Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations mudcat

Does anyone know anything about mudcats? I have some in my lake and they seem to be invasive. Are they good for anything? Do I catch and eradicate?

Get rid of em. If you catch them, toss them out. The only thing you can do with catfish is eat them and mudcat taste bad. So I would suggest that you toss em. If you put in bass, they will eat all or most of your baby catfish and you wont have much of a problem with mudcat.

????? What are mudcats? Does anyone have a scientific name for these? Are they madtoms or bullheads or what? Lets get Mark McD to do a "Know Your Pond Life" article on them in Pond Boss Mag.

Mudcats are bullheads and they don't have to taste bad. I've eaten them out of clear water and they taste o.k. I like to put all my fish (channel, bass, bluegill) in a holding tank with fresh water untill I have time to butcher them and they taste better. The biggest problem with having too many little catfish is that they don't grow big enough to even be fun to catch to throw on the bank. I agree that you need bass to eat bunches of the little mudcats.

Thanks for the info. I have never tried eating any, but may from the advice of clear water. This is a spring fed lake tha never quits running. I have plenty of bass, I think?! I am adopting a keep slot of 10" - 14". I caught 7 this past weekend in the slot with two 16" and 1 9 ". No mudcats tho.