I've found over the last few years the the spots I consistently catch bigger smallmouth bass at almost without exception are good places to catch a catfish on a lure. A decade ago it seemed like it was a novelty to catch a catfish on a lure. Sure it happened a few times a year but it wasn't something you could expect to happen while out wading the river for smallies. You were as likely to catch a big river crappie or a drum or a saugeye as you were a catfish. But as I've concentrated more and more on just trying to catch a big smallmouth and not just a bunch of little ones a funny thing happened, I began to catch a catfish nearly every trip. Sometimes several and sometimes some nice big flatheads. And my friend Dan got me started fishing lipless crankbaits and big swimbaits below lowhead dams and in bend pools at night with the idea of just catching catfish. So in part to help my never ending quest for the next big smallmouth and it part because I'm falling in love with catfish on their own I've been studying catfish a lot lately. They are really just about the most interesting fish that swims I've found out. And it sure doesn't hurt that they get huge. All you have to do is Google the legendary catfisherman Robby Robinson to see how exciting catfishing can be if you go after trophy cats. Here are a few things I've learned about these amazing fish.
Probably nothing on earth has the ability to taste like a catfish does. They are essentially one big giant taste bud as they have them scattered all over their body. I tried finding out how many and one source says 175,000 another 500,000 and then another said a quarter million were counted on a six inch long catfish! I'm guessing the number varies according to what species of catfish and what size the catfish is. It's probably mind boggling how many are on a giant hundred pound blue cat. Besides having untold numbers packed inside their mouths and gill rakers, cats have them scattered all over their body even on their fins and tail. It's impossible to touch a catfish anywhere without it being able to taste you!
To me though that's not nearly as freaky as a catfish's sense of smell. Over and over I've read where catfish can smell at least one part per ten billion. So what the heck does that mean? Well one part per ten billion is a bit over 833 FEET out of 160,000 MILES!!! Or a distance less than three football fields long out of a trip six and times around the earth. I still can't come close to wrapping my mind around that but it comes closer than saying one part per ten billion does. Hopefully my math was right on all that but either way you get the idea, its more than a lot. Some numbers are just too big to comprehend. And a catfishes sense of smell is just too good to comprehend, A fish smells by passing water over sensitive folds inside it's nostrils or nares as they are called on a fish. A small bass might have five or six and a big trophy smallmouth might have 18 or 20 of these folds. Members of the trout family who have 18 or 20 as well. Well ladies and gentlemen your average channelcat has something like 140 plus folds in his nares.
And even though catfish are known for their extraordinary senses of taste and smell their superpowers do not stop there. Take for example their sense of hearing. In most of the world's fish their swim bladder is separate and unconnected to their inner ear. And most fish can hear really well. But like everything else the catfish takes it to the next level. In catfish anatomy their swim bladder is connected by tiny bones to their inner ear and their entire swim bladder functions in essence as a giant eardrum. The hearing of a catfish is many many times more acute than that of most fish like a bass.
Catfish actually also have a sense of electroreception. Like sharks and rays and paddlefish it turns that catfish can actually sense minute electrical impulses given off by prey. It's a very close range sense probably only a centimeter or two but they can use it when rooting around in muddy water for prey on the bottom. In one study I read large magnets were placed under fish tanks and these had no effect on fish like striped bass and bass but channel catfish would change their location away from the unseen magnet when it was placed under them.
And even though it isn't developed into a superpower catfish can see perfectly well, probably something like a bluegill or bass. Their eyesight isn't a priority like it is with sight feeders like trout or bass but there is certainly nothing lacking in it.
Catfish of course have the amazing lateral line that other fish have. There are a few studies where catfishes ability to capture prey in the dark was studied. Some catfish had their lateral line severed. Using their other super senses they could still capture prey but their ability was diminished and it took them much longer to capture prey. Lateral lines on fish are a series of tiny fluid filled sacs along the fishes sides that can sense waves of water pressure given off by things in the water. In one study it was found that fish could actually sense how large or small another fish was and where it was located by using nothing but their lateral line.
And we cannot forget the feature that gives a catfish it's name, those whiskers. Catfish use those whiskers as highly sensitive feelers that enable them to do something most other fish cannot. Which is to say "reach out and touch" something without have to bite down on it. These whiskers are also sensitive to water currents and probably vibrations and in one study of a catfish found in Japan it turns out catfish use their whiskers to test the PH of the water and it was found they were as sensitive as the lab equipment in finding changes in PH levels. It seems that these catfish preyed on an aquatic worm and at night the catfish were detecting changes in PH given off by the worms breathing to find them even when they were buried in the mud of the bottom.
Small wonder that catfish can operate in any environment from gin clear water to muddy water you cannot see a half an inch into. All these incredible senses have combined to make the catfish the worlds most successful fish. There are something like 3000 species of catfish that are known but there are probably even more than that as catfish seem to thrive in very habitat on earth and there are lots of remote places left on earth where all the fish species haven't been sampled yet.
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