Can anyone ID these catfish?

[fishndirk]

Caught these two catfish at different times. The first one I caught back in April and the second one my buddy caught today in August. The first one I thought at first was a Flathead but now im not so sure after seeing the one my buddy caught today. The first one weighed in at just under 12 pounds. The second one weighed in today at 5 pounds. Mouth and heads are way to big to be channel cats or blues. Im starting to think they are iether black or brown bullheads but if this is the case than we've got some kind of record goin on here cause everything ive read says they dont get that big. Both were caught in New River North Carolina about 3 miles upriver from the US17 bridge. Any thoughts?View attachment 106707

 

[paultjohnson]

Re: Can anyone ID these catfish?

Have you contacted your local DNR office ? They be able to help identify, or give direction...

 

[jigngrub]

Re: Can anyone ID these catfish?

They look like White Catfish to me. They are native to your area and are sometimes called white bullhead.

http://www.hrla.com/NCFish/white-catfish.htm

You can tell by the slightly forked tail. Flatheads and Bullheads have a square tail with no fork, Blues and Channels have a deep fork in their tails.


Note the deep fork in this Blues tail.

... and the square tail on this Flathead.

 

[fishndirk]

Re: Can anyone ID these catfish?

Looks like white catfish are the money maker on this one. Did some more research and thats the closest thing to what were catching in those waters out here. Im a very dedicated catfish guy too and I aint never noticed this species before (probly cause I just moved). I thought I'd seen white catfish before but turns out they must have been just real pale channel cats. These White cats do not have the head, mouth, color, or tail of a channel cat. I knew right away they werent a blue cat but I have to say I did mistake them for young flathead catfish at first. Thanks for the tips. I guess we rednecks think too much of eating when we catch a fish like that. Words like DNR just aint in our vocabulary when we catch a fish. Didnt think about it till later, you know? That 12 pounder was cut up in my freezer just a few hours after I caught it. Tasted mighty good.

 

[Sander]

Re: Can anyone ID these catfish?

That is definitely a white catfish, none of the bullheads have a forked tail, and none of them reach over 8lb.

 

[jigngrub]

Re: Can anyone ID these catfish?

Looks like white catfish are the money maker on this one. Did some more research and thats the closest thing to what were catching in those waters out here. Im a very dedicated catfish guy too and I aint never noticed this species before (probly cause I just moved). I thought I'd seen white catfish before but turns out they must have been just real pale channel cats. These White cats do not have the head, mouth, color, or tail of a channel cat. I knew right away they werent a blue cat but I have to say I did mistake them for young flathead catfish at first. Thanks for the tips. I guess we rednecks think too much of eating when we catch a fish like that. Words like DNR just aint in our vocabulary when we catch a fish. Didnt think about it till later, you know? That 12 pounder was cut up in my freezer just a few hours after I caught it. Tasted mighty good.

That 12 pounder you caught was near the state record of 13 lbs.

You should go back to that spot and see if his fat wife is at home.

 

[fishndirk]

Re: Can anyone ID these catfish?

Thats exactly what I was thinking. I just found out about the 13 pound record yesterday. I will definately be back there to drop a snack on their front door step soon.