I don't do much cat fishing at all. I caught these out of a newly dug stock tank on my place. Mud cat right? Is this also what some people call yellow cat?

n westx we call'm TURDIES...

Lol. We call them turd rustlers

That's a mud cat. Yellow cats is another name for flat head.

Mud cat

It is a yellow bullhead though. That's where the confusion starts.

a polly, a MudCat, MC, Bull head (in this case, it looks to be a Yellow BullHead, not a Brown or Black one) etc, etc.


every now & then a YellowCat will be referred to as a Mudcat (I will explain that one one day), but mostly as an Op or Opelousas (if it is spotted), Flat Head, Shovel Head (sme look like a square point shovel turned with the back side facing up)

That is bad news for your pond. They multiply like crazy. If you have not stocked it I would poison it and start over if you want to make it a good fishing hole. If you don't care about having them they are fun to catch on light tackle. And if done right are good table fare if caught when the water is cold. They just take lots of soaking to get the mud teaste out.

So what's the deal with the fork tail in the third pic?

The more I look at the pics the more it looks like a juvenile channel cat with yellow/olive colorations.

I think there all channel catfish

Yellow Bullhead

Where I come from they are bait.

No way that thing is a channel

110% mudcat

+1

First one IV ever saw with a notched tail and a short anal fin. IV caught 1000s of channels with that yellow olive tint. I'm still not convinced it's a bullhead

They are channel catfish because the tail is forked

Put them on a hook in a big lake and catch flatheads...these dudes will live a long time on a hook. Best big-cat bait for a trot-line that there is.

Yellow bullheads have a rounded caudal fin gentleman, not forked..unless that little guy has an injured tail fin then it's most likely a channel cat. Channels and blues are the only cats around here that have a forked tail. The adipose fin has a slight hump which also makes me lean towards channel cat. Bullheads usually don't have the hump by the adipose fin. Just my 2 cents which ain't worth much.

If you look real close to the tail, you can see it is split, not grown that way. I've seen this a lot of times in mud cats, it's when the spawn, the tail will tear sometimes.

I have caught young channels that are that coloration in muddy waters. But, they have the channel cat spots. One true way to see if it's a mud cat, stick your finger in it's mouth. That sucker will clamp down on you.

Dang Lynn, it's been a while sense I've heard the yellow cat called the mud cat. You ought to tell the story.

If used for bait, we cut the cut the top fin and the side fin off. Less defense then.

Big zee, ain't no mistaking that bite lol

My grandpa use to teach us that when we were getting started fishing with him. You will never forget that bite.

Drop a 20 lb flathead in that pond and them mudcats will disappear.

Did it.

This is why it's hard to visit the Catfish section very often.

Baby channel fiddler fish.

Baby blue cat. At least compared to the ones you guys catch

Big Zee noted:
+++++++++++++++
Dang Lynn, it's been a while sense I've heard the yellow cat called the mud cat. You ought to tell the story.
+++++++++++++++

I wondered if anybody had caught that. I will try to explain as best as I can, as to why some folks have referred to a YellowCat as a MudCat, probably on Wednesday night. Mixing concrete in a few minutes for a ramp for my Mom's Hoveround. Tuesday schedule is full until late. So I will try to shoot for Wednesday night. After sharing it, it will be like Paul Harvey (Radio Commentator) ending with "And now you know ... the rest of the story".

Oh, and you were correct, the tails split easily on MudCats (Bullheads). And it will fool a lot of people as it seems to resemble the CC or BC forked tail.

Look forward to it Lynn.

I raise them for bait is how im 100% that its a mudcat, i feed em every day and put several hundred on a hook every year

Mudcat

YellowCat- MudCat terminology:

My apologies for the delay, As I have cratered the past few nights. I did manage to add a little here & there, then fall asleep at keyboard. This will also be posted on the Catfish Calendar thread after the April calendar is posted here shortly (in a few minutes). If you want to find out more as to what is mentioned at the bottom here, stay tuned to the "Lynn's Catfish Calendar" thread after the May calendar is posted.

Some of you may recall, actually remember, or distantly in some manner or fashion, have heard a YellowCat sometimes being referred to as a MudCat. I'm sure some pondering this right now, are starting to jog their memories a tad bit & it seems perhaps some many moons ago, there is that faint nudge that you have heard that spoken of. Perhaps you know why. Perhaps you never found out why. Well, maybe its time for another slice of the YellowCat profile.

