PlanetCatfish.com

I live and fish in North Central Wyoming. This past summer I was fishing a local private pond and accidently snagged an 18lb fish. Being a catfish novice, I did some research and found that our area only has Flatheads, Channel cats, and Bullheads. Upon futher study of pics that I'd taken, it most closely resembles a world class bullhead, but what do I know. I'm working on uploading the pics. Till then I could email them to anyone who wants to take a look.
Thanks, Carter

That sounds like a recod breaker.

I believe our WY record is 2.7 and the World is 7.5lbs, it's a stretch to think mine is an 18lb bullhead. That's the closest match I can find for the pics I've got and the the research I've done. I do have a pic of the fish at http://www.bighornadventure.com. I will try again to get the pics on the forum.

As a fellow Western fisherman (Flyfisherman familiar with the fishing in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming) I would say you caught a juvenile flathead cat. Bullheads just don't grow that large and the colder climate further reduces their size compared to the SE USA Bullhead populations. I think you already basically realize this at some level.

I didn't find the pic on that site, but I would guess you got a flathead, not a bullhead. Here (Iowa) it's not unusual for people to pull HUGE flatheads out of the river. While fishing one night, I watched a guy for about 3 hours drag in a big flathead....67 pounder! We all took pictures of it and listened to it "talk" as it was sitting on the guy's tailgate of his truck and then put it back in the river.

I have caught an albino chanel cat before - which I should dig up pictures of. That was a huge surprise to get and fun!

If this is the picture in question then I'm pretty certain it's a blue catfish Ictalurus furcatus.

Looks like a blue to me as well, but maybe a channel cat. Remember, you said "private pond", so it was probably stocked.

Our channel Catfish all have deeply forked caudal fins.

apistomaster wrote:Our channel Catfish all have deeply forked caudal fins.

Yeah, but the fork is much less pronounced when they get big. This applies to blues as well. And it is hard to tell much about the tail fork from this picture. I think that the shape of the anal fin is a better distinguishing characteristic, but again, it is hard to tell from the picture. It looks rounded (i.e., a blue catfish). But, I do not think that blues would like it this far north and west. And, I do not think that blues are a commonly stocked species.

All the catfish in the Columbia River drainage were introduced in the 1880's. They intended channel and bullhead cats but a few blues and flatheads also became established. I have caught channel cats to 10 lbs and they looked just like the 4-5 lb fish. They were much more streamlined and had deeply forked caudal fins but the winters and colder water doesn't allow them to grow as big as the do where it's warmer. I have seen a flat head cat caught locally out of the Snake River and it was about 40 lb.s. It looked a lot like the big catfish in the photo but was much darker and had muddled markings. Seemed like it was 1/3 head and the head was very compressed and was wide mouthed. There are probably hundreds of channel cats caught for every flat head.
But basically channel cat have to live in very cold fast water compared to their native waters.

bullhead wrote:

apistomaster wrote:Our channel Catfish all have deeply forked caudal fins.

Yeah, but the fork is much less pronounced when they get big. This applies to blues as well. And it is hard to tell much about the tail fork from this picture. I think that the shape of the anal fin is a better distinguishing characteristic, but again, it is hard to tell from the picture. It looks rounded (i.e., a blue catfish). But, I do not think that blues would like it this far north and west. And, I do not think that blues are a commonly stocked species.

Yeah, the anal fin would be the best indication but I cannot see it well in that picture and you're right about the tail being less forked in larger specimens so I did not use it as an ID tool...no way is it a flathead or bullhead. It chould be a channel, large channels look a lot like blues but I'm leaning towards a blue with this individual. Blues aren't native to Wyoming but according to this link they do live in the state (introduced).
http://taurus.cnr.colostate.edu/projects/cofishguide/