Missouri Bull Shoals Lake Association

Channel Catfish

A slender catfish with a deeply forked tail. Young have spots which disappear with age. The channel cat is the most abundant and widely distributed large catfish in Missouri streams. Its diet includes animal and plant

material. Adults are commonly 12 to 32 inches long and weigh from 0.5 to 15 pounds.

Blue Catfish

Most often confused with the channel catfish, although it never has spots, and the outer margin of the anal fin is straight rather than curved. It occurs in the swift channels and pools of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers and their

principal tributaries (called "white cat" in Lake of the Ozarks.) The diet is mostly fish and insects. Adults are commonly 20 to 44 inches long and weigh three to 40 pounds; some reach 100 pounds or more..

Flathead Catfish

A slender catfish with broadly flattened head, projecting lower jaw and splotchy, light or dark brown color. It is one of the most abundant large catfishes in the Missouri and Mississippi rivers and their larger tributaries. Adults eat fish