Channel Catfish are some of the most popular eating fish and they can be fun to raise.  Stock them at 50 to 300 to the acre, depending on if it’s a Catfish or mixed pond.  If you have an Automatic Feeder and the pond is dedicated to raising and harvesting Catfish, you can put up to 500 to the acre. 

They train well to pellet feeding.   In fact, they may start coming when they feel you walk up if they get fed at the same place and about the same time every morning or evening.

We recommend High Protein Floating Catfish Food.  Get the Fingerling size if you have baby Catfish.  Fish need food about 1/3 the size of their mouth, so baby fish need food about the size of a BB.  You can pound up adult size feed in a Baggie if need be.  They should clean up what is thrown or sprayed in 10 to 15 minutes.  That way you aren’t loading up your pond bottom with decaying feed.  You can feed once, twice or three times a day, just make sure they clean it up.  As they grow it will take more pellets to feed them for 10-15 minutes, and that is how you know how much to feed over time.

If Catfish are well fed, they should be 1-1/2 to 2 pounds within 2 years.  It’s best to harvest them at this size.

Pellet feeding can make Catfish fat and lazy – until you try to catch them.  Fermented Shrimp, Chicken Livers and Crawfish are some of the best bait for catching Catfish.  Plan to fish for them several hours after the normal pelleted feed time.  Here is a link to a great Article on what happens  when your Catfish thrive on pelleted food that was meant for your Bluegill, and then get large and hard to catch.

https://www.pondboss.com/news/free-articles/mission-impossible—catching-fed-catfish-by-walter-bassano

Another way to catch them is to get them used to coming to feed on pelleted food.  Bait your hook with a Minnow, pinch the head and t ail off, and toss it into the area where you have just sprayed pelleted feed.  The fragrant Minnow may attract their interest before the pellets do.

Catfish begin to reproduce at about 4 years of age, but their fry are usually eaten unless you put cover in your pond like pipe or 55 gallon Drums or Trash Cans for them to spawn from.  

Channel catfish do not usually live past 6 or 7 years of age, although some have lived more than 10 years. 

Channel Catfish in ponds average 10″ to 30″ long and weigh up to 30 pounds.  Some have topped out at 40 to 50 lbs.

Make a point to fish out your Catfish by the time they are about 2 lbs in size or they become eating machines.  In a mixed pond they can compete with your Bass for small Bream and Minnows, and then start Bass starving and stunting.   Stunted Bass don’t recover and will not reach their full potential size.

Catfish have a keen sense of smell and can detect sound waves that help them locate food in dark and muddy water.  They are omnivores and will eat a huge variety of things – small fingerlings, minnows, frogs, algae, weeds, grubs, mussels, snails and even small ducklings when they get big enough.  

When removing a hook from a Catfish be careful of the sharp spines on the fins.   It’s a good idea to help kids handle them so that they don’t get spiked.

We bring 3″ to 5″ long Channel Catfish to Fish Days and 6″ to 10″ to the Large Fish Sale in the Fall.  You can request larger Channel Catfish through a Direct Delivery with an $800 minimum fish order, plus Sales Tax and a delivery fee.  Call the Office for a Quote at 256-878-4111.