Chuck7

Hello Partner,
I wasn't looking for an arguement..I/m teaching a unit right now on Wildlife in the classroom. Here is why I think your fish is a nice blue catfish..



Note the bottom anal fin..The channels are short and have about 24 rays {Or lines} The blue is long..like your fish and has over 39 rays{or lines.} I won't keep hammering on this though..great fish..also your fish is missing the spots and has a large head..Channels have a smaller head...and black spots.
Chuck7

maglite

indianahunter83

http://www.katmasters.com/channel.html

Bottom picture on this site looks an awful lot like his. Not all channel cats have spots. None of the ones we catch in the river near me have them.

Chuck7

"I know that we stocked it with channel cats and I dont think blue cats will live and grow in a stock tank / farm pond."

Yes sir..I've caught the blue catfish in Maryland in a little community pond..Tehy actually had both..Blues are stronger tasting than channels.An older channel can lose thier spots..but a catfish with 39 rays on the anal fin would certainly be a blue..Where I fish at you can catch as many blue cats as you wish but only 6 channels..They are very similiar and most fisherman call all forked tail catfish channels..

Have a Happy Easter partner..By the way ../your catfish was 3 pounds bigger than mine..
Mine was only 11.5

maglite

LOL Mines bigger!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks for the info all I know is it was fun to catch, the kids had a ball, and it was good eating, and it was a CATFISH of some sort!!!!! lol

indianahunter83

I did a little more research on fish identification and the number of rays is not as important as the shape of the anal fin. A blue cat's fin is more squared off while a channel's is rounded. Above picture shows a rounded off anal fin which strongly suggests channel catfish.

F3d

It looks like a channel catfish to me.

kingvjack

It is a channel cat... and a damn fine one fora pond cat.... Nice job... I used to catch slobs like that in the potomac.... not so much anymore...
Here's a smaller blue cat though...

mossberghunter93

nice fish

mez

Channel cat