Freshwater Catfish

One of the tastiest, fun to catch, and easy to find fish in Mississippi's rivers lakes and ponds are catfish. Spread across over 50,000 miles of waterways, odds are there is a mess of them waiting for you-- if you know what you are doing.

Who are they?

Mississippi supports at least three species of freshwater catfish. These bottom dwellers: the blue, channel, and flathead, are all in the Ictalurus family of smooth skinned fish with taste buds distributed all along their body. Known for their small, widely set apart eyes and telltale whisker-like feelers help them to bump along the muddy bottoms of gum ponds, streams, and bayous with all the skill of a Great White shark on a reef. With some studies suggesting that a catfish can smell an amino acid in concentrations as small as one part in a million, these oddball looking fish are optimized for Mississippi.

Current state all-tackle records for these fish run on the large side. Blue Catfish, the largest of these animals can grow to legendary sizes. The 95-pound beast caught by Dakota Hinson on the Mighty Miss near Natchez in 2009 verifies this.

Channel Cats, the most common of the whisker fish, have been caught up to 51 lbs 12 oz. (by Tom Edwards on Lake Tom Bailey in 1997) while the flathead has been taken up to a lucky 77.7 lbs along the Mississippi River at Tunica by Matt Bingham in 2012.

Tips and tricks

All catfish are predators of opportunity, running after any species of fish, living or dead, large or small, moving or not. They will hit on cut baits, shiners, stink baits, heck even bread balls have had good luck on freshwater catfish in the state. Think of the nature of these fish and work the bottom with weight/cork combination and night crawlers or worm baits. Channel cats are famous for hitting on frogs and frog lures as well as crickets and even ivory soap. One buddy of mine baits up large nuggets of Old Roy and has had plenty of fish fries to vouch for it working. Speaking of dog food, an old trick has long been to chum for catfish using cans of dog or cat food. This tactic, drawn from offshore anglers to bring in gamefish, has been repurposed to vector in curious tabbies to your location. Another method is using soured wheat or soybean.

When looking for a good catfish spot, think action. In a pond full of flat, calm water, look to the structure of tree stumps and submerged logs. Rock structure like rap and bulkheads along the banks and dams are great during early summer, as spawning cats will gravitate to those areas. Run off entryways, rich in oxygen are another good place. In short, the more diverse the place is, the more likely a cat will hang out there. 

Blues will like deeper stretched of water, especially in areas with brisk currents or flow. These bad boys get so big that they some lake anglers that run after them will use offshore tackle including Penn baitcast reels and 80-pound mono strung with circle hooks to ensure that they can land them.

Regs

The MDWFP considers all native freshwater catfish (channel, blue, flathead), to be non-game gross fish. As such, limits on these animals are few.

You can't bowfish for tabbies. Catfish may be taken with spear or gig from July 16 to April 30. Other than that, its hook and line only, kids. Of course that hook and line can include poles, trotlines (up to 100 hooks), throwlines, limblines, set hooks, jugs and yo-yos (except in state lakes), and snag lines. Of course local management areas often put their own restrictions in place so be sure to get in touch with those before you hit the water.

As far as creel limits, size is not usually an issue in these non-game species but check your local lake and pond regs as state-owned lakes have a 5-10 fish limit on channel cats. Only one catfish over 34" may be harvested in border waters with Alabama and Tennessee, but you can have all those under that size that you can carry. It's best to put those cats over 20-pounds back anyway, unless you have a potential record.

Afterall, the big boy you throw back today, could be your trophy fish five years from now.