Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations 36 lbs catfish

Ive been feeding this catfish aquamax for years. Im pretty sure she is the only one in my 6 acre pond. Anyways ive been wondering for a while how much she weighed so decided to put some aquamax largemouth on a hook and catch her yesterday. She was 36.03 lbs A little less than i had hoped for. Ive always thought she was a channel catfish but she doesnt look like any others ive caught.

how did you get the aquamax on the hook?

The hook went right through the corner of the food. Takes a couple of tries but i finally got it.

Nicely done! That is a CC...see curved anal fin. They do turn very dark as they age and appear somewhat like a BC.

That fish is insanely big!!!! All I can say is "Wow"!

Im pretty pround of her. State record is 44 lbs so maybe she will live long enough to get there. She was 28 lbs when we shocked her up in 2010. I thought she was a CC but her color was funny and she just looked different. Then again the biggest one ive ever caught before was only around 12 lbs.

Awesome looking fish!

I have a problem with the catfish eating the AM LM too. That is one huge catfish!

How long did it take to get her in? It'll be interesting to see if you will be able to catch her again. The ones in my pond that I've caught and tagged, I've never caught again.

Wow that thing is huge! Nice catch!

It didnt take too long to get her in 10 min maybe. I was using 50 lbs braid so i could wear her down alot quicker. We have shocked her up a couple of times. I think she was around 10 lbs back in 2008 and then 28 lbs in 2010. There is possibly one more in the pond but it isnt as big as this one. I caught the other a couple of years ago thinking it was this one and relized it didnt have a tag. I have 3 feeders and this one always comes up at the same one everyday. I didnt go down there today to see if she came up to eat but im sure she will be back. I wish i had someone there to take pics so i could have got some better ones. Ill try to catch her again this fall and see how much she has grown.

Thats a great looking fish too essup! how much did that one weigh?

If your figures are correct that is some pretty impressive weight gain in 4 years from 2008 to all of 2011 - 10 lbs to 36 lbs a gain of 26 lbs in 4 yrs or 6.5 lbs per year. That is a lot of groceries to be eating per year. Who says catfish don't grow faster than bass?

7/11/2010 caught 29.5" 15.94# Tag #005
Caught and tagged my first one on 5/15/2009 28.0" 14.8" Tag #001 Neither has been seen nor caught since.

Esshup, you don't see the big cats when you feed? Thats when I see the 3 in my pond. Large wiskery vacs at the surface.

Nope! I might see one or two of the smaller ones cruising the bottom for pellets that have sunk, but no whiskers at the surface. They're too smart! I have caught all the ones that were feeding on the surface already. Tag #5 was caught on a trotline, Tag #1 on a 4"-5" orig silver floating rapala.

What kind of tags did you use to tag the catfish

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At least in wild catfish, growth rates have been noted to be slow until they reach about 10 pounds. Then at that size, their mouths get large enough to effectively prey on adult gizzard shad. Then growth rates explode with 5 pounds per year or more gains not uncommon.

Whats the life span on a catfish? Im guessing this one is about 10 years old or so.

Jsand13 --

That is one delicious looking catfish, although I'm glad to hear you threw him back to get even bigger.

I don't have any that big, but I noticed last night some extreme color mottling on one of the 25-30 inchers that was coming up for food. A large part of it's top, from its head to halfway between the top fin and tail fin, were pinkish-white (kind of hard to really tell in green tinted water). I've seen this before. By summer, they are back to normal colors.

If you just have the one, probably no problem. Every few years I'm plagued by several large ones that become menaces. I put CC in every few years, and there are always a few that become real hook smart/shy. This year I put 50 CC into a cage so that we can have neighborhood catfish dinners, but the CC won't be eating everything in sight and digging holes in the side of my pond.

Ken

Life span varies greatly depending on a number of factors. Shorter growing season areas, up north generally produce fish with longer life spans. I've seen research showing 15-25 years for a lifespan. My dad's friend first stocked CC back in 1993. His original fish were all fin clipped on the adipose. All further fish stocked were not. Two summers ago I caught one of the originals. That would have made it 18 years old and it weighed 25 pounds 4 ounces. A 55 pound fish was caught in a gill net during a lake survey near my house. The lake was formed in 1972. This CC was caught in 2002. Say this fish was a rarity and lived beyond normally expected life span. That could make it 30 years old. They released it unharmed... Would have been pushing a world record had it been caught by rod and reel.

where do you tag the catfish so that the tag stays in? i have that tagging system but i always have a hard time the tag never seems to last more than a year

When tagging, try and visualize the tag end that goes into the fish. Put in the fish in such a way that it goes thru the part of the dorsal fin that goes down towards the spine. You want the end to go past the bones that make the dorsal fin work, and turn sideways. I always pull on a tag once it's inserted, to make sure it's caught and in the right spot. So far, I've been lucky and haven't had any slip when I've pulled on them.

Who knows, maybe they fell out of the CC? I know the LMB that I've tagged are still swimming with the tags.

Jes she is a beauty. She probably eats lots of small bass, shad, anything she wants really. On tagging there is a video on the site as well but Scott had a great description. Got some bass up this year tagged five years ago.