What's the deal with bullheads?

[Guest]

I was out fishing for crappies today in a shallow bay and I kept seeing fish moving in the water real shallow next to shore, so I cruised in stealthily and cast my crappie minnow in.

Granted, this isn't really how they behave this time of year, but I'm not one to second guess what mood fish are in.

So imagine my surprise when I pulled in a bullhead.

Twice.

In a row.

Do they spawn this time of year too in the shallows? Or do they eat the eggs/spawn of other species? I'd never seen them act like this (not that I pay much attention to bullheads, for the most part).

[Lunker]

I'm not really sure, I have witnessed weird bullheads that I thought were spawning too. In the summer I'll see huge schools right under the surface, it looks like big black spots all over the lake. I always figured this was be spawning, but not sure.

Was the wind blowing against the shore you were fishing? I have caught bullheads up really shallow when the wind blows forage up against the bank.

[Guest]

The wind was very, VERY slight...it took me like 20 minutes to drift about 200 yards. But they were on the down wind side of that bay.

[CrappieJohn]

Bullheads are scavenger feeders that will feed heartily when opportunity knocks...such as when they come across some freshly spawned eggs. They may not have been fish eggs though: now is when the frogs and toads do thier thing and they will use the shallower shoreline bays and inlets. And too, they may have been in the area preparing to spawn. Crapster

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Sure life happens- why wait

[Aquaman01]

<<In Minnesota, the spawning season for the black bullhead starts in late April and goes through to early June, when water temperatures are about 20- 21° C (68-70° F).>>

Might be....

Last year about this time we got into a mess of bullhead at Lake Maria State Park in the shallows off the pier. When I took 'em home and started to clean 'em up, about 1/3 of them were ready to pop. They wuz yummy.

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Aquaman
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Peace and Fishes

[Moses2531]

Since we are talking Bullheads, I was wondering if anyone had any tips or ideas on eating them? Does anyone eat them or do something to them to make them edible?

[JP Z]

We would always get a large mess of them and smoke them.........YUM I've also just had them Pan-fried that is quite good. Of course you need to make sure they aren't muddy. But hey, they are in the same family as a Cat so of course they are gonna taste just as good.

[Guest]

Bullheads are excellent eaters, less mercury and PCB than cats, this time of the year they will not have a muddy taste, unless you get them from very polluted water. Only when they are caught out of really warm water, and not placed immediately on ice does the muddy taste develop. Bullheads are best skinned with a special pliers, gutted, and fried whole, simply dredge in seasoned flour and cornmeal, and panfry in hot oil, when they are fully cooked the flesh releases easily from the bones, and it is a true delicacy, best with some potato salad and coleslaw and rye bread, and an ice cold beverage.

[The Chemist]

I was raised on bullheads. Now I eat cats. We skin them then take and filet the meat off the back bone, leaving the belly meat(one source of foul taste). My mom pans fries them. (flour, salt and pepper) I have had them beer batter fried. It's all good. I've said it before I will keep/eat a bullhead or cat before any other fish. With kids the notion of no bones is a factor.

[Guest]

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[yellowsubmarine]

bullheads are fantastic eating this time of year. Just try to sucker someone else into cleaning them for you I would probably keep alot more of them if they weren't such a pain clean.

[Guest]

Try this on them Bullheads.

Fillet them out like a catfish, skin on, soak in Teriakie sauce or some other marinade you like, cook on grill with apple chips under full smoke.

Soak fillets overnight, or all afternoon, either will work.

TIP- A tiny bit of fine ground ginger is good in the marinade, both for bullheads or for catfish. This method works well on smaller cats too. Thinner fillets work best to allow for an even cooking/smoking time.

The skin holds the meat in place and allows for smoking time. You do not have to eat the skin. But if you like it, go for it.

Chow down.......NUMMY!

Ed "Backwater Eddy" Carlson

Backwater Guiding "ED on the RED"

[This message has been edited by Backwater Eddy (edited 05-21-2003).]

[swampman]

Well i wish i was a expert on walleyes or bass like some of the pro staff members but the fish i am the most framiliar with is the bullhead. we used to net about 100,000 pounds of these babies a year of which we skinned over half of them the rest were sold live. of the three kinds of bullheads black,brown and yellow the yellows are proably the best eating they have a whiter firmer meat they are also more of a fish eater comared to the other two.they are also the hardest to skin.i can proably go on more than anybody wants to know so i will cut this short. in case anybody was wondering i can proably clean about 6 a minute without showing off.

[soldoncass]

used to eat them pan-fried in flour......until we accidentily used the powdered sugar one day ,and haven't touched one since!!!!!!!!

[Crawlerman]

I disagree about the "taste" of bullheads vs catfish. They have simmialr textures, but a MUCH different flavor than that of channel cats. Channel Cats have a good flavor to the meat even when just pan fried with shake and bake. Bullheads on the other hand seem to lack ANY noticable flavor and are very bland when I tried to eat them once. They might be okay if you were too cook them cajun style, or prepare them otherwise.. but I still much prefer Channel Cats for eating than bullheads...

[huskminn]

My wife and I were fishing on Minnetonka the other morning and I had something a little uncommon happen....

I cast a floating Rap into an opening in the weeds, gave it a couple of twitches and it disappeared in a swirl. Set the hook, short tussle and, low and behold, a big, fat bullhead was landed.

I've caught a channel cat on a surface lure once before, but never a bullhead. Just thought I'd throw that into the conversation as it was a little unusual. Didn't keep her, though, as I didn't think we'd get a mess of them.

[Crawlerman]

I've caught bullies on Tube jigs before... They can be fun to catch.. I just don't think they have the flavor that the Channels do.

[Lunker]

Back to the original topic, I think they may have been spawning, because I caught a couple and cut them up for catfish last week, and one was full of eggs.

[swampman]

they could have been spawning but i am guessing they were just crusing the shallows bullheads unlike most fish will stay with there young for awhile to protect them. if you ever see a school of really tiny bullheads in the summer they usually have a adult with them.