MudCat, As a kid swiming in the river I have picked up an empty mussel shell and find about 1 1/2" Flat Head using that shell for he log or. That Flat Head cat at 1 1/2" still looks like a cat that weighes 50LB

hard head

The local park ponds are just full of the little yellow bullheads. I catch a lot of them fishing for sunfish. Some of them will weigh a 1/2 pound or so.

When I was growing up in Lubbock seventy years ago the bullhead was the only species of catfish in Buffalo Lake. We used to catch and eat them. Now people turn them down.

Yellow Bullhead. Notice the faint black line down the center of the body. The tail fins are usually different than a channel too, but when they are small it can be really hard to tell. Black bullhead are a lot easier.

One thing I have I have learned while fishing for sunfish. You never know what is going to take your bait.

How does the bullhead taste? It is similar to channel/blue catfish?

I don't eat em but friends of mine who do along with other anglers who say they eat em, say they taste pretty good.

Reason I asked was because the last couple times I went for channel/blue for frying, all I landed were bullheads. Didn't know if they were good to eat. I guess I'll have to give it a try and find out for myself!

Amen to that brother

Big flatheads seem to think they taste pretty good.

Mom fried them to where the backstrap on each side at the top would peal off in a strip and then you could lift off the sides just past the rib cage with a fork. Basically 4 bites from each 6" long fish. They were locally called mudcats or polywogs, but were actually yellow bullheads. Grasshoppers was our preferred bait when in season. They're usually way over populated when you find them in a pond or small lake so go ahead and bring some home to try. Takes a bunch of them to feed 5 people!

I ate a whole bunch of them as a kid and thought they tasted fine, but back then so did every other fish we ate including Large mouth, big old nasty white bass, red meat and all, and whatever else was caught. We used a lot of ketchup and tarter sauce at my house when I was growing up. They all tasted different, but we thought they were all good. Can't really say if bullheads are similar taste to channels and blues.

Once I learned how crappie and bluegill really taste compared to the rest, my taste buds changed gears.