i know crappie and bluegill/panfish breed like rabbits i heard catfish wont have babies unless they have structure to go inside to lay eggs.

curious though how many catfish eggs are there compared to other fish seems most places lakes i know of usually lose there catfish population quite fast and are always finding themselves stocking the lakes with more

Bob Lusk says one nest starts at 50,000 eggs (might have been 500,000). His warning is "what if only 1 percent survive."

Years ago, we noticed bullheads in our pond. We cut, off center, eight inch holes in large trash can lids and wired the lids to the cans. The cans barely floated and, anchored in place, are easily and quietly accessed by boat. Tipping the cans up and slowly dumping the water out traps both the fish and eggs in the can. Lusk's estimate of the number of eggs in the masses is accurate and possibly conservative.

Spawning catfish do not need a man-made cavity structure for lying & hatching their eggs. I have seen where channel catfish (CC) will actually "dig" into the pond side wall and create a shallow cave cavity for laying eggs.

Bill I have both CC and BC in my pond they are about5 pounds now and don’t think they have spawned yet. How old do they need to be to spawn?

Our goal was to interfere with bullhead recruitment. There were multiple concentrations of eggs, each encased in a membrane, so I suspect that more than one female deposited eggs in each container. The volume of eggs was really incredible.

Some fish species seem to find a way to reproduce in far less than ideal conditions. An excavation in a pond bank is impressive.

god it would be amazing to find a pregnant flathead female and somehow get all the eggs to hatch and keep the little fish safe till they get around 3 inches then release them in hopes at least 20% will live then

Add a male flathead to the mix and bingo

You might want to research flatheads before you launch that wish.

Pat,

I stocked 4 to 6 inch CC in the spring of 2015. I started seeing recruits in 2017. I didn't put in any specific CC spawning habitat. They have apparently found a way as Bill C. posted. Might be my piles of broken concrete slab.

Even more surprising of the large CC digging into the pond bank, they dug through a 6"-8" thick layer of limestone stones with diameters of 1"-3". The cavity dug by these CC was about 14"-16" diameter. I stuck my boat paddle into the opening. The pond owner said he catches CC by fishing in the opening. I do not know how many years they had been using this cavity. If it was several years old it was likely enlarged a little each year. If I think of it this summer, I will revisit this pond and get more information and maybe some pictures. The top of the cavity was underwater about 16".

With my issues with LMB I really don’t want any recruitment from the CC or BC at this time, in fact need to rid pond of some....try to get folks to come catch all they want but no takers.... go figure

I think a lot of pond owners probably have spawning CC that don't realize it. The slow moving CC frye are easy prey in the absence of a lot of cover so they do not survive to recruitment size. I have an abundance of vegetation, rip rap and concrete piles for cover which I suspect is why I see a few recruits.

The only small catfish I have seen are bullheads and don’t have a clue how they got in there

Just to add to this conversation, I have an all clay pond about half acre. We put CC in about four years ago, not thinking they would spawn. Last September my grandkids pulled out two CC weighting over 10 pounds and 28 and 29 inches long! And had lots of 10-12 inch feeding during the summer, way more than the 25 we put in ! I have not added anything talked about for spawning.

Nature will always find a way to reproduce

We have all year classes of CC and so far the recruitment has been such that it has matched our harvest pretty well. Lucky I guess.

Although I did not specifically place spawning habitat, there are plenty of artificial ledges and stumps to provide it.

My LMB population to date has not done all that well in the recruitment category so that could explain the positive recruitment of CC. I have since supplemental stocked 12" LMB so future CC recruitment may be curtailed. Time will tell.

John you can have some of mine( LMB ) I seem to have an abundance of them. Haven’t seen any sign of CC spawn

Snrub - I think your lack of recruitment from the LMB is probably due to the good numbers of year classes of CC are eating fingerling and juvenile LMB as they rest near or on the bottom at night where they are vulnerable to CC predation.

Had not really thought of that. Always blamed it on the BG recruitment being too good and the LMB failing to spawn. Or could be a combination of both.

I found it pretty easy to grow out some LMB fingerlings in my sediment pond and moved about 35 in the 12" + or - range last fall (in 3 acres)so hope maybe my excess BG problem will be controlled better this year.

curious if uw ere to cut the egg patch out of a female flathead and put it in the water would a male be able to come fertilize the eggs and they hatch? curious how possible that is