Thanks for the input guys!

Nomenclature is a fun thing. It�s really neat to see the different names that fish get from different groups of people.

Female blues tend to have a much higher back this making the fin �higher� in which some gathered the name �high fin� or �hump back� lol

The male blue catfish has a much larger head and generally has a much flatter back thus keeping the dorsal fin somewhat �lower�

A blue cat is a blue cat...the difference is in the gender as far as anatomical difference and obviously some fish just look different than others.

Same for the Yellows. Also called Ops, Flatheads, ect.

Even after showing dozens of articles explaining this to my father, he will still stand on his head and explain to me all the different species of blues and yellows, lol it�s all good!

A blue is a blue, a channel is a channel, and a flathead is a flathead. There are blues, channels, and flatheads in almost all of the lakes around here. Always funny to me when people try to tell me the there are different types of blues and flatheads, kinda like when people catch a spawning white crappie and say it HAS to be a black crappie because it�s black.

About 10 years ago my family would meet my uncle at fork and we spend a weekend running trotlines and jugs on fork. We would catch 200-300 channel cats, maybe 10-15 blues and 2-3 big flat heads. Most blues were 5-10 pounds. They are definitely in the lake but they are far and few between at least for us they were.

I mostly agree, but as far as genetics go, you can have somewhat different fish of the same species. Take the Florida Large Mouth that is stocked in a lot of lakes in an attempt to get a record fish. Even some species of rattlesnake have slightly different venom from different regions. I've seen two documentary that said I believe the Rock Rattlesnake has different antivenom depending on what region you get bit in because the venom is different.