I was doing a little bream teasing today at a local small pond in town and saw something really odd, at least to me. There were several "balls" of small fish in several places in the pond. I think they might have been fingerling catfish, but I couldn't get close enough to see. The fish looked about 2 inches long and the "ball" of fish seemed to be a bit bigger than a basketball. Anyone got any ideas on what I was seeing, or do I need to quit fishing when it is so hot so I won't see water borne mirages?

i have seen "balls" of baby bass, maybe catfish do the same thing

The odd thing was that there was a decent 1-2 lb not more than 4 feet away from one of the balls and it totally ignored the smaller fish. That made me wonder if catfish spines protect them from predation, if they were indeed catfish. I was there for a good two hours and other than moving slowly around the ponds the balls did not disperse while I was there, even when I pulled a wooly bugger through them.

Most likely they were bullhead catfish....the scourge of any pond. Very difficult to get rid of them in a pond. The young fry behave exactly as you described.

Yep, I've seen those balls o' baby cats before. Interesting sight.

I do know that the TPWD does stock that pond with channel catfish occasionally, but I'm not sure when they actually did it last. There were probably 5 balls of them in a pond that was around 1/2 acre in size. If they were bullhead catfish would there be that big of a population explosion?

yup...

them bullheads are prolific...

but really, all fish are anyway. you see balls of fry and balls of shad going unmolested all the time... i think even with the fish near the ball, the fish doesn't have to eat 24/7. it might hang with the food and harass when hungry.

i have wondered about the spines though. they're clearly there for protection, but i don't know how much that affords.

many years ago, I threw a cast net at Lake Tearkana spillway, the shad turned out to be tiny channel catfish...i spent the rest of the afternoon picking little bitty catfish out of my net with a pair of needle nose pliers, yes those spines hurt...if it ever happens again, I'll throw the net away

What's wrong with bullhead?

Baby bullhead.

I saw one of those baby bullhead clouds in a little dammed creek over off of 121 not too long ago. had the kids in an uproar

The more I think about it the more I become convinced that the spines on those baby catfish are a pretty good deterrent to being eaten. The bream were feeding pretty actively on Sunday and I can't imagine them passing up a food source like that without a very good reason. That might be one reason for their ability to take over a smaller pond very quickly: a much higher percentage of the young make it to maturity than the other species present.

That makes plenty of sense. Kind of like a porcupine who wanders the woods with impunity as most animals simply will not mess with it. There are only a few that have the skills to feast on old porky. Probably the same with those bullhead fry, you need special skills or brute mass to dine at that table.

I'll bet eating one whole is like swallowing a toggle bolt! There has to be something that can eat them, and now I wonder what it could be. A water turkey, perhaps?

Probably. I'd imagine that the key is getting it headed down the right way. I watched an old egret eat a bluegill the other day. He knew just how to get those spines pointed the right way to swallow that fish at a brisk rate.

Years ago I had a small lure that was the spitting image of a little catfish. The bass loved it, so I'm pretty sure they eat catfish, spines and all.

Depends on fishing situations....maybe they are good in some situations, but in a fish pond not so good.

If you have a pond, the bullhead may be one of the least desirable species you can have. Why? Several reasons.

First, they are prolific producing many, many offspring that tend to take away food from other species, e.g. BG and in turn LMB. Most catfish stocked in small ponds will not reproduce, but bullhead will and do so prolifically. If you want a great LMB/BG pond, you don't want bullheads...and unfortunately, they can sometimes appear in a pond "spontaneously".

Second, they do not generally grow as large or as quickly as channel cats or blues. The channel cat is much prefered for pond situations where you want to grow them out for catching and eating. Channels can easily reach 5 to 10 pounds in a pond and Blues even larger. Bullheads, when in adundance in a pond, typically are considerablty less than a pound as are most other fish in that same pond.

Third, they are not as good to eat as channels but that may be a personal taste thing.

Fourth, their spines can really hurt a child learning to fish...or an experienced adult for that matter. Presumably those spines give them some protection from predation by LMB also, compounding the overpopulation problem with them in ponds.

As a pond fish, depending on your pond objectives, the bullhead is generally undesirable...but in other venues maybe not so.

Meadowlark you bring up an interesting point that I've always wondered about: how do fish appear "spontaneously" in ponds that are landlocked and that no one has ever stocked?

the theory I've always heard on "spontaneous" stockings is fish eggs being sticky will adhere to birds feet, bringing them from one place to another, also carried by the wind (I have my doubts about that one).

I've heard the bird's foot theory...and similarly with turtles and other creatures. These seem very possible to me. Wind blown...seems very unlikely except maybe tornadic winds.

It happens, somehow.

them egrets forgets to wash they waders when on their anglin travels

I expect it's the same with ducks and cormorants. Good point there Dave!