Jordan River quick trip

[wagdog]

I hit the Jordan River for about an hour and a half this morning with my 4 year old. Between a crazy job and a new baby, I don't get out as much as I want. However, my 4 year old is hooked. I took him to Utah Lake a couple of times over the past two weeks and he has been able to catch some nice catfish every time. I thought we would try the river this morning just to change things up. We were using white bass meat and worms. The worms actually caught more fish for us today. Grundles of bullheads showed up today. Before my kiddo decided to jump in the river, he landed a 25 inch male channel. Not too long after that he decided to try the water out so that ended things a little early. Oh well. He told me we needed to get home so we could eat it anyhow. [][]
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[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]Nice work. Happy kid...happy dad.

PS...the catfish is a female. You'd think you would know the difference between boys and girls by now. I know. Fish is differment.
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[wagdog]

Maybe that catfish was identifying as a male yesterday?? Too soon?

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I thought the head was a little too wide to be a female but the coloration seemed to be more female than male. I know you've learnt me on the difference in the past but my brain is puny. What are the key differences again?
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[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]Beat not thyself about thy head and shoulders. This time of year the lines of male/female catfish identity become blurred at times. And judging gender based strictly upon color is not always valid.

Males are almost always darker than females. But during the spawn they go from grey to black...and the lips become even more puffy. Howsomever, a lot of female cats...especially larger ones...will also become darker and are easily misidentified as males.

Most cats over 20 inches that show mostly olive color can be safely assumed to be female. The other indicators are a head equal to or narrower than the width of the body at the dorsal fin. And, unless the fish is in poor health, the belly on a female will be heavier...even without eggs.

But, if an olive colored female has a dark face and head, she is coloring up to spawn. That confuses some folks. Here is a picture of one.
[inline "BLACK FACE MAMA.jpg"]

Now, bigger females...close to spawning...may turn all dark...dark enough to look like males. But again, the shape of the head and the heftier body are good indicators that the fish is not male. Here is a picture of the 29 1/2 incher I caught in May.
[inline "BIGGUN 2.jpg"]

And here is a picture of the 30 incher caught recently by BLK's grandson...CatCarson. It was posted as being a male...but it is visibly not.
[inline "CAT CARSON.jpg"]

Here is a picture of the 26 inch male I caught last week at Lindon. The head is very much wider than the body.
[inline "DARK DADDY.jpg"]

And this picture shows the exaggerated lips of the big ol' daddy cats.
[inline "DADDY CAT.JPG"]
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[wagdog]

Thanks for the refresher. You hit the nail on the head. The dark head with the olive body confrused me (confrused - more than ). Well I guess what I need to do is more research and sampling. Maybe I'll leave the kiddo at home next time for an extended trip.
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[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]"In depth" research is always a good way to gather more data...and more fish.
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