Maybe y'all can identify him with a better picture, a hint - I ate him and he was pretty good.



Congrats on a good day, Ridge Life!

Oh thats a bullhead, fat stocky little fellers..they dont get real big…i aint ever seen one get more than a few pounds…you can gut up here around these feedmills wer the spill corn off barges and catch hundreds of them…ive eatem, they eat pretty good

They can be bout 3 different colors too…like what you got there…a bad dingy brown poop color(mud cat)…or mustard yeller(yeller cat)..least thats what ive come to understand..but a flathead gets called a mudcat too some..an sometimes they yeller an make a yeller cat. But, ive caught all three bullheads side bu side…look about like the same fish just different colors. They are neat little critters…they always short an chubby..like a fat puppy. Now…pawpaw always talked about scaly cats..he described them to me an i believe he was yalkin about a bowfin…but i have shot plecos with a bow from time to time..purty sure we have just had aquarium algae eaters turned loose in the river here for a really long time…they aint a bunch on account of the wayer getn cold up here..but ive seen several an shot an gigged several too..all purty big..like 3-5lbs

I thought he was a flathead. Seems to match this picture very well:


https://tpwd.texas.gov/huntwild/wild/species/catfish/

Also have never caught a bullhead on an artificial bait like I was using, but have caught a number of flatheads, or yellow cats, while bass fishing. But I could be wrong. I used to set out lines for bullheads when I was a kid, but haven't caught many since. So what's the identifying characteristics to separate them?

I thought he was the same fish as this one, but I really wouldn't know how to tell the difference:

Its hard to tell, ive caught bunches of both, his head dont look right to be a flat head… its hard to tell when stuff is little..im still leaning on bullhead..but i could be wrong

I'm going with brown bullhead too. The dorsal fin is not right for a flathead.

I showed the picture to a couple of old catfishermen and they both said flathead. Google says a flathead has a slight underbite and I see no evidence of that in the picture. I should have made better pics, but my fishing partner and I both just thought it was a flathead.

Carbon, have you ever caught a bullhead on a hard artificial? I used to catch them on pork liver, but I haven't caught one in decades. Well, maybe I have now. It's a good Christmas mystery.

Ive cautem on a jig crappie fishin occasionally, i aint ever caught one on a plug…ive caught channels, blues, an flatheads on all kinda junk..i was bass fishin one spring an i went to a spot an i started seein swirls an flashes in bout 6ft of water..I figured it was stripe bustin on shad that was deep…i started throwin a chrome blue ratltrap amongstem..i started catchin channel cats bout 12-14in long…i mean as fast as i could throw inem..i got jobbed in the belly by one of them little rascals an it festered bad. Biggest catfish i ever caught out of the lake was on a 6in zoom junebug deadringer texas rigged. Like a 22lb blue cat. If you cant tell, i dont really catfish..daddy was against it…i did a little when i was a kid playin..but id say 75% of my catfish catchin has been accidental.

A bullhead is a weird chubby little fish…they hang out in wads around junk, all of them ive ever caught have been i mean sittin right beside a tree in 6-14ft or so of water..or boathouse pilings…or barges…all my bullheads have been random in them kinda spots but one place, feed mills…some of the only kn purpose catfishin i ever did in the lake was by barges catchin them chubby thangs…i mean..wed catchem fast as you can drop down…be bout 12in long but thick little chunks…they sit down ther an eat swole up corn…to be honest i aint much on eatin catfish…but i like bullheads an flatheads

Bullhead for sure. The dorsal fin and anal fin are a dead giveaway. Length of head is the other but from that angle is hard to tell.

Thanks BCLC, that pic definitely confirms it.

I was gonna say, looks like a lil flat to me! Never knew bulls got that big..

I caught a bull head at work this summer on a rattle trap.

Preacher, do you like the blue screen better than the amber one?

Green is the winner

I haven’t tried green either. I’ll have to check it out. Thanks Ben

It doesn't really seem all that important to me. I will read an article or watch a video and change settings, but it doesn't usually make a whole lot of difference. But now I will have to try a green screen since Ben recommended it.

Bull and great Yeller cat bait 🙂

I used to catch tons of them in creeks as a kid. My grandmother liked them but I wasn't a fan of eating them myself