How and where can I catch them? I've heard they are good flathead bait.

Creeks are your best bet IME. Just toss a big ol fat nightcrawler on a hook and fish it on the bottom. Good luck!

*edit* other traditional channel cat baits work too (dip baits, livers, hotdogs, etc.)but you're going to get more channels that way. In my experience when fishing with worms you get more mudcats than channels.

I always have been able to catch them in those old ponds and tanks that people use to feed cattle with. Their eggs stick to the legs of storks and other birds that feed in the tanks and they are transferred that way to them. Unfortunately, the tanks around where i live dried up, so gonna be a while before their populations build back up in my area...lol

Might try some neighborhood ponds. Chisolm park is full of them. Catch em non stop during the summer on hotdogs.

Do they stock them there or are they there year round? I live pretty close to Chisolm and tried catfishing it recently (hoping a few might be left over from last year) and didnt get so much as a nibble. I thought they only stocked channels?

I've always been more interested in how not to catch them. But I was going to target bullheads, chicken liver would be my choice of bait.

mudcats are not stocked....they just tend to show up in tanks and ponds because of bird transfer. Also, i was always taught that they were not good eating, so if you get a big one, just use it for bait or throw it back...lol

Nope, not stocked. Try hotdogs.

use worms

actually i catch them often just to eat, there are three types of bullheads one with white whiskers, one with brown one with black, and the actual name for them is barbels, i only eat the ones that are big and green with white bellies and have black whiskers...also i have a spot i go and get them all the time, they range from 2 inches to 12 inches, and i just use bacon, lots of fatty oild and it stays on the hook pretty well, or i will get stew meat, untenderized i use it for channels and bullheads i catch on occassion 15-20lb channels, out of community ponds and the guy who was out at chisolm, go to the pond right behind harvest church its got massive cats in it, dont eat them though unless they just stocked it cause that water is stagnant and the fish taste like [censored] even the channels

Impressive Stevie.

biggest i've landed was 35lbs out of the mentioned pond, i have caught dozens of 10-15lb channels as well, i used to use shrimp, and had huge fish bite during rains, i had one i hooked on 8lb test on a zebco style reel and an 8 dollar rod from wal mart, i was able to turn its head, then it rip the drag and i mean squelin, then i'd start runnin its direction, then its sit on the bottom again, and then id get it mad again and a 5 foot ball of silt bubbles would surface where the fish kicked into gear, they did release when they built it a 75lb blue cat i am geussing that was her

35 lb channel cat in a pond in Texas. Thanks young man for the laugh. You need a camera in your tackle box. You are only 1 lb 8 oz off of the state record and your did it in a pond. Keep posting.