Pond Boss Forums PHOTO GALLERY Image Gallery Bullheads (What type?)

Caught a few of these from a creek on my fathers place and wanted to know what type of Bullhead they were and if they should be pulled out or let go?

Also are these type worth trying to eat?

Read this for an I.D.

It might be a little late to let them go now...

But, that's strictly a personal choice in the creek. Whether they are good to eat or not depends on the water quality. If the water quality is good, then they'll be good.

Look to be black bullheads to me.

That is funny, yes these may not swim off. But I was talking in the future as there are many in this creek, and hope to hook on to a nice one sometime.

I kept these and we will see the next time I cook fish how these taste from the water they are in. The LMB and GSF from the creek taste fine. If they do taste good at least I know where to get more.

I think I will go with black as well, not sure I have even caught a brown or yellow before.

They are black bullheads. By far the most common bullhead in your part of the country, although brown and yellow bullheads can be found in your area as well.

I like bullheads to be around the 10" mark to make them worth eating, but 7"-8" ones can be used, they are just more difficult to deal with.

Since the water body is open, trying to manage for bigger bullheads would be a great challenge at best. What bullheads you take out of your dad's part of the creek will be filled in with bullheads from other parts of the creek.

Do you fillet them or just skin them?

I tried to get these on ice as soon as we could, like to do that will all fish if I have the ability to do so.

Depends on how big they are...

I guess it depends on how much of a stronger taste an individual likes. I tend to cut as much red meat, as well as the yellow from CC and other cats. But bullheads tend to have a darker flesh.

I will just have to try the tiny fillets I have and see how they turn out. I hope tasty so I can start keeping them. Would like to experiment with BH and GFC to see how they would grow/taste.

May do that with one of the shallow ponds we have just have to see what other options I have.

I've cleaned them both ways. Bullheads do not have quite as many bones (no pin bones) as sunfishes and perches thus when fried whole the meat peels nicely off the skeleton. I've eaten 10"-12" yellow bullheads collected in mid-summer from a murky shallow minnow pond and expected them to taste strong and they tasted okay and actually quite good.

I eat all three types of bullhead and they all seem to taste pretty good.i filet some of the bigger ones and pull the skin off of smaller ones with catfish skinners.Shrimp seems to work the best for bait where i live.

I did notice that when I tried to fillet them the skin did not seem to come off a easy as CC. I may just keep one whole next time and see how that one is. My mother-in-law used to always cut CC up into steaks which I did not care for as all the fat and dark meat is still on the fish, but for those that like this flavor it is probably a very nice way to prepare them.

Those are Iowa bass. Easy to skin although I haven't done any for a few years, I remember we used to shoot for less than a minute cleaning time each. Very good in the hot grease.