Too Many Catfish

I have a small pond that has way too many catfish in it. Does anyone want a bunch of fish or can anyone help with recommendations on the best way to get rid of a bunch?

run a bunch of jugs and a trot line is my only thought, multiple hooks on each jug

Catfish trap

I can come catch some . Are they channel cats?

PM sent. How big are they? I don't mind happen out a fellow member.

Bullheads? Channel Cat?

Sorry I didnt give more details. The pond is very small about 100 feet diameter. I have a few channels I want to keep its the mud cats I am trying to thin out as they seem to reproduce at a much faster rate. We feed the fish and have eaten many of the mud cats, which taste great. They seem to be the most plentiful around the 10 to 14 inch size. I would welcome anyone over that would like to catch and keep a bunch of the mud cats, as many as you want to mess with.

We can even throw a cast net out and make easy work of it

Man I wish I was closer to you. I'd pull a bunch. Where I grew up in CO about the only catfish we had were bullheads. My mother used to fry them up with eggs for breakfast.

First thing Thank You for your service to our country!!! If you ever get this way just send me a pm and I'll give you my phone number, you are always welcome here!!!!

Thank you for the generous offer. I spend most my time in Amarillo but if I get down that way I'll take you up on it.

I second the trap idea. I can't stand getting catfish in my cast nets.

I was going to say cast net but you figured that out.

I'd throw in a couple 20-30 lb flathead

Great opportunity for some respectful fishermen to let a kid wet a hook and catch some fish, maybe for the first time. I'm in the Dallas metro area and would love to come help manage your stock.

X2 on the flat heads, they will thin them out.

Flatheads are a bad idea. Better bets are to stock adult channel cats or even better, blues.

I would get a fish trap with adjustable throat and try to remove the smaller mudcat, there are a lot of yellowcat fishermen that would like them for bait

Hoop net,



Mo

Channel cats are easy to raise and bullheads are impossible to get rid of once established. If it was my little pond I would rotenone the whole pond, keep or giveaway the fish and start over with just channel cats.
With a feeder you will have 4 pounders in a couple years.

Dm sent sir

Kids CF Tourney...

While l love the flathead idea, the rotenone one is probably the best course. You will never get all the bullheads out and they reproduce quick.

I wonder if you could use some type of large net? Maybe something a 100' long or so that could be pulled by a 4WD pickup or tractor. This is probably a hair-brained idea, but it sounds like something that might work.

If the pond is shallow (<6ft deep), roughly circular or rectangular, and has no brush, stumps, logs, cover etc to hang the net on then a big seine net can effectively empty a pond if you keep the lead line on the bottom and don't loose the catch when you start pulling the net out of the water. You'll need trucks/tractors for big nets. Probably a good YouTube video on harvesting aquaculture ponds that can show you how to do it. Usually have to drag the net a few times to get everything.

Still having issues? Since all catfish below 5lbs pretty much taste the same, I bet you could advertise the problems you have with the pond locally and charge $20 a head to fish the pond out for you. It would be fished empty in 1 afternoon here in Central Texas (between Waco & Austin). That or you could do like the catfish farms around Austin and charge for the catch by the pound. But then again, after word of mouth, good luck getting rid of the poachers. They can be harder to remove than the bullheads.

Some pond stocking companies carry hybrid striper. I wonder if you could get your hands on a dozen or so adult hybrids if they would take care of the bullhead problem, they’re incredibly aggressive and as small as most bullheads are they should be able to eat them no problem.

Mudcats make great flathead bait, just saying.