Channel Cats

[Trav]

I think Taney would benefit from another species adaptable to cold water.

What is your opinion?

[taxidermist]

Northern pike and Musky!!! That would add some real exictment!

[Dawgsquat]

Table Rock and Bull Shoals already have channel cats. No need for them in Taneycomo.

[Phil Lilley]

I would think you'd have to find out how many are in the lake presently before you would think about stocking them.

[twosets]

I hate to think how many trout those herons eat each day. If you stocked Northerns or Muskies they would really eat up a lot of trout.

Catfish? Interesting. I would think that they would hang in the lower lake, but perhaps that would not be the case. Only if it would have no effect on the trout fishing or trout feeding habits and food sources would it be ok with me.

Has it been done in any other tailwaters across the country?

[loo10]

IF they stocked channel cats in Taneycomo.....

I would NOT be catch-and-releasing those!

Can you imagine how good those would fry up under Phil's shelter house???? ha

"Honestly, I was drifting a nightcrawler and my pole just shot outta the boat!"

heh-heh

[Trav]

Phil,

I have caught bullheads and flatheads out of Taney and have heard of a guy catching a Blue off a dock at long beach(1982). So I believe that Channels are void in Taney. But...who knows what washed in via the flood gates. All the same, I bet that if they did a count there wouldnt be enough to constitute a self sustaining population.

I believe that Channel Cats would be a great alternative for the lake. People will release more trout if they could eat some cats. And they have a history in tailwaters. And in cold water rivers, one being the Red River on the Minnasota/Dakota Border.

The only potential for harm maybe thier spawning habits. If I am correct they go on a prespawn run to feed then retreat back to bed. So in late winter there might be a bunch show up at Fall Creek before they head back to bed in the Lower.

[Trav]

This is from geocities.com

The channel catfish is quite selective in its breeding habits. It prefers obscure places to deposit the

eggs. Overhanging rock ledges, deeply undercut banks, underwater aquatic mammal runs, hollow

logs and even large tin cans, tile, and other similar objects in the stream serve admirably

for spawning purposes. Spawning activity takes place from late June through July when the water

temperature reaches 75 degrees F. Male and female channel catfish exhibit active and prolonged

courtship behavior before mating. During the actual spawning act, the male swims beside the

female but facing the opposite direction. Each fish then wraps its tail around the other's head,

whereupon the male body quivers, which stimulates the simultaneous release of eggs and milt. Eggs

are deposited in a golden colored gelatinous mass. The length of incubation depends upon the water

temperature, but it is usually completed in 6 to 10 days. Although the number of eggs deposited by a

female may run as high as 20,000 or more, catfish weighing from 1 to 4 pounds produce about 4,000

eggs per pound of body weight.

After spawning takes place, the male drives the female from the nest and takes over family duties

until the young hatch. In artificial culture and perhaps in the wild as well, females and even the

parent males will often devour the eggs from their nests, especially when disturbed.

Young catfish travel in schools for several days, or even weeks, after birth. Eventually the schools

disperse and the young feed singly in the shallow waters over sand bars, around drift piles, and in

rocky areas of quiet waters.

Female catfish reach sexual maturity at 13 to 16 inches and males somewhat earlier. Average body

length at each year of life for channel catfish in most rivers is 1 - 3.5 inches, 2 - 6.5

inches, 3 - 8.7 inches, 4 - 11.2 inches, 5 - 13.9 inches, 6 - 15.0 inches, 7 - 17.4 inches, 8 - 19.1

inches, 9 -20.4 inches and 10 - 21.3 inches.

The channel catfish is omnivorous and opportunistic in its feeding, gorging on all manner of living

and dead material. Because of its highly developed sensory system, it feeds by touch, taste and

sight. For this reason it is frequently caught by anglers in turbid waters which are unproductive for

fish that feed principally by sight. In extremely muddy waters, however, they are prone to feed

much less. It is surprising how the bite turns off when the river rises as a result of a summer rain storm.

