Bullhead Cats

[Nightsniper]

Does anyone still fish for Bullheads??

[Uncle Howie]

In southern MN, they have sort of a mixed status. Not many seem to fish for them, but most will concede they like to eat them- especially out of cold water.
Some of the commercial fishermen trap them. One local American Legion has a regular bullhead feed.
Lots of folks come up from Iowa to fish them. They seem to appreciate the fact that most of the locals don't fish 'em! 

[hillbill]

we really dont have any that i know of near where i live now in sw mo.when i was a kid me and my gpa would catch them in wisconsin. if i remember correctly they have more bones than a regular catfish. we would skin them and cut off head and tail.then gma would fry them up. when done correctly the flesh would flake away leaving the bones intact on the spine.tasted fine to me but a bit more work to eat than a perch fillet.

[JonnyReb]

 My Uncle Bill took me fishing under a bridge in the maIne\endicott N.Y. area when i was 5 or 6. The creek or "Crick" as they called it, was actually named Naticoke creek if i remember right. I think we were equally surprised when i caught a 10" or so bullhead with my first cast. My Uncle cerimoniously showed me how to lay the fish on a bed of wet ferns in a wicker trout creel. It was all i caught that day and in fact may have been my first fish, i think it was but i'm not sure. My aunt cooked it but i don't recall actually eating it, but i know we did. Was the last bullhead i ever caught as there are none where i live here in the south. The Naticoke is now almost completely choked with huge clumps of some kinda long strand algae and the only fish in their last time i visited was chubs\suckers of some kind. Thanks for the memory.  J

[bubbinator]

When I was a little boy in Iowa (late 40s) we caught Bullheads from streams in Central Iowa and they ate good. Much to my surprise in 2009, my grandboys caught a nice 2#+ bullhead from a AL farm pond!  It was released and shortly there after one of them landed a great 8#+ bass on  his 3rd cast with a plastic worm! That cost me $275.  Bulheads are caught frequently in AL farm ponds and eat good. The meat is sweet and firm.  Our favorite target fish for a fry are small catfish under 2#.

[BAGTIC]

When I lived in California I fished for them all the time. I prefer them to channel cat for eating.. Don't know of any nearby here in the southerhn Missouri Ozarks. ironically I have recently been searching the internet for some to stock a couple of my ponds. One pond is very small, about 1/8 acre and doesn't have anything in it now. The other is 1-1.25 acre and is stocked with channel cats, some up to 6 pounds, and sunfish (brim?). The problem is that they are not reliable spawners and I get tired of buying new ones every couple years. If I thought i could maintain a self sustaining crop of 10-12+ inch bullheads I would make the switch in a moment.
Actually I have eaten a lot of 8-9 inch ones. In California I could catch the limit of 30 in about an hour, fast as I could bait the hook. Me and my two buddies would catch a limit each and deep fry them with 5-6 pounds of french fries.. They would almost last through a football game on TV. Never filleted them as most were too small. The largest I ever caught was 15 inches and about 2.5 pounds but few were over 12-13 inches.
Bullheads do not have more bones than other catfish. I got to where I could skin and clean them in about a minute each. When cleaning do not cut off the fins. Use skinning pliers to pull them out by the roots.
BTW all fish taste better when taken from cold/clear water.  I catch and freeze  a lot of channel cats in the winter to tide us over the summer season plankton bloom.

[hillbill]

When I lived in California I fished for them all the time. I prefer them to channel cat for eating.. Don't know of any nearby here in the southerhn Missouri Ozarks. ironically I have recently been searching the internet for some to stock a couple of my ponds. One pond is very small, about 1/8 acre and doesn't have anything in it now. The other is 1-1.25 acre and is stocked with channel cats, some up to 6 pounds, and sunfish (brim?). The problem is that they are not reliable spawners and I get tired of buying new ones every couple years. If I thought i could maintain a self sustaining crop of 10-12+ inch bullheads I would make the switch in a moment.
Actually I have eaten a lot of 8-9 inch ones. In California I could catch the limit of 30 in about an hour, fast as I could bait the hook. Me and my two buddies would catch a limit each and deep fry them with 5-6 pounds of french fries.. They would almost last through a football game on TV. Never filleted them as most were too small. The largest I ever caught was 15 inches and about 2.5 pounds but few were over 12-13 inches.
Bullheads do not have more bones than other catfish. I got to where I could skin and clean them in about a minute each. When cleaning do not cut off the fins. Use skinning pliers to pull them out by the roots.
BTW all fish taste better when taken from cold/clear water.  I catch and freeze  a lot of channel cats in the winter to tide us over the summer season plankton bloom.

many years ago when i was a kid in sw mo we had some ponds with bullheads in them.we could catch them and you would see swarms of baby bullheads near the surface in the spring.maybe 2 inches long.all those ponds went dry and killed everything in them.but i think to get bullheads to eating size yu may have to manage your pond well as they seem to overpopulate easy and then they grow slowly or get stunted.i have one pond i put 5 or 6 bullheads in maybe 7 years ago and have never fished.i need to fish it and see whats goin on. i found them in a creek we were doing a new bridge construction in.

[bilmac]

Bullheads was the only fish my dad would go fishing for. First time he went with me he insisted he needed a willow stick with a string, but I finally convinced him to try a real fishing pole.

[BAGTIC]

HILLBILL,
I'm thinking my Muscovy ducks should be able to keep them from overpopulating. They seem to have worked with the sunfish which are also known for overpopulating small ponds.  They have been so good at suppressing my formerly large population of water snakes that they are no longer a commonplace occurrence.

[hunt-m-up]

In southern MN, they have sort of a mixed status. Not many seem to fish for them, but most will concede they like to eat them- especially out of cold water.
Some of the commercial fishermen trap them. One local American Legion has a regular bullhead feed.
Lots of folks come up from Iowa to fish them. They seem to appreciate the fact that most of the locals don't fish 'em! 

Many Iowans fish the grade between IA and MN for them. Been to Lake Benton in MN after them a few times, but haven't fished them in years. If they're biting it's hard to keep a line in the water, we started to keep only the ones large enough to filet. If a pond around here gets too shallow and muddy to support much else it will usually have a large population of stunted bullheads.

[streak]

HILLBILL,
I'm thinking my Muscovy ducks should be able to keep them from overpopulating. They seem to have worked with the sunfish which are also known for overpopulating small ponds.  They have been so good at suppressing my formerly large population of water snakes that they are no longer a commonplace occurrence.

Bagtic,
That is interesting information on those Muscovy ducks!

[Nightsniper]

Those stunted Bullheads would make great Flathead Bait.  Back in the 60s when I was a kid, my Mom & Dad and Sisters would go fishin all night long and catch 20-30 Bullheads.  There wasn't a lot of Channels and Flatheads were far and few between, Now its the other way around.

[hillbill]

Those stunted Bullheads would make great Flathead Bait.  Back in the 60s when I was a kid, my Mom & Dad and Sisters would go fishin all night long and catch 20-30 Bullheads.  There wasn't a lot of Channels and Flatheads were far and few between, Now its the other way around.

thats one of the reasons id like to get a start of bullheads in one of my ponds.you could catch those small ones with a throw net and clip the horns off them and use them for limbline bait.they will live for days even with a decent size hook in them.

[BAGTIC]

When I was in California Fish & Game advised that we should not throw back undersized sunfish as it promoted stunting. Fish like fruit needs to be thinned if you want good size.