Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Creating habitat Tires for structure - Catfish spawning

2 acre pond that was completed in August 2022. Stocked Catfish and bluegill (have only caught green sunfish, no bluegill) in September of 2022. Stocked Bass in June of 2023. Have caught 15" bass, I see Catfish (Bullheads and Channel cat) 8 inches or so feeding on the Aquamax 400 I hand feed. Removing all Bullheads I catch.

If I use Tires will that provide habitat for the Catfish to spawn. I have seen catfish fry but think they were bull heads. There is not any catfish spawning habitat unless they will spawn in pipe that is 4 inches in diameter. I could not net any to verify and pictures were not good enough to verify. At least for me.

Do you want your channel cats to spawn?

They are pretty cheap to buy. If you keep records of how many you remove, you should be able to ladder stock every year, or every other year, and keep a fairly stable population of CC so the rest of your carrying capacity can be allocated to other species.


P.S. I do agree that I think those are bullheads in your picture. By the time they are that size, you should see a significant "V" in the tail of CC.

Thanks for the response.

Nope, don't want them to spawn. I have several tires I can use to make tents for cover but don't want to use them if it will provide the habitat for them to spawn.

Channel cats are like teenage boys ... with the same potential consequences!

Some guys on the forum have reported zero reproduction in their ponds with no spawning structure. Others have reported some reproduction with no spawning structure, but apparently the CC were capable of making a hole in the bank for spawning.

I think your bullheads can spawn without true "structures". Do you know which kind of bullheads you have? I think the blacks spawn on mud bottoms, the browns spawn on sandy bottoms, and the yellows like to have some weed cover for spawning. However, I suspect each variety can probably spawn under less than perfect conditions.

One option would be to install a single tire where it is easily removed. You might get one CC pair to spawn there, and then perhaps another pair later in the season. You might then remove the tire the next season, and then you can control the amount of spawning to some degree.

If you just want some structure to "concentrate" your CC for easy fishing, then I think you have to design something WITHOUT enclosure so they do not spawn.

Hopefully, some of our experts that actively manage their CC ponds will drop into your thread.

Do you know which kind of bullheads you have?
Brown or Yellow. Pond has a sand-mud bottom, plenty of vegetation to support spawning.

The picture is one that was caught 11 months after the pond was completed. Must have washed in from upstream during high water.

Thanks

Good news is most Channel Cats won't try to reproduce until 3-years-old (sometimes 2yrs), but a few might still create a bowl shaped hole on the bottom and spawn without container (been there, done that). Plus, if you let them get that old, their diet will change and eat more bluegill. I'd start targeting them for a fish fry before it gets to that point.

Yep, any that I catch don't get put back. Me and the grandkids are baiting up with Chicken Liver this weekend to thin them out some more.

Hope you have a great time!

The BH are going to reproduce without any cavity. The CC would benefit considerably from cavity containers. My brother-in-law has excessive reproduction in a pond where a couple of tractor tires served as the cavities. This pond is a source of dink fingerlings which grow fast in his other pond with feeding and no spawning structure added. That pond also has LES and GSF which colonized naturally. The dink pond has only shiners and CC.