Pond Boss Forums FISH & FISHING Fly Fishing & Other Fish Species I have large black blobs of little catfish?

My pond is a little over a year old and I have caught 2 mud cats about 4 inches long and I dont know how they got in there. I did put 100 cc in there and also 6 or 8 large channel cats from my brothers pond. Now Im seeing these black blobs of lil catfish swimming around and Im thinking its mud cats. I posted a pic in the image gallery. Could they be cc from the larger ones that i transplanted. They kind of have a forked tail and that makes me think its a cc but im not sure. Please help, I think either way now I need to cast net them out.

Can you try to take some pictures of the blobs and post them here?

What size were the CC you put in the pond and when were they stocked?

I would bet they are Bullheads "Mudcats". I believe this is how they like to hang out.

They seem to creep in from anywhere, have you stocked any FHM, if so where did you get them?

Did you build the pond or is it an older one?

You will get some good responses from the Pros here and I would like to see what they think as well as how to get rid of them if they are indeed Bullheads.

I would think if you have bass they would eat them up, but then again I have heard it is pretty easy for the nasty Bullhead to take over a pond.

I made the lovely mistake a few years back of putting a few of these in a pond. I have yet fish it since and hope they were all males, but with my luck I am sure there was 1 male and the rest were female, probably already carrying eggs.

This of course was before I ran across this site and have learned much of what to do, and still trying to learn some more.

Again I am waiting to see what you find out, so keep us posted, in the mean time I would try to get as many of them out as you can via net or trap.

You may want to check around where you are and see if someone likes them as bait or even food etc. You may be able to sell a few.

Thanks

My property had a wooded swampy area that held a foot or so of water and I cleared it and dug the pond and built up the surrounding lowlands about a year and a half ago. I stocked about 6 lbs of FHM from a fish farm in OK also put 100 CC fingerlings 400 cnbg and 100 red ear and 20 f1 bass. Aside from that I put 6 or 8 cc from my bros pond that were in the 3 to 5 lb range. I was hoping that it was one of those large CCs that spawned. Before these blobs appeared I had caught 2 lil mud cats about 3 inches long see pics here http://public.fotki.com/tz/clearing-and-pond-p/fish/

Not sure how your structure is setup in your pond, but CC chose there spawning sites carefully and usually do not do so in ponds.

I would think that you would not want them to spawn either just to help keep the numbers down.

Not sure how old are large Bullheads have to be to spawn, but I believe they will do it anywhere as long as there is any kind of moisture. It is a shame they do not get large like other cats and taste as good as Flathead. Then I think we would not have such a concern about them.

Have you caught any bass yet, I am wondering how much they have grown, plus if you happen to keep one you could always cut open there belly to see what they have been eating.

How are the CNBG doing have they grown much? Have they spawned?

What farm did you get them from and were you happy with your purchase?

What is the size of your pond?

My pond is .6 acres and i got the fish from dunns

CNBG have spawned and the bass are only about 8inches long and look healthy

That seems like a lot of fish for a pond that size, did you choose that or was it suggested to you?

What size were your CNBG, and have they grown much?

Do you feed your fish?

Do you have some pictures of your pond you can post for us to see?

Yes, TZ, tell us more about your LMB. The bullheads (mudcats) are very vulnerable to LMB predation, especially when the young bullies are in those "pods" like they are right now. LMB, if present in reasonable numbers, can certainly keep your bullheads in check. They won't eliminate them, but they'll eat nearly all of the young ones, and you'll just have a few large adults (12-15 inchers) that will spawn each year, but have such low density that they really don't cause problems.

It may even help the bas grow, since they are in the pods, the bass may not have to work as hard to catch a few at a time.

But then again I always thought that LMB could eat their heart out on crappie since there are so many of them in each spawn but apparently they can't even put a dent on them.

Keep us posted I am interested to watch how this turns out as I may end up with a bullhead problem as well and will need to know how to get rid of them as well.

Thanks

I'd say that there's a 95% chance they are bullheads. I have a 2 acre pond that dries out every couple of years so I don't stock "good" fish in it. About three years ago my daughter and I threw six bullheads in it. You could now about walk across it on the bullheads. This time of years you will see small undulating blobs of them about three foot in diameter near the surface.

plenty of pics here:
http://public.fotki.com/tz/clearing-and-pond-p/
I have put in 20 f1 bass and i can walk around my pond and see 5-10 every time i walk around it. I caught one on a tube jig and he seemed fat and healthy and about 8 inches long
I did also see a bass trailing a blob of catfish
ill try and cast net them out
i just read that yellow bullheads have white/yellow barbels on chin
i think these were black, is that because they are young?
i dont have any pics, ill try and get some

If it started as a new pond, then where did your water come from? If you only catch rainwater and there is no possibility of fish coming in with the water, then that leaves your supplier, birds/animals, or a random person putting them in the pond. THere are some links on this site on how to make a good baitfish/bullhead trap. Make two or three of them, bait them and watch them work, as well as a few good days of hook line and worm you can really do some damage in a small pond. If you get totally mad at them you can release some .12 ga on them

I made 2 traps per a link someone on here posted for me and I havent caught one yet. I tried dry and wet dog food and nothing. May try some chicken livers or something next. Any ideas on bait?

Try some cut bait... Sunfish works well for me.

A shotgun also works pretty well on the ball.

You second-hand lion, you.

I'd sure like to see DD fly to the next Pond Boss Conference in his biplane.

tz666,

Were you ever able to trap any of these?

Did you get some more pictures to post?

Wow that is a ton of BH, you seem to be pretty good with the net as well. So what is your plan to get rid of them?

Also I noticed a small CC in the first picture, did it come from the same pond, if so when was it stocked and how old was it in the picture.

Thanks

the cc pic and the single mud cat pic were taken in the early spring. my pond was approx. half full last fall and i put in cc, fhm, lmb, cnbg. Early this spring we fished a little bit and caught the pictured mud cat and cc. I would assume that is a yellow bullhead im holding i dont remember what its chin barbles looked like. we ended up catching 3 of those yellow bullhead like the on in the picture. I do not know where they came from. Now Im having all of the swarms of little cats. I hope someone didnt throw some mud cats in my pond.

I hope they did not throw any in there either, but if someone did not do that, and they did not enter with flood water, then that means they came in with your stocking and that should never happen.

Sorry what size were the CC again when you stocked them?

The ccs were fingerlings like 3 inches and i didnt think i needed to looka th them i just dumped the bag after adding pond water for a while, i called the farm and they said no way i got mud cats from them. i also heard someone say that sometimes you can get mud cat fry in your fhms. i will never know the answer but im on a anti mud cat campain.

More mud cat pics
http://public.fotki.com/tz/clearing-and-pond-p/fish/cats-1.html

I know it used to be real common around here to get bullheads mixed in with your FHM at the bait shop (they are called blacks around here and even sometimes Tuffies)