Mendo Catfish

Since there seemed to be some uncertainty as to what kind of catfish everyone was catching (and my mind can't live with uncertainty) I did some searching around.  Molbasser was right, they are big ugly versions of channel cats.  Whites don't get that big, the world record is 18.8#.  Some of the things I was looking for, spots and and the forked tail, go away as they get bigger.

speaking of catfish.....here's some pics you might find interesting:

a flathead trying to "play ball"
A Fish Story


This was a pretty interesting story from The Sunday Wichita Eagle Newspaper a couple of weeks ago. A resident in the area saw a ball bouncing around kind of strange in a nearby pond and went to investigate. It turned out to be a flathead catfish who had obviously tried to swallow a child's basketball which became stuck in its mouth!!

The fish was totally exhausted from trying to dive, but unable to because the ball would always bring him back up to the surface. The resident tried numerous times to get the ball out, but was unsuccessful. He finally had his wife cut the ball in order to deflate it and release the hungry catfish.

You probably wouldn't have believed this, if you hadn't seen the following pictures...

Seeing is believing.  Thanks for posting the pics, Mooch!

homeboy should have deep fried that bad boy  

I'm sure that poor cat would have been good battered, fried, and dipped in sweet chili sauce..... but believe it or not...I probably would have felt sorry and released him too.

brother Chuck, you have a good heart....but....the situation that this particular catfish put himself into is a prime example of "natural selection"

...as our fellow kayak fisherman / Mol Basser once said: DEEP FRY! DEEP FRY! DEEP FRY!  

Molbasser was right

Ah the glory....

Nah, just kidding.  Good on you for checking Sean.   I also like to be correct about IDs (helps with the DFG....)

Whites and Channels are hard to tell apart at any age in my experience.  I think the only sure way to differentiate the two is counting anal fin rays.

Blues vs. channel is easy by checking the rounded (channel) or straightness (blue) of the anal fin.

In my experience, any fish over 25lb. I immediately suspect blue.  The channels that were caught were fine specimens!!  I was impressed.

I plan on being more serious about catching some on my next visit to Mendo.

Anyhoo, glad it was cleared up.  When a fisheries biologist speaks, I listen and I went home thinking that I had witnessed some of the biggest white catfish in the world.

MolBasser

Edit for stupidity.

MolBasser