My guess is that it's a gravid female CC. Females retain the brown color while males can turn into a light or dark blue/grey. What a nice fish - thanks for sharing!
Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after. ~ Henry David Thoreau
Definitely a channel cat. At that size, it is eating whatever is unfortunate enough too get in front of it and fit in its mouth. Bluegill and frogs are probably pretty high on its menu.
We caught 4 samll 4-5 inch CC last weekend when BG fishing. I didn't think the CC would repoduce in a 1 1/2 acre pond. We also take out eveyone caught but with me, it's to keep them from digging up the bottom.
It's true hard work never killed anybody, but I figure, why take the chance? Ronald Reagan _______________ The good Brian
When we put my Dad's pond in, in western Ohio, we stocked FHM and GS in it prior to putting LMBs in. The minnows and shiners spawned and the banks were full of clouds of tiny minnow fry. A few months later we stocked 100 LMB's in the 5-7" range and in about a month or so could find now minnow fry. The adult GS's were confined to the shallow beach area of the pond and were under constant observation by 12 -15 LMB's.
After observing this, I don't think that GS's could take over a pond with a healthy LMB population, but that's just my two cents worth. Good luck and good fishing, Dan