Dispelling some myths and clearing up some misconceptions about catfish
By MATT WILLIAMS
Special to The Eagle
My good friend Tommy Bartholomew of Mesquite has earned a distinctive title among some of his bass-fishing peers. They sometimes call him Mr. Catfish.
It is not that "Tommy B." prefers catching catfish more than bass. The nickname stems from his uncanny ability to catch heavyweight whiskered fish when he his trying to catch bass. Twice in the last few years Tommy B. has showed up at club tournament weigh-ins with stories about fat cats.
Last July at Lake Ray Hubbard near Dallas, Garland's Gar-Tex Bass Club was hosting a night tournament on the 22,000-acre reservoir. Tommy B. and his partner, Richard Cole, had set up camp on a sweet spot near the Dalrock boat ramp where they had caught some keeper largemouths before.
Tommy B. cast a Texas-rigged blue-fleck Berkley Power Worm to the rip raft when he felt the distinctive thump of a bite. He reeled up the slack and set the hook. To hear him tell it, the recoil was brutal. It was almost as if he had tied onto one of the 18-wheelers racing up and down nearby Interstate 30.
"I knew right away that it wasn't a bass," he recalled. "That fish just took off ripping drag, then it started pulling my boat around. At first I thought it might be a big striper."
Tommy B. solved the mystery roughly 10 minutes later when the piscatorial giant finally surrendered. Much to his surprise, the fish had long whiskers, a broad head and olive-colored skin spattered with dark dapples. The flathead catfish weighed a whopping 45 pounds!
My friend's catfishing prowess surfaced again in fall of 2009 when he and Kerry Karlix of McKinney entered a team bass tournament at Lake Texoma near Denison. The anglers were casting topwaters over a shallow flat where the bass had been schooling. Tommy B. was watching his Zara Spook waddle side-to-side when it suddenly disappeared in a violent explosion of white water.
"I thought I had a big smallmouth for sure," Tommy B. says. "Then I saw those thick silver sides, a big head and long whiskers up next to the boat. I couldn't believe it -- a 12-pound channel cat on a Zara Spook. What the hell was that fish thinking?"
I'll tell you what. The catfish was doing exactly what it was genetically programmed to do: being a predator.
It might surprise you how many people believe the catfish is strictly a bottom feeder, a bona fide scavenger that earns 100 percent of its living scrounging around with its nose in the mud.
True, channel and blue catfish will eat just about anything except the kitchen sink. Worms, mollusks and other bottom dwellers are never safe when catfish are around and the dinner bell rings.
But they also like some fresh meat on the menu, and they don't mind exerting a little energy to chase down their meals. That explains why bass anglers sometimes catch catfish on spinnerbaits, topwaters, crankbaits and other artificial lures intended to simulate shad, baby bass, crawfish and other natural forage.
But what about those flatheads (sometimes referred to has "op")? Their diet consists only of live fish, right?
Most anglers think so, but it is not necessarily true. Tommy B. dismantled the theory with the Ray Hubbard giant that gobbled up his plastic worm. Others have caught flatheads on artificial and prepared baits as well.
I once interviewed a couple of elderly gents who wrestled a 96-pound flathead into their pontoon boat after one of them hooked it on a 1/2-ounce jigging spoon. Interestingly, the men were fishing for white bass on Toledo Bend when the giant cat came calling.
Charlie Shively of Strong has seen his share of heavyweight flatheads brought to the scales over the years. Shively and his wife, Rhonda, own Bill's Landing located at Toledo Bend's upper end. The lakeside fishing camp caters heavily to catfishermen, trotliners mostly.
Shively said the majority of the big flatheads brought to his camp are caught on live perch. Surprisingly, however, he also sees quite a few "op" caught on cut bait.
"A lot of people think you have to use live bait to catch 'op.' I used to believe it myself," Shively said. "But that is not always true. The stump hookers wore them out last fall and winter using bream and shad heads for bait. I think they see those eyes on the head, and it is more than they can resist. They have to eat it."
Americans appear to have a similar affinity for catfish filets fried golden brown in hot grease. In fact, when it comes to tablefare, catfish find their way onto more dinner plates in this country than any other freshwater sport fish.
Catfish have quite a following in the Lone Star State. Good as they are to eat, however, food is hardly the only reason we chase them. Catfish pose a unique angling challenge that continues to lure new followers to the sport every year.
Popular as it is, the catfish also may be one of the most misunderstood fish swimming around down there. In the following segments, I will attempt to unravel some of the mysteries and dispel a few more common myths and misconceptions associated with whiskered kitties
* Myth: Catfish can grow as large as a Volkswagon.
* Truth: Catfish grow large, indeed. But do they grow large as a Volkswagon bus, or big enough to swallow man whole?
Certainly not. Not in this neck of the woods, anyway.
Still, the popular urban legend continues to live just about anywhere there is a major reservoir to feed it. The tale typically involves scuba divers who spot giant catfish while performing routine inspections around flood gates and dam walls.
Entertaining as the yarns are to hear, they hold no water. Catfish weighing 1,000 pounds do not exist.
There are a number of different catfish species native to North America. Blue cats and flathead cats both have been documented at weights beyond 100 pounds.
The world record blue cat stands at 143 pounds, 13 ounces. The record flathead is 123-9. Big fish, but hardly large as a car. The only cats that come remotely close are the wels and Mekong.
Native to European waters, the wels has been known to exceed 400 pounds. The Mekong of Southeast Asia has been documented at weights up to 646 pounds in Thailand in 1998.
* Myth: Catfish spend most of their time in deep water and feed mostly at night.
* Truth: Catfish roam in all areas of the water column. Some of the best catfishermen I know will rarely target water deeper than 4-5 feet, regardless of the season. It is not uncommon to catch blue cat weighing upwards of 40 pounds in shallow water.
* Myth: Catfish pay no attention to colors.
* Truth: Catfish pro Larry Spillers has proved this myth wrong many times. He does most of his fishing using a Carolina-rig in combination with punch bait or shad. Spillers likes to place a tiny Comal cork about 2-3 inches ahead of the hook to float the bait off the bottom. The corks come in assorted colors.
"The color of the cork can make a big difference in the number of bites you'll get from one day to the next," Spillers said. "I've seen days when a line with a pink cork would out-fish one with a chartreuse cork 10 to 1 and vice versa."
* Myth: Catfish are slow and lazy.
* Truth: Catfish are not known for their aerial leaps after the hookset like largemouth bass, but they are much more agile than they look. This holds especially true of the blue cat. Once hooked, the blue is prone to turn, twist and roll violently as it tries to tear free. Catfish also are strong swimmers capable of making quick bursts and homing in on prey with pinpoint precision.
* Myth: Regular stockings are required to maintain a good catfish population.
* Truth: Once a catfish population is established in a reservoir, the fish are amazingly self-sufficient if the habitat and forage are suitable. The fish are prone to spawn in places where they can get away from the outside world -- inside logs, beneath tree roots and in rock crevices or washouts. Perhaps this is part of the reason why lakes filled with timber, stumps and brush tend to sustain excellent catfish populations.
Most fisheries scientists will agree that the larger females are more prolific spawners than smaller ones. Blue cats and flatheads in the 25-40 pound range and channel cat in the 3-5 pound range typically produce the most offspring in the wild.
Matt Williams email address is mattwilliams@netdot.com.
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