What do you call this fish?

When I was in school we had good friends who had a 15 acre private lake/pond. It went dry one summer and we took every fish out of it. Lots of big bass, catfish etc.

They dug it out and added a lot of structure and a floating dock. Stocked it with channel cat, bass and crappie. It did become a great fishing lake but still the number one fish you’ll catch out of it is pictured below. They don’t get much bigger than about a foot long.

We had a name for them but what do you call them?

Part of my dinner.

Catfish

It’s not a typical catfish…

Not a channel cat…

Yellow Cats.....

I've heard them called bull heads or mud cats.

Pollywog or mud cat.

Bullheads

Filets can be edible. Remove everyone you catch.

Yellow Bullhead.

Yellow cat.

These only get about a foot long.

These only get about a foot long, found primarily in small stock tanks.

We always called them pollys. Caught them out of every muddy tank around when I was a kid.

Yup! We call them polywogs….

Technically I guess they are called bullhead catfish. Supposedly eat just like a channel. We always just threw them on the bank. They can survive in mud and are very prolific. I don’t mind them much as they are still fun to catch, especially for kids.

They could simply be stunted in size due to the numbers in the pond.

I catch those every once in a while in my lake and they can be 10-15#. Slimy as all get out too.

I have told my family to remove them if they get caught. Of course thats when they stop getting caught, as if they know

Mudcat all day up here!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ameiurus

yep

“Bullheads do not get as large as the other catfishes native to North America, with average sizes in the one to two-pound range and world record sizes well under 10 pounds”

Welp maybe what i catch is different then….looks just like that.

Might have caught flathead or yellow catfish, must not be bullheads.

Either way, what i know is if i catch anymore they are going out of the lake

Who knows? I do know these polywogs/bullhead/mud cats are found in most private stock tanks/lakes. I’ve never seen one in a large reservoir or lake but I’m sure they are in them.

I’ve caught hundreds if not a thousand since I was a little kid and have never seen one over a foot long.

Opelousas if on the Louisiana side of Toledo Bend. We would call them Ops for short, and catch them up to 50-55lbs on trotlines all the time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flathead_catfish

Bottom line, if they taste good fried, then they are called dinner

Bullhead/ mud cat, not to be confused with a flathead/ yellow cat/ opp. They are the bottom of the catfish world, if you can get a cooler full of 10-15” they aren’t bad eating, but I wouldn’t clean one or two. Feed em to the coons.

Yellow bullhead.

Polywogs

I hear they are great trotline bait for yellow cats.

Mudcat. Throw them on the bank.

I can't say on here what we call em.

Mud cat

Like a lot of species of fish that we caught when I was little, and all of those fish ended up being the best eating lol.....but not the mud cat. My only experience with one was.....it tasted exactly like the mud bottom cow tank it lived in lol.

Taste like mud.

Yes Sir but my only experience with them I was 12 or 13 yrs old. My buddy & I would get dropped off on a big ranch for days, made camp, and went hunting for food. We shot lots of rabbits etc to roast over the fire for supper but hey let's go fishing.....well, ok cool let's do it.

Those bullheads/mudcats somehow survived in those low chocolate brown Oxygen deficient tanks and we caught a few and cooked them. Both of us were kinda looking back & forth at each other while taking bites off that stick. Tasted like a muddy cow patty. I love the smell of cow [censored] so I don't know why I didn't like the mudcats but I didn't. The rabbits were WAY better lol.

I’ve eaten mud cats that tasted about the same as the channel cats we cooked with them, but they were caught in a clean tank.

Mud cat. When I was about 6 we moved up where my grandfather lived and had 4 tanks. I caught them by the 5 gallon bucket and tossed them in the garden. Trash fish and good after school activity.

Chughead

Tastes like chicken, just call it chicken.

Not big enough.

Mudcat.
I hope some of these guys in here are better at identifying 4 legged game than they are at identifying fish.

Pollywog or bullhead.

Most definitely not a yellow cat or flathead or Opelousas.

MO