Field guide · 3 species
Three big catfish rule North American rivers and reservoirs. Channel catfish are the most widespread and most often caught; blue catfish are the giants, able to top 100 pounds; and flatheads are the solitary ambush predators of deep river holes and logjams.
A forked tail and a rounded anal fin point to a channel cat, a forked tail with a straight-edged anal fin to a blue, and a broad flat head with a jutting lower jaw and squared-off tail to a flathead.
| Fish | Family | Water | Region | Body shape | Max length | Max weight | Diet |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Channel Catfish | Catfish family | Freshwater | Nationwide | Streamlined | 52 in | 58 lb | Omnivore |
| Blue Catfish | Catfish family | Freshwater | Southern waters | Streamlined | 65 in | 150 lb | Omnivore |
| Flathead Catfish | Catfish family | Freshwater | Southern waters | Long & slender | 61 in | 123 lb | Carnivore |
The channel catfish is America's everyday catfish: the most widespread, most stocked and most fished catfish on the continent, at home in farm ponds, reservoirs and big rivers from southern Canada to Mexico. It bites nightcrawlers, cut bait and stinkbait with equal enthusiasm, pulls hard, eats well, and is the fish behind the U.S. catfish-farming industry.
Read the full guide →The blue catfish is the heavyweight of North American catfish, a big-river fish that commonly reaches 20 to 40 pounds and can top 100. Trophy anglers drift and anchor fresh cut shad for blues from the Mississippi and Missouri rivers to Virginia's Kerr Lake and James River, where stocked blues have become both a world-class fishery and an invasive problem.
Read the full guide →The flathead catfish is the ambush predator of the catfish world: a broad-headed, mottled brown fish that lurks in logjams and rocky holes and eats almost nothing but live prey. Second only to the blue catfish in size, flatheads draw night-fishing rod anglers, trotliners and, in the states that allow it, hand-fishing noodlers.
Read the full guide →Think you could name them from a few clues? A new mystery fish drops every day.
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