What Kind of Catfish

Fishing Techniques: Use live bait since they aren't easily attracted to the catfish baits normally used for other catfish, although chicken entrails, nightcrawlers and minnows work well. Usually caught on the bottom of deep pools or in the tailraces below dams.

Identification: Broadly flattened head with a lower jaw that projects beyond the upper jaw. Tail only slightly notched and adipose fin is relatively large. Body is yellowish or cream-colored, with black, dark brown or olive-brown mottling on back and sides, fading to dirty white or yellow. Younger fish have darker, bolder markings and the upper tip of the tails have white, triangular patches.

Feeding Habits: More solitary than other catfish. Omnivorous, they feed on almost anything. More than other catfish they feed on other live fish. They feed at night on other fish, crustaceans, mollusks, insect larvae and terrestrial creatures washed into the river. Sometimes they feed near the surface and occupy water shallower than most catfish.

Spawning Habits: Summer, when water temperatures reach 72 to 84 degrees F. Eggs are laid in depressions scooped out of the bottom, in hollow logs or in holes along the bank. After hatching, fry gather in compact schools guarded by the male. As they grow older, they become solitary.World Record: 91 lbs. 4 oz.

Identification: Heavy-bodied with a wide head and high spot forward of center near the head called the dorsal hump. Upper jaw projects well beyond the lower. Bluish-gray body above, fading to white on sides and belly. No spots and a deeply forked tail. Smaller blue cats are often confused with channel catfish. The best way to distinguish between the two is by the 30-35 rays on the blue cat's anal fin with its straight outer margin verses the channel cat's 25 to 29 rays.

Feeding Habits: Omnivorous, but feeds naturally on fish, crayfish, and mollusks, and scavenges on dead or dying aquatic and terrestrial animal matter. Sense of taste and smell are more important than sight in obtaining food, and whiskers are used for this purpose.

Spawning Habits: They spawn in late spring and early summer, when water temperatures reach 70 to 75 degrees F. Eggs are laid in masses into nests formed under logs, in brush or debris, or along undercut river banks. Young school up after hatching.World Record: 109lb 4oz

Fishing Techniques: Rod and reel anglers catch them on clam snouts, peeler crabs, large minnows, nightcrawlers, cut up herring, chicken livers or entrails, shrimp and a variety of stink or dough baits. They take a variety of artificials as well including crankbaits, jigs and spinners.

Identification: Deeply forked tail. Upper jaw is longer than, and overlaps the lower, and its smooth-skinned body is usually spotted. Has a small dorsal fin with stiff spine standing high on its back. It has eight barbels, or feelers, four located under the lower jaw, two on top and one at each end of the upper jaw. Barbels contain taste buds, which help it find food. Varies in color, although generally dark brownish to slate-gray on top, fading to light brownish-gray on the sides. Has 25 to 29 Rays on its anal fin.

Feeding Habits: A variety of insects, vegetation, crustaceans, mollusks, fish eggs, fish and carrion of many types, constitutes its menu. Wandering nocturnal feeders, they spend daylight hours in deep holes around brush piles or in and along river channels.

Habitat: Lakes and larger rivers with cleaner bottoms of sand, gravel or stones, over mud flats but seldom in dense weedy areas. Also lives in the deeper, slower pools of swift, clear-running streams. In large reservoirs, they are often found below dams where they feed on food swept down to them.

Spawning Habits: From late May through July when water temperatures reach the mid-70s. Rocky ledges, undercut banks, hollow logs and other underwater structures are spots generally chosen to lay their pea-sized eggs. Male guards the nest and the eggs hatch in seven to 10 days. The fry travel in tight-packed schools, often herded and guarded by the male.World record;58lb


	Primarily a species of lakes and ponds, the yellow bullhead is abundant nowhere in the state. It is taken occasionally in the flowing water of major interior rivers and the Mississippi River but tends to favor clear water. It is occasionally found in the man-made lakes, farm ponds and oxbow lakes.

The color of the yellow bullhead is light olive-brown to yellow on top, with white or cream belly. It can be immediately distinguished from other bullheads by the white or cream-colored barbels or whiskers on the chin. The tail is convexly rounded. There are 24 to 27, usually 25 or 26, rays in the anal fin.

