Does the commercial shocker just stun the fish or does it kill them?...Does it only effect catfish or all fish?

It only stuns the fish and makes them swim around dazed at the surface. Some are tunable and work on other fish, but mostly they are for cats. One of the manufacturers is here in north Texas, but I can't remember the name. I hope that helps.

Next time you catch some "mudcats" clean them. They don't taste like mud by the way if they come out of a relatively clean pond. I'd put bullhead, "mudcat", meat up against any channel cat out there. By the way, to get back to the subject, I'm in the same boat. My parent's pond is infested with bullheads. I'm gonna put in some bass from lake fork (only 10 min. away) and see what happens. Also go fising everyday and throw out what bullheads you catch.

Put a few hungry alligators in the pond.

Electro-shocking WILL shock every species of fish...been on many restocking programs w/TPW below Lake Livingston.

You can do a few things mentioned above.

Don't put in a "few" flatheads or yellow cats, all you need is 1 at least 18" to be legal or slightly larger. It will take a year of two, but the flathead will eat the majority of your bullheads. Stocking more than one in your pond, will only cause them to reproduce creating MORE problems with your ponds...they will make your ponds completely NULL & VOID!!

Get several perch trap or fish traps, depending upon the size of the bullheads/polliwogs, and keep them baited daily, remove the fish, but do not allow them to live or put them into another water source.

Last resort, and could be your best one, is to rotenone your pond and start all over.

Get in touch with your local Agriculture Extension Agent and seek their advice or assist from a professional electro-shocker that can give you a price or at least bids. Here are the contacts for all Texas counties.

http://county-tx.tamu.edu/

Good luck and keep us informed.

Chris

Here's a link to the page on ebay with 2 shockers for sale. http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-1751-2...it_W0QQfromZR40

here is an idea...have the boy scouts out for a weekend of fishing ask them to keep all the mud cats ... if no boy scouts church groups and disable kids ....have them all come out and help you catch them...teaching the next generation to fish and cleaning out your tank at the same time...plenty of kids out there that need a good fishing trip......the scouts are taught to leave the area cleaner than they found it...have them in a couple of times a month after the other kids ....not to say you shouldnt teach the others to clean up after themselves also just saying you wouldnt have to teach the scouts.... I am sure there are some guys on the forum that could use the mud cats for bait...just line them out the same time the kids will be fishing....if no takers on the fish put them in your garden...good for the soil....seriously if you can not find any groups of kids go to the lcal churches if they have a youth dept. the leaders are always looking for things to do with the kids if it is free then all the kids can afford it and that makes for a great time for everyone....

interesting...must admit though..mudcats are ugly

You all are missing a good fish to eat. Bullheads are a very good meal.

Yep, bullheads are great tasting, also great bait for bigger cats...the only legal one from the catfish family. Bait up the small ones, eat the big ones.

I've eaten mudcats......but don't leave the skin on...yuk

flathead is a good answer for the ponds but the bass will take care of them eventually ... bass love baby bullheads and they make good forage for the bass as they swim in tight balls for months after they hatch ... I've seen big ole bass busting the soup outta the balls of bullheads many times and in just a few years the bullheads weren't there any more except for a few big ones about 2 lbs ... the bullheads won't hurt anything and it's a natural evolution of a pond as when the bass start to get big they'll take them out every year. bass also eat their own fry each year and only the strong will survive anyhow. if it were me I wouldn't worry about it and use them for flathead bait whenever I wanted to go flathead fishin. if you want to use flathead to help control them you can easily remove the flathead any of the following years by placing barrels in the pond ... they'll take up residence in them and all ya gotta do is wade out there and lift the barrel up then reach in and pull the flathead out. that's how we did it.

Tiny......do you guide for Noodlin'?

mudcats are nasty