My daughter and I were fishing on a small stock tank last weekend. We caught a couple small ones, then we caught this 8lb, 6 oz fish:



I don't know much about identifying catfish, so I didn't think too much about it at the time. But I later got on the internet and started trying to identify it. Is this a black bullhead? And if so, am I correct to think this was a really big one?

I went back the next day and caught a small one to take more detailed photos for identification purposes:





Thanks for your help!

Top one is a channel cat, bottom three pics are bullhead

Yep...half blue half pollywog.

Top channel, bottom bull

First, to the site. As previously indicted, the top fish is a channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus). It is identified by the forked tail and will have 24 to 29 soft rays in the anal fin. A similar catfish is the blue catfish (Ictalurus furcatus). It has 30 to 35 anal rays. The other fish is a black bullhead (Ameiurus melas). Bullheads have a rounded tail and black bullheads have black chin barbels.

Yup I co cut with everybody else. Seems like channels in small ponds get really dark as the get bigger. Assuming you were fishing in Texas, that’s a pretty impressive channel cat.

Do they all eat good? Are some tastier than others?

Good Call! Nice fish.

For me, blue catfish and channel catfish taste better than bullheads. All are edible, depending on your tastebuds.