Spawning activity takes place in May and early June in water from 1 1/2 to 4 feet in depth. Nests are constructed by the male and the female deposits 2,000 to 7,000 eggs. Eggs hatch in 5 to 10 days, and the fry are guarded by the parent fish until late July or August. They reach a length of about 3 inches at the end of the first year and mature in the third year of life. Individuals weighing as much as 2 pounds are taken from the Mississippi River. Yellow bullheads appear to be somewhat more selective in their feeding than other bullheads, but the principal foods include insects and larvae, crustaceans, small mollusks, crayfish, and small fishes.


	Characteristics - dark olive to black with a belly of white to bright yellow; tail fin is slightly notched with a light band at its base; may reach weights of 2+ pounds in larger lakes in northern Iowa.

Expert's Tip - 1/2 a night crawler is bullhead candy - use long shank hooks to make hook removal easy! Other names -- bullhead, common bullhead, yellow-belly bullhead, small bullhead, horned pout, brown catfish, catfish, stinger, river snapper.

This fish species is by far the most common and widely distributed of the three bullhead species found in Iowa. It is abundant in most of the natural lakes and in some man-made lakes. It is a common inhabitant of many farm ponds and is taken less frequently in some of the oxbow lakes that overflow from the major interior rivers. Black bullheads are occasional to common in the river impoundments, although they are usually rare in flowing waters. It is quite common in the backwaters and some sloughs of the Mississippi River, but its apparent aversion to flowing water limits its abundance in the Missouri River.

Black bullhead are usually dark olive to black on the body, although in some waters it becomes light brown. Usually the belly is white, but here again the color is variable, and in certain lakes and larger rivers the belly is bright yellow, especially in the early spring and during the breeding season. The chin barbels are dusky or black. This fish can be distinguished from the other bullheads by the light colored band at the base of the tail fin and the 17 to 20 rays in the anal fin. The tail fin is slightly notched, and the outer two-thirds of the fleshy membrane of the anal fin is uniformly black or dark-pigmented. The backside of the pectoral spine is weakly barbed. This fish is rarely mottled in color.

The black bullhead spawns in May or early June, usually in weedy or muddy shallow areas. Saucer-shaped nests are constructed in the mud or sand in about 2 to 4 feet of water. These nests range from about 6 to 14 inches in diameter and up to l0 inches deep. The number of eggs deposited depends on the age and size of the female, but the average is about 2,000 to 6,000, or more. Incubation is completed in a week or less under normal conditions. The young fry stay in tight black, ball-like schools until they reach nearly 2 inches in length, at which time they leave their parents to shift for themselves. The black bullhead is usually the smallest-sized bullhead, but in larger lakes of northern Iowa some reach a weight of two pounds or more. The record fish in Iowa came from a farm pond in Harrison County and weighed 4 pounds, l2 ounces. In streams or lakes where food is scarce and the population density is quite high, they are much smaller and seldom exceed 7 to 9 inches.

The black bullhead is strictly omnivorous, feeding upon nearly every conceivable thing in the water. Midge and mayfly larvae make up a considerable part of the diet, but it also feeds extensively on other insects and their larvae, small crayfish, worms, small mollusks, crustaceans, and a host of other animals and plants. Bullheads have been known to eat the eggs of other fishes, as well as feeding quite extensively on minnows. Fathead minnow, an abundant form in most Iowa lakes and streams, is of particular importance in their diet.

The brown bullhead is widely distributed in the far northern part of the state, but nowhere is it common. Most fish collections from the interior waters contain only single specimens. The brown bullhead is taken most commonly in the upper Mississippi River where it inhabits the sloughs and river backwaters.

The color of the brown bullhead is olive to brown with dark mottlings on the sides, fading to white or cream beneath. Fleshy barbels are dusky to black. It can be readily distinguished from the black bullhead by the lack of a light-colored bar at the base of the tail fin and black coloration in the membrane between the rays of these fins. There are numerous strong barbs that form a serrated back side of the pectoral fin spines. There are from 20 to 24, usually 22 or 23, rays in the anal fin. The caudal fin is slightly notched.

Brown bullhead spawn rather early in the spring, usually in late April or May. Male fish fan out a saucer-shaped nest in the mud or nests in natural cavities where the female deposits eggs. The number of eggs will range from 2,000 to 10,000, or more. The eggs are guarded by both parents during the incubation period, which is usually 5 to 8 days. After the eggs hatch, they are herded about in schools for several weeks. At the end of their first year of life they reach a length of about 2 1/2 to 4 inches and mature in three years. They grow to about 2 pounds under ideal conditions, although most specimens will average from about 8 to 10 inches and weigh less than a pound.