Nowadays, when you hear the term MudCat (my File name- MC], the first thing you think of is what we always referred to as a "polly", otherwise known as freshwater BullHeads. I was raised on them in my childhood & early teen years. I thought that was it, as for Catfish. I never even knew there were 3 main varieties of the "polly"- Yellow, Brown, and Black. It was later on that I found out that some called them MudCats. It was in my mid teen years I learned there were other types of Catfish out there in existence & some got huge (so they claimed).

Fast Forward a few years & I found out more on ChannelCats [CC], BlueCats [BC], and the oddity known as YellowCats[YC]. Lso of mention or WhiteCats [WC], but I have not caught any of these, or that I am aware of, here in central Texas. And somewhere in that midst of time, I would rarely hear someone refer to these YellowCats as MudCats. And I wondered. Yes, I wondered why. I could understand, or at least get an idea as to why the Bullheads were called MudCats. But YellowCats??? Why would somebody call or refer to them as MudCats.

It seems the term was applied, as to something they did, as to why they drew that term or description from some Catfish fishermen/fisherwomen.

Recently on the thread- "Pre or Post Front?" started by ETX_Chad [was on p.3 about 2/3rds down a few days ago] I spoke of the comparison between Blues & Yellows as to their strength & what they do when they pull jugs under the surface of the water. A big BlueCat will tire out trying to muscle the float down under & stay that course. So the Blue will try, but cannot hold it down for a long duration, unless of course it is a reaklly big one & your jug is smaller. I am speaking of at least a one gallon jug (as to a reference point). But a YellowCat turns on the Tractor gear mode & dives hard without stopping. Why? Because it is seeking a leverage point, or some sort of a safety hold. When it gets hooked, it senses trouble & dives to go under a log, or a crevice if near a bank. If it can't, then only one option remains. That is, to dive straight for the bottom, with everything they have in their "granny" or low gear. When it hits bottom, it will try to bury itself in the mud. If it does, it creates a sort of suction cup & by doing so, it is burrowed in the mud. As to how long it will stay, that depends on many factors. These YellowCat dive tactics are one reason your jug may disappear before some time whjen it may appear again. But the YellowCat may have managedto pry or work loose in this tactical reaction. Believe me, I have encountered missing jugs, only to find them later with a good size YellowCat still on them. Their tactic failed to free them. And sometimes the jug (attached to them) traveled some distance too, yet would have been found if it was up above the surface.

There is another time a YellowCat will do this same thing, as top burrowing in the mud. I do not know if any of you have ever cleaned a stock tank or sleugh out, in order to restock certain fish, by putting out a certain powder (Rotenone) that takes the oxygen out of the water. The fish start coming up to the surface to get oxygen to breathe. You can remove fish. If not, most will finally die for lack of oxygen in the water. However, the YellowCat is one exception. Somehow it senses the oxygen problem. It will come to the surface once or twice. If not caught very fast, then it dives down into the mud, and it somehow survives. Back in the early 70's, my Dad wanted to clean out our sleugh (nicknamed the "MudHole") & restock it with ChannelCat. I had my 13th Birthday party & a bunch of friend's came out to our land in the country. Most of my friends still remember that party. It was a blast. Two huge YellowCats surfaced their heads, but got away before we could catch them. Never spotted them again. They somehow survived.

Not only have I heard the burrowing in the mud bit from a few others here & there, I also heard it from my two YellowCat teachers & my Dad. While I am not completely sure, it can be theorized that they might have put themselves to sleep in order to alter their oxygen intake. There is also a possibility that by burrowing in their unique fashion, that they release some sort of pocket of oxygen stored in the bottom (or maybe in the mud itself), in order to give them time to survive the ordeal.

I will share how to put a YellowCat to sleep (taught to me by one of my YellowCat teachers) when I post the month of May in "Lynn's Catfish Calendar" thread in May 2017. You will actually be able to observe the difference in them, before & after. That portion will follow in a separate post. Perhaps then, you will get an idea of why the YellowCat is indeed a different breed compared to BlueCats & ChannelCats & MudCats (Bullheads).

Nevertheless, that is why YellowCats have been tagged as a MudCat, from time to time. And that is no April Fools.

Good read there. They Yellow Cat is a survivor. I remember walking in those sleughes in July and August on Little River just before they would dry up picking up crawdads and other bait. You learned real quick to wear shoes, you just might step on a yellow in the mud.