After the rain all day today I went up to the pond to do a little feeding and noticed a 5 lb or so dead channel cat floating right by the dock so I was like "WTH?" and since he was freshly dead, wasnt there yesterday and and still had some softness to him I pulled him out to see why he has died.
at first I ran back to the garage to document what i had found and got a large knfe, a tape measure, camera and I should have brought gloves but didnt.
First I noticed it was indeed a channel cat and I measured him (I have blues in the pond as well)at about 24" and healthy, large gut and looked ok.
then I started to see if he had a hook or something in him so I peered into his mouth and this is what I saw....
I figured it was a decent size Bluegill so I then measured the gape, which was right at 3" but the picture isnt very good
so then I tried to get it out, ( this is where the gloves would have come in handy, man was it disgusting) anyways after cutting back both cheeks to the bone and a lot of prying, i was able to remove this....
It was the main torso of about 5" so I figure by the time I add some tail and the head, which wasnt even in the picture and i wasnt about to go after it. I figure he gobbled up about a 8.5-8.75" BG. I guess I am kind of suprised he took this large of meal sinc ethe pond is choked with 1 YO BG and tons of GS and FHM and a fresh batch of 5-6" YP from last years spawn.
It just goes to show you what a 5 lb cat is capable of eating and what kind of damage a bunch of these guys could do to a healthy pond.
Im not to sad since I am culling a bunch of the bigger cats this year and this is about ave for the channels so 1 less for me.
Ok, last point here, I tried washing my hands in the pond, then smeared lots of mud on them, then rubbed wild onions on them to mask the pungent odor of death to no avail, then came inside, washed 2 times with strong dish soap, then went to bathroom and washed 2 more times with toothpaste and I can still smell it...Wife may not let sleep in bed tonight...
Salmonid
