Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations My catfish problem....

ok, we have all discussed my catfish pics and i have decided that they are black bullhead. They look like bullhead from all the pics i looked at and mine have black chin barbles not white like the yellow bullhead. I read where it takes a bullhead 4 years to reach spawning age and my pond is only a year and a half old. Either someone put in a 4+ year old boy and girl mud cat or i got eggs from somewhere. I have been catching some with a cast net. Im hoping its eggs from somewhere because that means i have 3 years to get the rest of them out.

Both black and brown bullheads have darker chin barbels. From your pics, I would lean more towards them being brown bullheads because of their coloration. Without handling them, I cannot say for sure though. But brown bullheads tend to be mottled like yours are and usually don't have yellow on them. Whereas black bullheads tend to uniformly change from a very dark brown/black on top to a creamy white to yellow on the belly.

What was your source for the 4+ years for BH to reach maturity? I have had mine reach maturity in two and I am in a colder climate than you are.

google, not sure what web site

I am leaning more to the Brown as well.

Look at this site.


http://www.tnfish.org/PhotoGalleryFish_T...asNegus_jpg.htm


Thanks

So how is your Bullhead problem going?

i have cought many in trap and cast net, even some on rod n reel. i dont see any except when feeder goes off there are a few.

Spread a net under where the pellets fall then lift them out when they come to feed.

i could do that by cast netting but then i get big cats and bream also and i end up getting pellets all over my pier. I may do that this weekend

Ok I think I had gotten most of the mud cast out because when my feeder would go off not many would come to the surface. I threw the cast net on Sunday when they were at the top eating and caught about 10 or 12. Since then when the feeder goes off I havent seen any mud cats come up. Should I believe I got them all or did I just get the ones that were comming to the feeder?

Not all cats will be feeding at the surface. Floating pellets soak up water and sink. There will be cats feeding on the bottom, or eating the pellets as they sink. I have Channel Cats in my pond, and I rarely see them at the surface eating pellets. I doubt that you got them all.

I have cc's in my pond and they dont all come up but the small mudcats seemed to all come up in large black blobs to feed fvrom the time they were fry till i caught them

There's really no way to tell if you got them all, unless you rottentone(sp) and start over.. What's all in the pond? Ask yourself would it be better to start over now or wait a few years and find out their taking over again? Tough choice I know but it almost seems impossible to me to get all of them out..

im not starting over now, i would rather wait a while and then if i have to drain and start over i could have a giant fish fry

im not starting over now, i would rather wait a while and then if i have to drain and start over i could have a giant fish fry

Maybe you could electrofish it.. I don't know what it cost though? I'm like you starting over is out of the question..

just get my generator and fray a lamp cord and put it in the pond and hope for the best, right?

Don't forget camcorder..

If you don't already have one, consider purchasing or building a fish trap. There have been several posts on here about different types and some are very effective on bullheads(mudcats). You can also keep every one you catch when angling. They are fairly easily caught... Last, if you have a healthy bass population, they should do a good job of controlling the bullheads in your pond and keeping their numbers down. The few remaining will actually obtain a decent size, 14"-16"+ especially if fed and can make fine eating. I like them better than CC.

WELL I HAVE CAUGHT 1 MUD CAT SINCE THE LAST CAST NETTING.