Catfish are a big draw at Clear Lake
Lake is ideal habitat for this long-lived, hard fighter
The recent spell of large catfish being caught in the lake shows that Clear Lake offers ideal habitat for one of America’s most popular game fish. There are literally thousands of channel catfish in Clear Lake. Most fishermen rate Clear Lake as the No. 1 bass lake in the country, but the catfish draws nearly as many anglers. For example, the annual Clearlake Oaks/Glenhaven Catfish Derby often attracts more than 1,000 anglers from throughout the country. No bass tournament at the lake comes even close to getting that many participants.
Clear Lake has three species of catfish — channel catfish, white catfish and the brown bullhead. While a number of fishermen claim blue catfish are in the lake, Department of Fish and Wildlife (DWF) biologists say that’s juist not the case. It’s the channel catfish that draws most of the attention and is the most numerous. The world record for a channel catfish is 58 pounds, the California record is 53.88 pounds, and the Clear Lake record is 33.57 pounds.
Even though the channel catfish is popular in Clear Lake many fishermen don’t know the biology of this amazing fish. Catfish aren’t native to California and the first stocking of catfish in the state occurred in 1874 when channel catfish were brought from the Mississippi Valley and placed in the San Joaquin River. They were stocked in Clear Lake around 1900.
Like all catfish, a channel catfish doesn’t have scales but a soft skin instead. A characteristic of all catfish is the presence of barbels around the mouth. The barbels are arranged in a pattern with four beneath the jaw and one on each tip of the upper jaw. They are part of their sensory glands and act as feelers to help them locate food and sense the surrounding area. They also have receptors along their skin, which can detect food and other odors in the water.
The channel catfish also has a deeply forked tail with 24-29 rays on the anal fin. The color of a channel catfish is normally blue on the back with whitish sides and belly. Young catfish normally have spots on their sides and their color is often dictated by the color of the water they inhabit. In clear water they appear almost black. In muddy water they can appear to be yellow.
Channel catfish normally feed at night and they tend to stay in the same area throughout their life. They eat a wide variety of plant and animal life, including other fish, snails, crawfish, green algae and aquatic plants. Their average lifespan is about 20 years although the oldest catfish on record lived to age 40.
Channel catfish spawn during the spring months when the water temperature is between 75-85 degrees. They are cavity spawners, meaning they prefer to spawn in hollow, sunken trees or rock crevices. Like most fish, the male builds the nest and attracts a female to deposit her eggs. The females spawn once a year and produce about 4,000 eggs per pound of body weight. At Clear Lake, many of the channel catfish spawn in the sunken tires that originally were placed into the lake as spawning structures. After the eggs are laid, they normally hatch within five to 10 days. Newly hatched fry have a large yolk sac, which provides them nourishment for their first two to five days.
Catfish are popular because of their excellent eating qualities and many markets carry catfish fillets. In fact, commercial catfish farms are common throughout the country. At one time there was a large catfish farm located in Lake County.
Fishermen use a wide variety of baits for catfish and they include liver, hot dogs, chicken guts, nightcrawlers and live minnows. A few fishermen make up a concoction bait consisting of various old cheese and decayed meat. In other words, they say the worse the bait smells the more the catfish like it.
A large catfish has tremendous power and it takes strong gear to land one. Most catfishermen use medium to heavy rods with 20- to 30-pound test line. It’s not unusual for a large channel catfish to break the line and swim off. To land a large channel catfish on light equipment can provide the thrill of a lifetime.