I have a 1-year-old pond that is 1 acre in size; I over stocked the catfish (700) and need to thin them out. It will take my friends and me a month of Sundays to fish them out one at a time, any suggestions? The average weight is 2-3 pounds.

Sounds like a problem many folks would like to have. Shouldn't be any shortage of volunteers if you know where to look. Be aware you probably don't have near the amount left you originally planted.

I have no clue how many are still alive but I do know that they can eat up 25lbs of feed in 20 minutes, its fun to watch them but it is getting a little pricey. My goal is to end up with quality not quantity.

Why don't you net them while they are feeding? Sounds fast and cheap.

You can also use a small popper, I found a black one works excellent. I use a fly rod and just toss the popper where I toss the feed. It's a blast to watch them hit it.

Bob

why don't you run a trout line,this way you can catch 30-40 at a time.on weekends we put one in our pond and we allways catch 10-15 in one evening.

i agree with lee. use a trot line. you can bait it with liver, worms, stink bait or anything else that normally works for cats. you can buy or build your own trot. they really do work well. i suggest not feeding them for a day or two before you throw in the trot and they will be good and hungry. jb

Maybe you could throw a cast net while they are feeding.

Well how about this , the trot line is the best solution . I put one out to try and catch snapping turtles baited with shrimp - caught a lot of cat's - no turtles - my aim was not to thin my cat numbers , so i did not re-bait the line . went out the next day to take the line out and had a lot of cat's on unbaited hooks . guess the moon glittering on the hooks attracted them . anyway the trot line is your best bet . Harvey

trot line is the best way to go. i often dont bait every hook but i use orange survey tape and it works better than bait.

harvey,i did not want to say it,but everytime i run my trout line i catch 3-4 more cats the next day without bait.glad to see someone else does the same thing,i thought people would think i was crazy,but it happens.

Cats feed mostly by sense of smell. Unlike most fish their smell sensors cover most of their body. An article I read on the subject stated if your sense of smell was equivilent to a catfish you could sit on a pizza & taste it!
The reason they hit unbaited hooks is because that hook used to be baited & still smells like food.

Update on the catfish problem
We decided to go with the old rod and reel approach and after yesterday I don’t want to see another catfish for a while. Six of us, four fishing and two cleaning the fish, we started at 7 am and by 1 pm we had 118 cats…fun…yes but after a few hours we felt like robots. The smallest was 2.1 lbs and largest 4.7 lbs, allot of the smaller ones had scratches on there heads we figured it was from the larger cats try to take a bite out of them. At sunset we went out to feed them and it looks like I have a long way to go before my pond is balanced. I can tell already I need to buy tarter sauce by the gallon

LOL! TARTER SAUCE BY THE GALLON! TOO FUNNY! I like the post that suggested throwing a cast net at them while you are feeding them. Also, why couldn't you electro-fish for them? You know, just shock them to the top and row around in a boat scooping them up. Also, instead of eating them, why not make a post on this site or others offering them for sale for stocking and recoup some of your pond expenses? Just a thought. Good luck!

Pace yourself. 118 in a day is a chore but 20 a day on 6 different days is just fun. You could invite some friends to fish while you are there and they can take the fish home and clean them at home. I am sure you could find volunteers but even if not one morning a week fishing adds up fast in terms of number of fish removed.

Though highly illegal in public waters, fish traps work exceptionally well for catfish. Simply buy/build a rectangular meshwire cage that has an inward pointing mesh funnel at one or both ends, through which the cats may enter (a large version of a minnow trap). Once they enter (discarded beef bones work wonders as bait), they can't find the exit-hole and are trapped. A very productive option, but not nearly as fun as a rod-n-reel.