Catfish (blue, channel)

Channel, blue and flathead

Channel and blue catfish both have deeply forked tails. The channel cat usually has scattered dark spots (they fade on big adults) and 24 to 29 rays in a rounded anal fin; the blue has no spots, a straight-edged anal fin with 30 to 35 rays and a wedge-shaped head. The flathead has a broad flat head, a lower jaw that juts past the upper, a squared tail and mottled yellow-brown skin. Missouri gives channel cats a usual weight of 1 to 15 pounds, with fish near 45 pounds uncommon; Texas Parks and Wildlife says blues commonly reach 20 to 40 pounds and can pass 100, with a Texas rod-and-reel record of 121.5 pounds. Flatheads reach 3 to 4 feet and can top 100 pounds. South Carolina DNR lists its 58-pound channel catfish from 1964 as the current world record.

Habits and spawning

Channel catfish feed at night in the shallows of pools and on riffles, finding food by taste and smell, and eat almost anything: insects, crayfish, mollusks, fish and plants. Blues are big-river fish that move upstream in summer and downstream in winter (TPWD), and they turn to fish early in life. Flatheads are solitary, keep a favorite hole under a log or drift pile, and move into the shallows at night to hunt; Missouri and South Carolina both note they rarely take dead or decaying bait. All three spawn in dark cavities such as hollow logs and undercut banks in late spring and summer, at about 75°F for channels (TPWD, MDC), 70 to 75°F for blues (SCDNR) and 75 to 80°F for flatheads (TPWD). Both are introduced in South Carolina, where blues were first stocked into Lake Marion in 1964 and SCDNR says the spreading flatheads have hurt native redbreast sunfish and bullheads.

The mistakes that cost fish

Using the wrong bait for the species: flatheads want live or freshly killed fish, while Iowa DNR's channel cat advice favors strongly scented cut bait or prepared baits, especially below 60°F in early spring when catfish feed on fish that died over winter. Too much weight: Iowa recommends the lightest slip sinker that holds, so a channel cat can pick up the bait without feeling resistance. And jerking a circle hook: let the rod load and lift steadily instead.

Tackle setups

Playbook by water temperature

Month by month

Best waters for catfish (blue, channel)

356 waters we report on where this species is one of the main fish, each with a daily report.

Common questions