Bullhead or Catfish ?

Identifying Bullhead & Catfish 

Channel catfish have deeply forked tails; bullheads do not. Bullhead are typically a stockier fish, rounded tail and head. There are something like 27 different species of catfish in the U.S. You can cook them any way you like. Frying is usually the easiest because most of these fish are rather small. Most fishermen skin them, cut the head and tail off, remove entrails, clean, and throw in the fryer whole. Here's a much easier way to clean catfish! If you catch them out of clear, hard-bottom streams or lakes, they usually taste better.

Catfish/Bullheads

The Bullhead Catfish is the most common member of the catfish family. Catfish are named for the long feelers on their faces that look like cat whiskers. Bullheads are brown above and yellow below. They can grow to twenty inches long.

All catfish have sharp barbs on their pectoral fins that inject poison when they jab an enemy.  To people, catfish "stings" are no  worse than insect bites.  Remember, it is their fin barbs that sting, not their whiskers.

Bull head catfish will eat anything from snails to aquatic plants.  They rarely come near the surface and, because of their muddy coloring, are hard to detect in the water.  But in the spring thousands of spawning bullheads can be seen crowding the shallow of lake-feeding streams.  Here the females lay their eggs in a sand nest.  The males fertilize the eggs.  Both males and females guard the eggs and also the hatched fry.  Then the father takes charge and teaches the baby bullheads how to find food and avoid danger.

Bullhead & Catfish Information Resources

How to Clean Catfish & Bullhead

Catfish Bullhead Fish Cleaning Testimonials

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Document updated
Monday, 25-Jan-2010 10:10:37 CST