Channel Catfish

Channel catfish are a slender, forked-tail catfish with an olive-brown to slate back shading to white below, scattered dark spots on young and mid-sized fish and a rounded anal fin with 24–29 rays. Large adults lose their spots and darken, which leads to confusion with blue catfish; count the anal rays and look at the anal fin's rounded edge to be sure. Like all catfish they have eight whisker-like barbels and sharp pectoral and dorsal spines.

Native to central and eastern North America from the Hudson Bay drainage through the Mississippi basin to the Gulf states and northern Mexico, channel cats have been stocked in every state outside Alaska and are raised commercially across the South. They thrive in warm rivers with sand and gravel bottom, large reservoirs and small ponds alike, tolerating turbid water that other sport fish avoid.

Channel cats are omnivorous bottom and mid-water feeders that use smell and taste to find insects, crayfish, mollusks, small fish and carrion, which is why dough baits and chicken liver work. They feed most actively at night and in the hours around dawn and dusk, and in rivers they move to feeding flats and the tails of pools after dark. They spawn in cavities in banks, logs and rock piles when water hits about 75–85°F (24–29°C) in late spring and early summer.

For anglers, channel cats are a dependable, democratic fish: a worm and a sinker from the bank catches them, kids catch them in city ponds, and serious catters target 15-pound-plus fish in big rivers and reservoirs. They are also one of the best-eating freshwater fish when taken from clean water, and fish fries and catfish tournaments are a summer tradition across the Midwest and South.