CTFishTalk.com: Bullhead or Channel cat? - Connecticut Bass Fishing Reports ( CT Bass Fishing Reports ) - A Community Built for Connecticut Fisherman.

countryboyfisher94 · Joined: 15 Jul 2012 Posts: 12

I just recently started fishing for catfish and I'm having a really hard time determining the fish as bullhead or channel cat. The colors seem to match bullhead yet the tale isn't perfectly round but neither is it deeply forked. Hoping you guys can enlighten me on this. Here is 2 pictures of catfish I have caught. I'm pretty positive they are bullheads but I have been told otherwise. If the second one is a bullhead its a state record and I'm going to report it and if not I'm going to feel like a fool.[img]

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rmflint · Joined: 16 Mar 2012 Posts: 360 Location: Wallingford

This is quite and oddity. I'm not catfish specialist myself, but I would have to say the first one looks like a bullhead and the second one looks like a dark channel. Maybe something in the water has made it darker like a bullhead. Or perhaps they have interbred somehow creating a hybrid haha
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SeaDog1 · Joined: 21 Dec 2009 Posts: 2629

Hi,

I do belive the top pic shows a Bullhead -> Yellow belly and dark chin barbels.
2nd pic is I belive a White catfish -> Whitish chin barbels with moderate V tail .. but it also could be a Channel catfish.

SeaDog1 Mr. Green

PECo · Joined: 06 Oct 2009 Posts: 5203 Location: Avon, CT

They both look like brown bullheads to me, but I'm not a catfisherman, either.
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SAP284 · Joined: 07 Jun 2011 Posts: 655 Location: Central, CT

Well it's def not a bass Very Happy

(you posted this in bass fishing reports). I think the second looks like a channel cat to me but I could be wrong. I get those and white catfish mixed up sometimes. I really doubt it's a bullhead.

The first picture does look like a bulkhead to me though.
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Michael · Joined: 28 Jan 2012 Posts: 3823 Location: Bridgeport

pikePERSUADER1 · Joined: 07 Dec 2010 Posts: 521

Heres a pic of a channel cat

pikePERSUADER1 · Joined: 07 Dec 2010 Posts: 521

First ones a bullhead, second I dont think was a channel cat -Dan

jomonkey527 · Joined: 22 Oct 2010 Posts: 225

I was going to say I don't think either is a channel. Channel cats are the only ones with forked tails from what I have read. I don't fish for catfish.

countryboyfisher94 · Joined: 15 Jul 2012 Posts: 12

I am pretty positive now that first one is bullhead and second one is a white catfish.

NorthEastFisherman · Joined: 27 May 2012 Posts: 582

If you still have the second fish, take a picture with its fins all the way out. Its easier to determine that way. But yeah the first is definiataly a bullhead but the second looks more like a white cat.
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