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Channel Catfish
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Channel catfish are fish so popular, so well-studied and so varied in their day-to-day activities, they could be the subject of an entire book.
Common Names – Their nicknames are many. In some areas they are dubbed blue channel, fiddler, speckled cat, spotted cat, blue cat, blue fulton or chucklehead. In other parts of their range, eel cat, willow cat and Great Lakes cat are common tags. These other names are holdovers from a time when channel cats were separated into three different species, all with slightly different physical charac-teristics. Not until the 1940s were these “species” determined to be simply variations of the plain old channel cat.
Description – Channel cats are the pin-ups of the catfish world – much sleeker and more attractive than flatheads and blues. Most are silvery gray to coppery brown with a white belly. Breeding males are deep blue-black with thickened lips and a knobby, swollen head (above). The sides of juveniles are peppered with small black spots that fade in adulthood. They have a deeply forked tail and a prominent upper jaw that extends well beyond the lower. Channel cats are sometimes confused with blue catfish. The best way to distinguish between the two is to look at the anal fin. The anal fin of a channel cat has 24 to 29 rays and is rounded. If the fin has a straight outer edge and 30 or more rays, it’s a blue cat.
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| RANGE – Although once confined primarily to the Mississippi River drainage and the Great Lakes, stocking has expanded their range to include every state but Alaska. Channel cats are found from coast to coast, north into four Canadian provinces and south to central Mexico. They are the most widespread and abundant catfish in North America. |
Size – Channels are mid-sized models as catfish go, averaging 1 to 5 pounds. Six- to 10-pounders are common in many waters. The 47.5-inch-long world-record from South Carolina’s Lake Moultrie weighed 58 pounds. Only two other states – Arkansas and Mississippi – have produced channel cats over 50 pounds. In most waters, a 20-pounder is a trophy.
Age & Growth – Channel cats more than 20 years old have been recorded, but most live less than 10. They grow slower than both flatheads and blues.
Growth rates have been studied throughout the fish’s range and show extreme variability from one body of water to another. A 5-year-old channel cat from the Mississippi River in Iowa, for example, runs about 16 inches long. A same-age fish from Lake Havasu, California, is slightly more than half that length – 9 inches. A 20-inch channel from Manitoba’s Red River is probably age 9, but a 9-year-old cat from the St. Lawrence River in Quebec is only 13 inches. Growth rates are determined by a number of factors, including abundance and type of forage, quality of habitat, length of the growing season and competition with other fish species.
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Typical Weight (pounds) at Various Lengths (inches)
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Length
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12 |
15 |
18 |
21 |
24 |
27 |
30 |
33 |
36 |
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Weight
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.5 |
1.3 |
2.7 |
3 5 |
5.8 |
8.8 |
11.6 |
15.3 |
20.4 |
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Typical Length (inches) at Various Ages
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Age
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1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
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North
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5.7 |
7.1 |
9.0 |
10.5 |
12.3 |
14.1 |
15.9 |
18.4 |
19.7 |
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South
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10.9 |
13.7 |
15.7 |
17.8 |
19.0 |
21.6 |
22.6 |
23.5 |
24.3 |
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Habitat – Channel cats inhabit everything from tiny farm ponds, crystal-clear creeks and sluggish bayous to cypress-shrouded oxbow lakes, vast man-made impoundments and broad lowland rivers. They tolerate a wide variety of environmental conditions, but despite popular misconceptions, do not prefer muddy, poor-quality waters. They fare best in clean, warm, well-oxygenated water with slow to moderate current and abundant cover in the form of logs, boulders, cavities and debris. They are extremely adaptable creatures, and are one of the most stocked gamefish in farm ponds. Their preferred temperature range is between 75º and 80ºF.
Food Habits – Channel cats aren’t the least bit finicky when it comes to food. Live worms, salamanders, maggots, leeches, caterpillars, insects, frogs, fish, mussels and crayfish are among the creatures they eat. The dead and smelly are also relished – things like shrimp, fish guts, chicken liver and stinkbait. Even bizarre offerings like soap, hot dogs, dog food, corn, marshmallows, grapes, persimmons, elm seeds and bread entice them at times. Adults typically retire to deep water during daylight hours or lie about drift piles, submerged logs and other cover. At night they move into shallower water to feed. Although they can still be caught when water temperatures drop below 50ºF, channel cats are less aggressive feeders than blue cats during cold water periods.
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Reproduction – Spawning begins when the water temperature is around 75ºF – May through July in mid-America. Male channels select and clean a nest site, usually a semi-dark, secluded cavity such as an undercut bank, a hole in a pile of drift logs or perhaps a muskrat or beaver burrow. The female deposits a large mound of golden yellow eggs in the bottom of the nest, then leaves. The male stays, protecting the nest cavity from predators and fanning the eggs to keep them aerated and free from sediments. The eggs hatch in about a week, and the fry remain in the nest for another 7 or 8 days. The male guards the fry until they leave the nest.
The male takes little or no food while spawning, but his protective instinct makes him vulnerable. He strikes any foreign object coming too near the nest cavity, including fishing lures, bait and human hands.
Popularity – In popularity polls, channel cats rank high. They are the most popular fish in four states, second most popular in two, and third most popular in nine. No wonder! They readily take a wide variety of baits, and when they’re in a feeding mood, it’s not unusual to catch several dozen on an outing. They are aggressive fighters and among the tastiest fish on earth. In some regions, they are the only large predator fish available to anglers. Tally up their strong points, and you’ll see why channel cats are among the most sought-after fish in the nation.
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Channel Catfish Farming
The demand for channel catfish as a food fish has spawned a multimillion-dollar aquaculture business, with millions of pounds of farm-raised catfish shipped annually to restaurants and grocery stores throughout the U.S. In 1997, 525 million pounds of live-weight catfish were processed, a record for the industry. Prepared catfish products that year totaled 262 million pounds, which translates into 1 pound of catfish consumed per person in the United States That makes farm-raised catfish the nation’s fifth most popular fish. In the primary catfish-producing states of Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana and Alabama, the catfish farming industry employs about 13,000 people and contributes more than $4 billion to the individual states’ economies. In 1997, direct sales of farm-raised catfish by United States processors were valued at $591 million.
Pond-raised catfish are fed a gourmet diet of puffed, high-protein food pellets (a mix of soybeans, corn, wheat, vitamins and minerals) that allows them to grow much faster than their wild cousins. A 4- to 6-inch farm-raised fingerling reaches 1-1/2 pounds in about 18 months. At this size they are harvested with seines, then taken alive to processing plants in aerated trucks. Once they reach the plants, the whole production process takes less than 30 minutes, making United States farm-raised catfish among the freshest fish available.
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OhioGameFishing.Com
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Ohio's
Complete
Anglers Resource
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Do Your Part
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Do you love huge catfish?
Then become part of something special
by clicking below to join for free the
Catfish Anglers Society
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