A large part of the natural diet of the channel catfish is aquatic insects and their larvae. Crayfish,

snails, small clams, worms and fish, both live and dead, are taken as part of the diet. The catfish is

not a selective feeder and takes advantage of the food at hand. In the spring of the year its stomach

may be packed with elm seeds and cotton from cottonwood trees. Other natural foods include such items as wild grapes, weed seeds, wild fruits, and other vegetable materials dropped into the stream from overhanging branches. Large channel catfish feed almost exclusively on fish. On the Red River you can see on occasion cats busting out of the water through a shool of goldeye. Many anglers are stuck on the idea that these fish feed solely on the bottom .... not so (at least not all of the time)

Feeding Habits

First, before getting into the actual fishing techniques it might be advantageous to take a look at the

natural feeding habits of this species. Catfish, by and large, are omnivorous feeders with a well

developed sense of smell. This simply means they consume a wide variety of food items, and the

fish is most often attracted to odoriferous or "smelly" morsels of food. The single greatest

determinant of catfish food preference is body size. Smaller catfish, those less than 14 inches, feed

primarily on bottom-dwelling organisms, such as aquatic insect larvae and other invertebrates. As

catfish grow to a larger size, their diet changes and a wider variety of food items are eaten. Fish,

however, either alive or dead, make up the bulk of their forage after they reach 16 inches.

The diet of channel catfish also varies with the different seasons. Some food items are more

available at one time of the year than another, and, being an opportunistic forager, channel catfish

take what food is vulnerable to predation at that time. During late winter and early spring the most

abundant food is a wide variety of organisms, including fish, that have succumbed to the harsh

winter. These morsels, in various stages of decomposition, are consumed in large quantities by

catfish. It is not unusual to find catfish stomachs gorged with decaying fish shortly after ice-out. As

the water warms into late spring and summer the diet of catfish shifts continually to food items that

are again most available and vulnerable. The most prevalent foods at this time of the year are

aquatic and terrestrial worms, fish, frogs, crayfish, mulberries, insects and their larvae forms, elm

seeds and algae. Many other items are consumed but usually make up only a small portion of the

menu. Catfish food habits in the fall again change as the water cools. More fish is consumed along

with aquatic invertebrates and terrestrial insects. Frogs become increasingly important for food as

they move into streams before the onset of winter. Under the ice cover catfish feeding is

reduced to a low level and consists mostly of dead fish that are picked up from the bottom.

[Trav]

According to the Catfish Anglers Society.............................

Channel catfish are fish so popular, so well-studied and so varied in their day-to-day activities, they could be the subject of an entire book.

Common Names – Their nicknames are many. In some areas they are dubbed blue channel, fiddler, speckled cat, spotted cat, blue cat, blue fulton or chucklehead. In other parts of their range, eel cat, willow cat and Great Lakes cat are common tags. These other names are holdovers from a time when channel cats were separated into three different species, all with slightly different physical charac-teristics. Not until the 1940s were these “species” determined to be simply variations of the plain old channel cat.

Description – Channel cats are the pin-ups of the catfish world – much sleeker and more attractive than flatheads and blues. Most are silvery gray to coppery brown with a white belly. Breeding males are deep blue-black with thickened lips and a knobby, swollen head (above). The sides of juveniles are peppered with small black spots that fade in adulthood. They have a deeply forked tail and a prominent upper jaw that extends well beyond the lower. Channel cats are sometimes confused with blue catfish. The best way to distinguish between the two is to look at the anal fin. The anal fin of a channel cat has 24 to 29 rays and is rounded. If the fin has a straight outer edge and 30 or more rays, it’s a blue cat.

RANGE – Although once confined primarily to the Mississippi River drainage and the Great Lakes, stocking has expanded their range to include every state but Alaska. Channel cats are found from coast to coast, north into four Canadian provinces and south to central Mexico. They are the most widespread and abundant catfish in North America.

