The catfish species that matter most to anglers are three: the channel catfish, the most fished catfish in the United States and the state fish of Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska and Tennessee; the blue catfish, the largest, now invasive across the Chesapeake; and the flathead, the one that eats only live fish. Behind them come the three bullheads, the white catfish of the Atlantic slope, and the hardhead and gafftopsail catfish that pier anglers meet in salt water. Below: the identification rule, the spawning numbers, the bait consensus and the records; each species has its own page.
Channel catfish spawn at about 75 °F, warmer than any bass, which is why the best catfishing of the year starts when the bass fishing slows down.
Start here
- Fish species — how the species pages are built.
- Bass — the other freshwater pillar; the two share most of the gear advice.
- Fishing hooks — circle hooks, which catfish anglers use more than anyone.
- Fishing rods — why a catfish rod wants a soft tip on a strong butt.
Telling them apart
Every state agency uses the same field mark, the anal fin, because colour lies: a large channel catfish loses its spots and a small blue catfish is not blue.
| Channel | Blue | Flathead | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anal fin rays | 24–29 | 30–35 (“always 30 or more”) | 14–17 |
| Anal fin shape | Rounded, curved along the bottom | Straight-edged, squarish | Short and rounded |
| Tail | Deeply forked | Deeply forked | Squared off with a slight notch |
| Jaw | Upper jaw longer | Upper jaw slightly longer | Lower jaw projects beyond the upper |
| Colour | Olive to slate blue, scattered dark spots on young fish | Pale bluish silver, no spots, wedge-shaped back | Pale yellow to brown, heavily mottled |
| Common size | 12–32 in (30–81 cm), 1–15 lb (0.5–6.8 kg) | 20–44 in (51–112 cm), 3–40 lb (1.4–18.1 kg) | 15–45 in (38–114 cm), 1–45 lb (0.5–20.4 kg), to about 100 lb (45.4 kg) |
Bullheads are separated by the chin barbels (white on the yellow bullhead, dark on black and brown) and by the sawlike teeth on the brown bullhead’s pectoral spine. The two saltwater cats are told apart by the gafftopsail’s long fin filaments; both carry a mildly toxic slime on three sharp spines.
Spawning and the seasons
Channel catfish spawn in late spring and early summer once the water reaches about 75 °F, with an optimum near 80 °F in the aquaculture literature; eggs hatch in about a week and the fry stay in the nest another week. Blue catfish spawn at 70–75 °F, late May into June, females producing 2,000 to 4,000 eggs per pound. Flatheads spawn from late May through August at 75–80 °F, up to 100,000 eggs. All three nest in cavities, undercut banks, hollow logs and drift piles, and the male guards the nest without feeding, which is why spawning males rarely take a bait and why noodlers can catch them by hand.
Feeding is a function of temperature. Channel catfish stop feeding below about 50 °F and grow best at 75–85 °F. The guides’ calendar follows: blues are the winter and early-spring fish, with the trophies caught from December to March on cut bait in 20–45 ft of water; channels bite all year and best in summer; flatheads feed hardest in September and October before going dormant.
What each one eats, and the bait that follows
Diet studies say what the bait shops sell. Channel catfish are omnivores that eat fish, insects, crayfish, mussels and plant matter, which is why prepared scent baits, chicken liver and cut bait all work. Blue catfish eat mostly fish once past about 8–13 in, so fresh cut shad and skipjack herring are the consensus, and fresh beats frozen. Flatheads over 10 in eat fish and nothing else, and want it alive: bluegill, sunfish, goldfish or bullheads. Circle hooks from 5/0 to 8/0 for blues, smaller for channels and up to 10/0 with big live baits for flatheads, on slip-sinker or Santee Cooper rigs, are the standard tackle.
Records and the invasion story
The all-tackle blue catfish record is 143 lb, taken by Richard Anderson at Kerr Lake, Virginia, on 18 June 2011 on a piece of chicken. Ken Paulie’s 123 lb flathead from Elk City Reservoir, Kansas, in May 1998 was later aged at 22 years or more. W. B. Whaley’s 58 lb channel catfish from Santee-Cooper, South Carolina, in July 1964 has stood for six decades and was caught on a bucktail jig. Blue catfish were stocked in Virginia’s tidal rivers in 1974 and 1985 for sport; by 2023 they were in every Virginia tributary of the Chesapeake, make up as much as three quarters of the fish biomass in parts of the James, Rappahannock and York, and are harvested commercially by the millions of pounds. The blue catfish page covers what that means for anglers.
Where to go next
The pages under this hub cover each species, the best catfish bait by species, catfish rigs, how to hold a catfish without getting spined, noodling and the world-record catfish. For the tackle, the reels page and the line page explain the heavy spinning and casting setups catfish anglers use.