Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Stocking Channel Cats

1/5 acre pond in NC with population of LM Bass and Bluegill. In November stocked 100 channel cat fingerlings (3-4"). I expect a level of mortality from the bass, but have a couple questions.
- Do I need to be feeding the CCats over the winter?
- What is the expected growth rate of channel cats? Note, I do have a feeder that I will definitely use in warm weather.

Thanks for any info you can offer.

Wow! 100 CC in a 1/5 acre pond is a little (actually a whole lot) high. At 3-4 inches some will be eaten by the bass, and there will be some natural mortality. When they get to about 4 inches and larger, it has been my experience that the bass don't seem to care much for them.

Channels cats grow very fast. By springtime, without supplemental feeding, they should be in the 5-7 inch range. By next August they will probably be in the 10-12 inch range. Being in NC, you may see some in the 16-18 inch range before it gets too cool to reasonably feed (water temp in about the mid-60s for me).

With that many cats added to a small pond, I would take out every one caught on hook and line. They become hookshy very fast, and they have long memories -- thus, the problem with that many.

It doesn't take too long, maybe two years, for them to become the top predators in a pond. At that point they will have grown to at least 20-24 inches.

I have a 0.7 and a 0.3 acre pond. I put channel cats in most every springtime. I've learned to usually just buy 25 4-inchers. About 15-17 go in the 0.7 acre pond, the remainder go in the 0.3 acre pond. I still end up with problems, as we can't always get them out before a few of them become huge, and then start causing problems.

Don't get me wrong. I love having the catfish. They grow fast. They are delicious. But, they can become real pests.

Good luck,
Ken

One more thought. If you really love catfish -- do you have room for a second small pond? It doesn't have to be big, and in NC, it doesn't have to be deep. If you made it so it could be drained when you get monster pests, you could put in a lot of catfish, by themselves, into that pond. That would keep your bluegill/bass pond from getting really out of balance.

Ken, thanks for the input. Can you please elaborate on catfish becoming pests.
Thanks!

That's exactly what I did. My lowest pond...the ones that all the other ponds drain into...is stocked with 90% albino catfish. I am sure a few other fish have come thru the upper pond drain pipe with the recent rains, but it remains pretty much an albino catfish only pond. I have put some bluegill in there too. I don't feed them so I guess it's been a free-for-all of who survives and who doesn't.

I've had mine mostly under control for so long, I've probably forgotten many of the unpleasntries they will put you through.

Probably the biggest issue is that if you are feeding your fish, they work just like big vacuum cleaners when the pellets hit the water. They open their mouths and skim the surface taking in every pellet they can. Once they get above about the 14-16 inch range they quickly dominate the feedings, making it difficult for the bluegill (or trout, if you put them in for the winter) to get anything, including the crumbs.

At some point in the 14-18 inch range, they become pescetarians -- no, they dont get religion, they become fish eaters. Once they get much larger than that, they start to become the top line predators of the pond and they not only compete with the bass for the bluegill, but they eat your bass too!

Then there is the spring break roudiness sex parties. At some point they are going to want to reproduce. My worst problems wére the leg-fracturing caves they would excavate into the banks on the steep side of my bigger pond. If you are familiar with catfish "noodling", these guys are often sticking their hands into these types of caves to pull out the big cats.

The other problem during their mating times is the muddiness of the pond, blocking out the sunlight, which then prevent sunlight penetration, which cuts way down on the production of phytoplankton. It is the main food source for the bluegill and bass fry.

Those are probably the biggest issues that come to mind.

As I said in one of the posts above, there is a place for channel cats. In much smaller quantities, where they are harvested before they get to about 22-24 inches, they are great. They grow fast. They are fun to catch -- just don't throw any back because of quickly learned hookshyness. They are delicious and can be substituted for many other freshwater and saltwater fish in recipes.

Good luck,
Ken

Wow. Guess we should have asked here first. Guy that sold us the fish made it sound like everything would be hunky dory.
If they become a problem, maybe a castnet will be a good removal tool as they come up to gorge on the pellets.

Thanks again for your input.

When the CC are a pound or two, they should be easy to catch on hook and line. Mine will readily strike bass lures.

If legal, archery equipment can be a highly effective harvest tool when they are feeding on the surface near the feeders.

IMHO I think you will be fine. You say you have a feeder so, in the spring, I would start throwing a few handfuls of a good grain based 32 to 36% pellets until I start seeing the CC feeding, then bring the feeder on line and feed at least twice a day. CC will grow approximately 1 pound for every 2 pounds of pellets fed. By September, I would start harvesting every fish caught. I would think you will have 1 pound fish or larger.

FWIW I have CC and have had no problem so far but I do more like Catmando. I stock only around 20 in my .4 acre. This summer the fish I harvested averaged over 2 pounds. I stocked 6 to 8 inch fish this fall and I will harvest them when the reach 1 to 1.5 pounds as I think I will prefer the smaller fish for the table. As far as having trouble catching them goes, I don't fish the pond thru the summer with the same bait I use for CC harvest. My CC get pretty dependent on the pellets so I stop feeding 2 days before harvest and they are extra hungry!

Just my 2 cents and good luck!

Bill D.

Thanks again to all for your input.

Where did you get the albino channel cats? I'd love to get some in my pond.

The stockmypond.com fish truck usually has several dozen albinos on it, according to the lady who answers the phone. They make routine runs into Texas from their place in Lonoke, Arkansas from mid February until mid November. The last time they were here, I got one albino in my CC bag by accident. That one is the first one seen when feeding.

FWIW Back in my college days in the 70s at Purdue, I was working with the quail and a buddy was working with big tanks of CC. While looking at a tank full of 4 inch CC fingerlings one day, I noticed a few albinos swimming around. He explained that it's not unusual for there to be a few albinos in a spawn of CC. Typically, you don't see them in the wild as their coloring makes them easy prey.

Thx. It would be cool to have some albinos in the pond to try and catch. I'll look them up. Thx again

We had 2 albinos. One 6" and one 9". Both were dead within 24 hours. Found their corpses missing chunks - courtesy of snapping turtles.

Prob something else caused the catfishes demise, the cleanup crew got them after they died. I put in 140 6-8" channel and blue cat in my 5 ac and haven't seen them since... They didn't come to the feeder at all and they were pellet raised I would think.....

Pat -

Something got them. It wasn't water shock. All the other catfish survived the stocking. Being bright white in super clear water makes you a very easy target.

Ok, are albino catfish not as tough due to their albinism? Hadn't thought of that

I've seen an albino catfish grow to 32" long before it died of natural causes. Albino CC are probably more vulnerable to bird predation compared to regular CC. Other than that albino CC are likely as healthy as regular CC.

I put a 1,000 that size in with some adult LMB in a small pond and never seen them again. LOL

Aha problem solved

Well, it's spring time and the bass, sunnies, and one old catfish are hangin' around the feeder. But, so far I haven't seen any sign of the 100 fingerling channel cats stocked in the little pond last fall. Water temp at 55~60 degrees. Even if they're not eating the pellets, I figured I should see some in the shallows.
Cold they all have died and not come floating up? Could they all have been eaten by the bass?
What ya think?

yes, yes, or eaten by the larger CC, or the water is still too cold yet.

Only my two Albino CC came up to eat when the water was around 55 degrees. When it warmed to 60 this spring, the regular ones started eating at the surface.

One of my albinos is about 16-17 inches, the other about 8 inches. The smaller one often swims just behind and under the bigger one, like a whale and its pup.