Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Eating my babies

I have raised my catfish for two years. They are getting quite large in the 3 to 4 lbs. range. I know this sounds stupid, but I can't bring myself to catch them and eat them. Will this affect the balance of the fish or should I take the first step to thin them out?

lol, i got the same problem. i got couple friends will come over and thin some out and just hand me some cleaned fish .

That's the problem guys, hand feeding your fish pellets turns them into pets. It almost feels like you're eating your dog or cat. It gets tough killing someting you worked hard to grow and nurture especially the biggest ones.

So true. I have been hand feeding my fish religious everyday for a year and last week the wife decided its time to eat our first one. I caught it but could not bring myself to kill it so my wife did the deed.

Not sure you should have told us that Haus.
Nobody answered his question. Yes, it will cause a problem if you don't remove some. Half of what you feed them turns to poop and if you feed them enough to continue growing, they will turn your water to a sewer and eventualy kill your fish.
You could always slow down on their feed until they are almost skinny and keep them that way for years. I know an old lady that did just that.

I had the same problem. Couldn't bring myself to keep any fish . Always through them back. Now my catfish have all but disappeared. The bass are hard to catch. I would have been better off to have paid heed to the advisors and thinned properly.

Did anyone ever see (on TV) a segment about a older lady who had a pond and fed her fish with a spoon?. Each day should used to wade into her pond with a boll of cooked rice, and she'd use a spoon to feed a few huge carp that were in the pond. They'd come right up to her spoon which she held just under the surface, and they'd eat off the spoon.

This was 10 years ago or so. I think it was on "That's Incredible." Having said that, more like 20 years ago.

Man that would be a very tough choice to make...How big is your pond anyway? Remember cats don't reproduce in ponds so they would not over populate....maybe take out a few of the smaller ones. Also you could turn them loose in a public river or lake..

I would think that you could get yourself in a heap 'o trouble releasing fish into public waters. I would check with the authorities b/4 doing so. They don't seem to be too concerned about zillions of gallons of polutants from factorys but put a fish, frog or crawdad where it don't belong and they'll come down on ya hard.
I would check carefully b/4 doing this.
Dan

Can't see how this could really be that big a deal they are all living creatures??... Its not like an illeagle species or anything....just leting a few trophy channels back into the wild...see it on TV all the time. Can't see why there would be a fuss over this..

Because it's illegal and you typically need a stocking permit before planting fish into public waters regardless of the species and whether it is native or not. Lots of problems have resulted in unauthorized plantings; including introducing viruses, bacterial diseases, parasites etc. You can also introduce unwanted plant fragments that can spread and cause widespred problems. A definite NO NO!

I say eat the fish. If you've named them eat them anyway. Restock and name new ones with the suffix Jr. Sure beats eating them out of polluted rivers.

Sound ridculous to me...Dams break, ponds over fill and flood, and stand pipes get over filled and lakes and ponds get drained all the time you have streams, srpings, creaks and rivers carying water shed from who knows where all over the place. Believe me, fish from ponds and lakes get dumped into rivers and stream all the time....all the time! If these fish had bacteria,or virus or any other problem I garentee you it (the sickness) has hit the open public water system Loooooooong....before the fish from the pond gets there..

If this were such a tramatic emergency that could cause that much problems then the terrorist have all ready won....heck this is easy to do and get away with who could ever find out or even care??? Think the bigger issue to public waters is the REAL polutants, poisons, pesticieds, and toxic wastes!!!! Or some sort of other Bio or Chemical hazard to the enviroment. I would very much welcome some fish from another pond, as appossed to these other just mentioned.

I tell the truth I will be VERY VERY upset if someone get caught dumping some silly fish in a river some where, and someone else dumps some sort of strange and forgin toxic waste in the river and not get caught!!!!

doddbldr2,you are write on the money.gentlemen,grow up.fish are not pets.they are there to have fun catching them and guess what you eat them.i don't think i need my wife to tell me when to take fish out are to clean them.

HAUS, HAUS???? HAS ANYONE SEEN HAUS??

(see haus's first post on this subject)

also, does anyone have any thoughts as to when the channel cats taste the best for eating? 1, 2,3 , 4 etc... pounds. ? thanks

I need to change my password, some in my office posted the above. Check my post under "problem" hell I need to thin out a couple 100 cats and have a feed, most are around 2-3 lbs and I have never tasted better fish in all my life. My fish do have a name, I named them DINNER

Haus,now you are talking.this is must better.the guys in my office were laughing at this site.they thought there were alot of women on this site,not men.start EATING all the cats you want.hit them in the head with a hammer and clean up.

Why are people this way on channels not on Bass??? I mean really , think about it...We do all this management to rais these so called "Trophey Bass" and when we catch an 8 to 12 lb lunker, way say, WOW! what a catch take a picture and then let him go!!! Then we go around bragging to all our frinds on what a Great pond or lake we have, and how we caught some 10 to 12 lbs lunkers the other day. We spend thousands of dollars on these ponds to make conditions right to grow these fish this size. But let a good friend or realitive of ours, come over to our "trophy well managed bass lake" and catch three or four 10 or 12 lb bass and then call them "Dinner".....boy we would be sick!!...........would know what to do with our selfs!!! "Man you should have thrown him back", we would have said.
Now what do you called these fish huh? Sounds like very EXPENSIVE pets to me!!!!!

:rolleyes: Boy I tell you the truth, some of you guys talk out of both sides of your mouth, its amazing....

Big pond, the difference is that you feed the channels all they want to eat, they grow fast and outgrow their environment. I plan to let some of my blues die of old age. Come to think of it, a few channels too. The others I am going to eat.

But a tasty 6 to 8 lb LMB could be just as good...why not eat one of them as well?? I am sure they can grow larg enough to where they "out grow" there enviroment as well...Channels, Flatheads, and Blues live a very long time if the lake enviroment is healthy....

I can't eat my catfish either. its hard but if the pond starts suffering i would let another person do the deed of catching them out. i dont know why we cant filet up a few bass. They are good eating also.

Zach your my main man!!! so true so true, funny how somethings can be so slanted! To most people LMB are "pets" but Oh no!!! better not mention anything about want to save and grow channels you get all kind of junk. From people laughing at you, to people saying that your lake is out of balance and you need to take most of them out...

big_pond, you are right. A big catfish is as wonderful as is a big LMB. So is a big bluegill or redear sunfish or any other fish for that matter.

There really isn't anything "wild" about any of these fish. They are all a crop that we manage to achieve a certain goal. If a person's goal is to raise large LMB, then they must harvest and eat a number of smaller bass. If you wish to raise large catfish, you probably have to do the same thing.

I personally enjoy just having a lake with a large variety of fish in it. The population is balanced and we don't eat any fish. Certainly a lake doesn't have to have fish removed to keep it balanced. Fish populations were balanced long before Europeans came to this contry.

Big Pond, is this correct that cats will not reproduce in ponds? I have always heard they would reproduce so I would appreciate knowing if I am incorrect. Thanks

Deaner, cats will reproduce if they have some kind of hollow cover. A big flat rock sitting upright may suffice sometimes but the more hollow the better. If you have bass or another predator very few will survive but if you have no predators thousands will survive froma single spawn. I had to pull stunted channels out of my half acre pond for two years. Now they have grown to eating size but I still have hundreds.