Catfish weight?

[Muskie-searcher]

I have been doing a lot of camping and fishing on the Cloquet River and have caught a number of really nice Channel Cats this year. We catch them during the middle of the night and the biggest thus far was 36 inches long. I did not get a weight measurement and was curious if there is a formula or if anybody knows roughly what this fish weighed. All of the cats have been released to fight another day. We have landed 4 over 30 inches, with a bunch of smaller ones.

[Guest]

Depends greatly on the girth of the cat?

I would guess somewhere in the 21-24# range +/-?

[Crawlerman]

dang those are some BIG channels. My largest is only a 12lber....

[Fisher Dave]

36" long and over a foot across the head?

That's not a channel cat unless it just ate a basketball.

I would say flathead .. but, as far as I know they're arent any north of Taylors falls on the St Croix, or any other river.

Anything is possible, but I would recommend bringing a camera, tape measure, and a digital(or dependable mechanical) scale.

[Surface Tension]

Nice cats.
Hmmm cloquet river. Gears turning....
Maybe between Munger Shaw and Independance?

[Muskie-searcher]

It is definitely a channel cat. I have a pic but am not sure how to post it here. I am terrible with computers. All of the big cats were caught while night fishing for Muskies. That should give you a real big clue as to where they were caught.

[Dennis Steele]

Muskie
Nice cats!
If you can email me the pic I can get it posted on this thread.

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Minnesota River Guided Fishing
"fishhead"
[email protected]
www.mnriverguidedfishing.com

[Steve Foss]

Length across the top of the head won't matter when figuring weight, of course, but that's a darn wide channel head.

Girth X Girth X Length (all in inches) divided by 800 has always gotten me within half a pound on cats, when compared with digital scales.

A 36-inch cat could easily be a 30-lber, just as easily a 15. When channels reach a certain point in their length, they start putting on girth faster than length. So if a fish has been at 36 inches, of thereabouts, for a few years, it'll be a much heavier fish than one that just reached that lenghth, more or less. In other words, while a 20-inch fish never weighs anywhere near 20 lbs, a 40-inch cat could weigh nearly 40 pounds.

Not to mention, a couple 1.5-lb goldeye in a big kitty's stomach can add.

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"Worry less, fish more."
Steve Foss
[email protected]

[Guest]

Big buck channel cats will have a wider head then the females. Some are way wider then a 5 gal pail. They often have swollen cheeks (kitty buck rut) during the spawn and post spawn cycles, adding to the appearance of an extra fat head.

A Big buck male channel cat will often have a black appearance, far darker then the females. Especially a cat in that 15-20 year old range as a 36" would be here in the North.

The fork tail should still be the dead giveaway for a species identification as a channel catfish. The best way to distinguish between the two is to look at the anal fin. The anal fin of a channel cat has 24 to 29 rays and is rounded. If the fin has a straight outer edge and 30 or more rays, it’s a blue cat. A channel cat’s tail is more deeply forked than other catfish.

Although once confined primarily to the Mississippi River drainage and the Great Lakes, stocking has expanded their range to include every state but Alaska. Channel cats are found from coast to coast, north into four Canadian provinces and south to central Mexico. They are the most widespread and abundant catfish in North America.

Channels are mid-sized models as catfish go, averaging 1 to 5 pounds. Six- to 10-pounders are common in many waters. The 47.5-inch-long world-record from South Carolina’s Lake Moultrie weighed 58 pounds. Only two other states – Arkansas and Mississippi – have produced channel cats over 50 pounds. In most waters, a 20-pounder is a trophy.

Channel cats more than 20 years old have been recorded, but most live less than 10. They grow slower than both Flatheads and blues.

Growth rates have been studied throughout the fish’s range and show extreme variability from one body of water to another.

A 5-year-old channel cat from the Mississippi River in Iowa, for example, runs about 16 inches long. A same-age fish from Lake Havasu, California, is slightly more than half that length – 9 inches.

A 20-inch channel from Manitoba’s Red River is probably age 9, but a 9-year-old cat from the St. Lawrence River in Quebec is only 13 inches.

Growth rates are determined by a number of factors, including abundance and type of forage, quality of habitat, length of the growing season and competition with other fish species.

Typical Weight (pounds) at Various Lengths (inches)
Length 12 15 18 21 24 27 30 33 36

Weight .5 1.3 2.7 3.5 5.8 8.8 11.6 15.3 20.4

Typical Length (inches) at Various Ages
Age 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

North 5.7 7.1 9.0 10.5 12.3 14.1 15.9 18.4 19.7

South 10.9 13.7 15.7 17.8 19.0 21.6 22.6 23.5 24.3

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Ed "Backwater Eddy" Carlson

Backwater Guiding "ED on the RED"

[Muskie-searcher]

Thanks for all of the information. I am not a catfisherman per say, but they sure are fun when I catch them by accident. I have hooked into a few nice ones while walleye fishing on the St. Louis also, but nothing like the pigs we have gotten out of the cloquet.

[Muskie-searcher]

stfcatfish

I never did get a chance to thank you for the Muskie information you posted in response to one of my questions a while back. It led to a 46incher being caught, and the best part was my brother had to net it for me. I had bragging rights for the day. If interested I would be happy to share with you the general area and the unusual presentation that these big cats were hitting on.

[collegeoutdoorsman]

We just caught a 34" channel cat and that weighed 14 pounds 10 ounces.

[Muskie-searcher]

I did not measure the girth, but it was over a foot across the top of the head.

[fiskyknut]

I'd have to say that Eddy's guesstimation of 21-24#'s +/- as right there in the ballpark for a Channnel Catfish of that length. One thing is for sure....Cats can vary a great deal in weight per a given length depending on all those above mentioned variables. I'd say from Red river fishes I've caught, and large fish I've caught in California, the Carolinas, and Georgia that Ed's figure is a good close average for weights.

Fisky

[Steve Foss]

Muskie-searcher:

Glad to be of help. Definitely shoot me an e-mail on that.

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"Worry less, fish more."
Steve Foss
[email protected]

[scotty B]

Would this formula work for flatheads too? It is funny this subject came up i was just asked about length too pounds and i did not know. Thank you everybody for the info on these fourms.

[This message has been edited by scotty B (edited 07-27-2003).]

[Muskie-searcher]

The big cats are still in the hole. We spent the night out there last night and pulled in a 32 inch channel. We also landed a 27 inch Walleye during the process. Once again though, no muskies.