Size – Channels are mid-sized models as catfish go, averaging 1 to 5 pounds. Six- to 10-pounders are common in many waters. The 47.5-inch-long world-record from South Carolina’s Lake Moultrie weighed 58 pounds. Only two other states – Arkansas and Mississippi – have produced channel cats over 50 pounds. In most waters, a 20-pounder is a trophy.

Age & Growth – Channel cats more than 20 years old have been recorded, but most live less than 10. They grow slower than both flatheads and blues.

Growth rates have been studied throughout the fish’s range and show extreme variability from one body of water to another. A 5-year-old channel cat from the Mississippi River in Iowa, for example, runs about 16 inches long. A same-age fish from Lake Havasu, California, is slightly more than half that length – 9 inches. A 20-inch channel from Manitoba’s Red River is probably age 9, but a 9-year-old cat from the St. Lawrence River in Quebec is only 13 inches. Growth rates are determined by a number of factors, including abundance and type of forage, quality of habitat, length of the growing season and competition with other fish species.

Typical Weight (pounds) at Various Lengths (inches)

Length 12 15 18 21 24 27 30 33 36

Weight .5 1.3 2.7 3 5 5.8 8.8 11.6 15.3 20.4

Typical Length (inches) at Various Ages

Age 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

North 5.7 7.1 9.0 10.5 12.3 14.1 15.9 18.4 19.7

South 10.9 13.7 15.7 17.8 19.0 21.6 22.6 23.5 24.3

Habitat – Channel cats inhabit everything from tiny farm ponds, crystal-clear creeks and sluggish bayous to cypress-shrouded oxbow lakes, vast man-made impoundments and broad lowland rivers. They tolerate a wide variety of environmental conditions, but despite popular misconceptions, do not prefer muddy, poor-quality waters. They fare best in clean, warm, well-oxygenated water with slow to moderate current and abundant cover in the form of logs, boulders, cavities and debris. They are extremely adaptable creatures, and are one of the most stocked gamefish in farm ponds. Their preferred temperature range is between 75º and 80ºF.

Food Habits – Channel cats aren’t the least bit finicky when it comes to food. Live worms, salamanders, maggots, leeches, caterpillars, insects, frogs, fish, mussels and crayfish are among the creatures they eat. The dead and smelly are also relished – things like shrimp, fish guts, chicken liver and stinkbait. Even bizarre offerings like soap, hot dogs, dog food, corn, marshmallows, grapes, persimmons, elm seeds and bread entice them at times. Adults typically retire to deep water during daylight hours or lie about drift piles, submerged logs and other cover. At night they move into shallower water to feed. Although they can still be caught when water temperatures drop below 50ºF, channel cats are less aggressive feeders than blue cats during cold water periods.

Reproduction – Spawning begins when the water temperature is around 75ºF – May through July in mid-America. Male channels select and clean a nest site, usually a semi-dark, secluded cavity such as an undercut bank, a hole in a pile of drift logs or perhaps a muskrat or beaver burrow. The female deposits a large mound of golden yellow eggs in the bottom of the nest, then leaves. The male stays, protecting the nest cavity from predators and fanning the eggs to keep them aerated and free from sediments. The eggs hatch in about a week, and the fry remain in the nest for another 7 or 8 days. The male guards the fry until they leave the nest.

The male takes little or no food while spawning, but his protective instinct makes him vulnerable. He strikes any foreign object coming too near the nest cavity, including fishing lures, bait and human hands.

Popularity – In popularity polls, channel cats rank high. They are the most popular fish in four states, second most popular in two, and third most popular in nine. No wonder! They readily take a wide variety of baits, and when they’re in a feeding mood, it’s not unusual to catch several dozen on an outing. They are aggressive fighters and among the tastiest fish on earth. In some regions, they are the only large predator fish available to anglers. Tally up their strong points, and you’ll see why channel cats are among the most sought-after fish in the nation.

[Trav]

From what I have studied, they might run over powersite dam in search of warmer water to spawn. But those that are stocked will not hurt the current status quo.