Catfish Sex!

[Scott M]

How many times have you caught a fatty flattie or a chunky channel and wondered what the gender was? Only like every time, right!?!?

Well inquiring minds want to know these things so we're not kiss and releasing the boys and calling the males "beautiful" (they prefer "handsome").

Here's a rundown on sexing catfish:

1) Turn the fish over with the ventral (bottom) side up.

2) At the base of the anal fin, move your way headward.

3) Here's where if you are a biologist you have a handy dandy probe. Since we don't want to be poking rusty hooks or fingers into these orifices (just put yourself in the fish's shoes!), we'll just eyeball it. Look at the urogenital region. If there are two external pores, you are looking at a female. If you see one opening, it's a male. Females have both a genital pore and a urinary pore while males have one urogenital opening. Moving further headward, you will find the anal opening.

Impress your sophisticated catfish brethren with your amazing new information that will be scalded into your memory every time a cat flips over in the bottom of your boat.

I'm told that these technique works equally well for both flathead and channel catfish.

Is it summer yet?

[DTro]

I.......uh.......er......um........well.......ah

Forget it.

[Shack]

Thanks for the info DC31!

Always wonder how to do that.

[Dave S]

UMMM........................nevermind

[wastewaterguru]

Dude, that explains it. I think all the fish I catch are female!!

[Borch]

Well.... Nevermind.

[harvey lee]

John, I'll let you check mine.

[DTro]

John, I'll let you check mine.

I....ah......you know......um.....well

forget it

[Scott M]

Tom, I thought you only caught females, being the ladies man and all. At least that's what I thought the story was when you talked about catching a bad case of cat rash from one of em. Don't you know you're supposed to wear protection for that kind of stuff?

Catfishermen knows its true, beauty is only a light switch away!

[polarsusd81]

Is there any truth to the story my fish farmer uncle told me? He said that on channels, the narrower heads are females and the broader heads are males? Something to check on I guess. He farms channel cats in Arkansas and has been doing so for 40+ years. Maybe I can stump him next time I go for a visit.

[Scott M]

During spawning season, absolutely yes. Males get really bucked up, darker colored, heads swell like deer. But the rest of the year they are tough to distinguish.

[JimBuck]

Cool. Thanks for the interesting information da_chise.

[SteveD]

Thanks for the information - I'll store that way back in the deepest, darkest recesses of my memory. I'm interested in learning all I can about cats but after reading this I am no longer interested in their gender. I'm not about to go digging around in their swimsuit areas to figure out if it's a He or a She. I'll just pass on kissing one from now on so I don't hurt anybody's feelings.

[crazyice]

So does that mean that those pics qualify as cat porn??

[DTro]

bump for a curious lurker

[AceintheHole]

[MamaCat]

You know, I have been reading this forum for the past month or so, and I think this is the FIRST time DTRO has been speachless!

[ec30_06]

Dc31 you must be real busy at work. When you are done with your cat porn my tanks will need filling.