n Pray]

Is that a different type of "mud cat" or polywog? I've never seen a catfish so black.

[capt coonassty]

Theirs black, yellow, and brown bullheads.

[Duck Butter]

Originally Posted by Pull n Pray

Is that a different type of "mud cat" or polywog? I've never seen a catfish so black.

Mud cat is usually the brown bullhead, but all three bullheads are called mudcats. Pretty tough fish that can live in some rough conditions. Never ate them, but heard if you catch them in winter they are not that bad to eat.

[Pull n Pray]

I would try to kill as many as possible. You can eat them but the meat is a red yellowish color. They rarely get over 8 inches and will take over the pond.

[Lil Silver]

Exactly what rusty b and pull and pray said. Got them in my pond once. Ended up pumping it dry and starting all over. When the water got pumped out low, there were hundreds of them damn lil 4" - 6" catfish.

[Lil Silver]

Tell him to start cast netting those schools of em and prays he get them all. You think a hard head catfish is a bait stealer, He ain't seen nuttin yet.

[tojoe]

Good luck getting all those little SOB's out your cast net!!!!!!

[keakar]

Originally Posted by Lil Silver

Exactly what rusty b and pull and pray said. Got them in my pond once. Ended up pumping it dry and starting all over. When the water got pumped out low, there were hundreds of them damn lil 4" - 6" catfish.

would this even be possible with his having a large 2-3 acre pond? wouldn't that take like a week? and where would all that water go? im guessing you wouldn't want them things getting into any of the nearby fishing canals or bodies of water?

im guessing his best option is to poison everything in the pond as mentioned above rather then to pump it dry wouldn't you think?

sounds like he has a mess on his hands either way