by Ryan Windsor

Created on: June 21, 2010

Many of our nations beautiful freshwater lakes, ponds, and rivers bombarded with countless fishing vessels and shore fishermen every day. Those on the water during the day are hoping for game fish such as Walleye, Bass, or Muskellunge. With all the traffic and competition for fishing hot spots, many dedicated fisherman are waiting for the sun to go down to hit the water. That's because after dark, when all is calm and virtually no life is detected from the surface, hungry catfish are on the prowl near the bottom looking for their next meal.

The catfish family is an extremely diverse order of mostly unscaled ray-finned fish. Known for their barbels that are located around their wide mouths that resemble a cat's whiskers, they are notorious on all corners of the globe. Many species of catfish also have spines that emerge from their dorsal fins as well as their pectoral fins. These are very sharp and act as a defense mechanism against larger fish. They are generally bottom-feeders and will eat both live and dead organisms during their hunts that they normally carry out after the sun has set and the water has cooled. All catfish favor cool, deep water in the hot daytime hours, and generally stay on the bottom because of their heavily constructed head and undersized Fisherman in North America typically will target only one or two types of these scavengers either to eat or to CPR (Catch, Photograph, Release).

Bullhead Catfish and Channel Catfish are generally the most desirable and thus pursued. However, with a greater average size, and strength in numbers, the Channel Catfish is a beloved friend of the night time angler. Bullheads will average only one to two pounds while Channels are normally three to five pounds. Seemingly not a big size difference until you consult the world record weights.. Then you will find that the world record Black Bullhead (The largest of the Bullheads) caught weighed only 8 pounds. A very modest size when you consider that the world record Channel weighed 58 pounds. This goes to show the chief reason why Channel Cat fishing has became more and more popular.

With not much difference in taste, nutritional value, habitat, or angling technique, most anglers given the choice would fish a known pond for Channels rather than one known for their smaller counterpart. Every fisherman knows that bigger is always better and wants nothing more than to catch a monster on every cast. You are far more likely to catch a monster Channel that to catch a monster Bullhead.

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