Pond Boss Forums FISH & FISHING Fly Fishing & Other Fish Species Channel Catfish with Putrid Breath and Guts

This is just an observation.

I've been trying to get most of the channel catfish out of one of my ponds. We pulled out two today on lines I set last night. Each was about 24 inches and about 7 lbs.

Each had really bad breath when we pulled them out. My day-helper remarked about how bad the one smelled that he pulled in. We also noticed it on the one I pulled out. They smelled even worse when I filleted them. They had serious rotten-egg smell. The fillets have absolutely no detectable odor.

One appeared to be a male, and one a female. Neither had eggs or milt, so I can't be certain. Their guts were filled with the remains of pellets and some sand and fine gravel. Most noticeable was how much algae and old leaves were in their guts, from throat to vent.

These fish came out of my lowest pond, which has relatively clear water, without any algae showing. Only my uppermost pond has some algae.

Anyway, this is the first time I've cleaned channel cats that smelled this bad -- and I eat and clean a lot of channel cats. I've seen algae in their guts, and in the guts of bullheads before, but I don't ever remember them smelling this bad.

I'm just curious if anybody else has seen this. Is this a doldrums of summer effect?

I got one two nights ago from this same pond that had no odor. We brined, smoked, and ate it this afternoon. Delicious.

Interesting.

You haven't had any of the Blue Green algae like some of us had, do you? I can see if they ate a bunch of that maybe could cause bad breath because it kind of has a bad smell.

Interestingly, the pond these came from has no noticeable algae. My uppermost pond has had a bright green covering on it for about 5-6 weeks now. I'm not sure why. It is the first time I've seen it like this.

I caught a pretty fat HSB a little while ago, from that same pond. It smelled as bad as the catfish. The skinned fillets have no odor. The gut only had pellets in it.

I don't know what to think.

Bad breath is a damn shame.....

Better call Bruce in on this. I've known some people with severe bad breath that you can't be in the same room with them for more than 15 seconds. Maybe some sort of disease or something with the fish, but don't know.

Any recent rain?