Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Killer Catfish ?

I have a 4 acer lake (pond to you) There is a catfish in there that is bigger than my leg! I would say 50 lbs. Now I know normally, catfish wont eat healthy bass but could fish that size eat healthy bass?

FYI...I shot him in the head 3 years ago at point blank range with a .22 as he "slept" but he swam off and nerver surfaced....now tonight as I was bass fishing I hooked him (I guess... I never saw him) he drug my little boat around the lake as I was back trolling to keep him from wrapping me around a tree root, "it" broke the line anyway...

now what...anything? or dont worry...

CT

Big cats do eat Bass!! Don't be fooled especially if they are Bluecats or Flatheads....Might want to jug for him... take several live bream and put them on different hooks and lines and set them out overnight....you might have to do this over a period of time.......
Hope this helps..........

CT,
How long have you had that pond? Are you sure you only have one of those big cats?

The pond has been around for a while (50 years)

With a pond that old odds are you might have several more of them. I have a lake(can't seen all of the edges from one spot) exact same size but 20 years older and I heard two guys who live on the lake say people catch some pretty big catfish jugging. I haven't seen one swimming around or seen anybody catch one.

The bottom line is .... should I get ride of these dinosaurs to make a healthy bass lake?

I don't know if you want to take a fish like that out. That fish is a one in million fish to have made it to that size. also it won't wont wipe out a bass population in that size of a lake. It will proubly help control the numbers of bass so it won't have an overpopulation.

Now I have 2 points of view but no consensus...

Zach,
Most people do not have an appretiation for large preditors like you and I. This is the very reason why I spent THOUSANDS of dollars to build my lake, to stock Blues and probebly Hybrid Stripped Bass.

CT, like I have heard Bob Lusk say, "If it's OK with you then it's OK with me". Large cats eat bass, this is a fact. It is sort of a twist of fate, when the cats were young, they are eaten by the bass, but when they get older and stronger, they will turn around and come after the bass. There was a post on this sight, a while back where a guy caught some blue cats in a community pond, and found a bunch of Large mouth bass inside. So yes, they will certainly eat your bass.

But, I said that, to say this. If you are bass heavy you might not mind the thinning they provide, they will only eat what they can put in there mouths...real big trophy bass might be some what difficult for a large cat to eat...

Flatheads and Blues are very very predatious they can put a dent in bass populations. Channels do eat bass as well but not as bad as the other two..

Maybe some of the experts want to chime in.....

CT,
I doubt you'll get a consensus!

One thing for sure, Im a bass guy who would be thrilled to have a monster cat like that in my pond!

It sounds like you've had some fun hooking up with him. You can always buy some more bass and grow them to trophy size in a few years. But you might not ever be able to grow a cat that big in your pond again.

Brad B.

CT,

I know I would not mind him in my pond, and remember if you really think he is the only one in there he cant eat them all. Especally in a lake that size. Anyway thats my two cents.

He is so old he skin has a marble pink to it...he is quite ugly. The 2 times I have seen him he was "sleeping" under the submerged branches of a ceder tree. His eyes were rolled back in his head so I thought he was dead. I stuck my rod tip in his mouth and it was like a grenade went off in the water!! Same deal a year later only this time I went back to the house and got my .22 (my kids wont swim in the pond anymore) anyway I know I hit him but he never surfaced....(insert theme to JAWS here....)

CT,
Man you have something I would like to have shoooot....

Just this evening, while I was hand-feeding the BG I saw a 16 inch cat in my pond. While that may not seem like much, my pond is only 3/4 acres in size and about 10' in the deep end. I was told when I bought this place that there were LMB, Crappie and BG in there. NOW I find Cats! While I like to eat Cats I like to catch BASS. I put out a couple of poles with nightcrawlers on and got robbed by the BG. Will a cat under 24" be likely to go for a bg on a jug? I am thinking that a 2 - 3 inch bg can be swallowed by a cat the size I saw. Not sure what species of cat it was but it sure wasn't a LMB or a grass carp.

Randy,
I would try something les appetising to my bass.
Try chicken livers. A trick to keeping them on the hook is to cut off a piece of womens hose & tie around them. This can be done either before or after the liver is on the hook. We used to prepare several livers in advance (anticipation!) of going fishing.

I tell you If the cat is big and mature they are less likely to bite livers...this is from my experiance. If it is a blue or flathead you might be wasting your time...for ethier of these two you are most likely going to need something live!
When cats are small they will eat up chicken livers I have found this to be especially true with young channels, but not as much with the bigger ones.
Blues I had never bit on livers or worms.

This is always one of my favorite topics...any more??

If it is a flathead of any size it is guaranteed to ignore anything that isn't swimming. For a big blue it isn't required to be live. Large cut-bait can be very productive also, particularly oily baitfish like shad, herring, ciscoes, ect. If using cut-bait try to use the freshest baitfish available and re-bait often, the natural oils and body fluids are what is most appealing to the big cats.
-Scott

I thought we were talking about 16" catfish.
Maybe I'm all wet but never had a problem catching catfish 24" & smaller with liver.
Randy, you could also try some cut bait as jbrockery says.
My point was that I would just try to stay away from anything that might catch a big bass on an unattended line.

Ric,,

Understood, I will be getting Livers on the way home tonight. It was a Cat and looked to be 24 inches long so I figure it was 16 or 18 inches long.

One time had a 1/2 acre pond that I stocked with about 40 blues in it...the pond already had Bream and a few bass...6 months after I stocked it I tryed fishing for them with Livers and Worms on a consistant basis and never caught anything........

several other people have said the same thing on this site as well....

try livers you never know you might just have a hungery channel.

If you have frogs around your pond try them. In one of my ponds it is the only thing the catfish will hit.

Anyway for the big catfish this post was first about. It is up to you if you want it or not. If it is only one fish it will not disamate your fish population. If you want your family to swim again put out some jugs. Rig them it with a jug such as a gallon oil jug to a piece of 400# nylon to a 1/0 swivel. then put a smaller # nylon string with a 8/0 lazer sharp eagle claw and for bait put on a large bluegill or gold fish.

A favorite catfish bait around here is sand toads (about golfball size). When I first moved here a couple of years ago, my father in law asked me if I wanted to go "Toad Pickin'". I thought sure he was joking. But sure enough, the first summer rain found us on an old country road, picking up a bucketful of sand toads for our bank poles. Funny how a little toad dipped in the river on a full moon can turn into a 30 flathead overnight!

As for shooting the "Killer Catfish," a .22 might have a hard time getting through to his brain, which is small anyway. If the fish is under any more than six inches or so of water, a whole lot of energy will be lost by the bullet. Also, hollowpoint bullets may even shatter on water impact.

Dude you never know what will eat what. One time I caught a largemouth with a chicken liver on a trot line, it was crazy.
-Scott

You may want to talk to your local game warden. Some states want fish that size for their breeding program, he may know someone who would want it, or he may help you transport it to a local lake. It seems like a waste just to kill it.