# Help settle a bet



## catfishnut (Dec 23, 2010)

Caught this last year in my brother's lake, he said it's only stocked with channels but it looks like a shovelhead to me ( the color?). I've only fished for channels and have never targeted shovels. His lake was a pay lake before he bought it and I know they like to stock shovelheads in alot of the pay lakes. The cat was 31" and weighed 22lbs I've had several on line that were alot bigger than this guy but never got them all the way out of the lake, The second pic is of one of them...my bro was getting ready to take it's pic when I pulled it out, but instead took a pic of him when it got off at the shore and turned to swim off! That guy was alot bigger than the one being held up.


----------



## Snakecharmer (Apr 9, 2008)

No pics?.........


----------



## catfishnut (Dec 23, 2010)

Sorry about that I forgot to post themLOL......now there's pics!


----------



## SeanStone (Sep 8, 2010)

Channels for sure.


----------



## catfishnut (Dec 23, 2010)

SeanStone said:


> Channels for sure.


Well ya can't get any better than "for sure" thanks for the help!! I'd rather be catching big channels than small shovels!!LOL We figured they were mostlikely channels, but their coloring was so different than the smaller ones I usually catch.....now I just got to get one of those big boys!!! The best bait for them seems to be a 6-7" crappie.


----------



## SeanStone (Sep 8, 2010)

catfishnut said:


> Well ya can't get any better than "for sure" thanks for the help!! I'd rather be catching big channels than small shovels!!LOL We figured they were mostlikely channels, but their coloring was so different than the smaller ones I usually catch.....now I just got to get one of those big boys!!! The best bait for them seems to be a 6-7" crappie.


 Channels come in all sorts of colors. 

Green








brown








Blue









I have even seen gold/yellow channels....and of course there are white albinos. 

The tell tale sign is going to be the head. Flatheads/Shovelheads will have a wide flath/shovel like head. You'll notice in your pictures the channel in the water has a more pointed head.


----------



## catfishnut (Dec 23, 2010)

Thanks again guys, are channels this size any good to eat?? Not that I care to eat them......seems to me those big ones have got to be fairly old and I'd just wouldn't have the heart to kill them just for a few meals. It hasn't been a pay lake since around 96-97 and they stop stocking it then. My brother started stocking it when he got the place 5-6yrs ago but they were just 12"ers or so, so we figure they got to be from stockings in the late 90's?


----------



## SeanStone (Sep 8, 2010)

catfishnut said:


> Thanks again guys, are channels this size any good to eat?? Not that I care to eat them......seems to me those big ones have got to be fairly old and I'd just wouldn't have the heart to kill them just for a few meals. It hasn't been a pay lake since around 96-97 and they stop stocking it then. My brother started stocking it when he got the place 5-6yrs ago but they were just 12"ers or so, so we figure they got to be from stockings in the late 90's?


I don't eat fish I catch, but it is said that the small ones taste better....and it takes less time for the population to replenish small fish so its best to release the larger ones for breeding purposes....and of course its always more fun to catch the larger ones. 

My buddy has a pond that we stocked with 12" channels as well. We don't catch them often, but in four years they were over 6 pounds and 28" long. I imagine that at this point they will start adding two pounds a year and growing an inch a year until they max out, so by year 6 they may be 10+ pounds and around 30 inches. This of course is in a 3/4 acre pond, that has an average depth of around 6'...max of 13'. I imagine that since your fishing a former paylake it may be larger and deeper. If a food source is there they could be in the teens....maybe 20 pounds. So it could be possible that they were the ones you stocked if conditions were right. If i remember right the fish hatchery guy said they will live around 12 years on average, but some do live up to 30 years.


----------



## catfishnut (Dec 23, 2010)

Just called my bro to tell him they're channels and he told me that he stocked his first batch of cats (12"ers) three years ago,(spring of 09) I caught this guy on 9/03/10 ( it was on bro's B-day) so he's guessing they're are from the late 90's (96/97). There are easily 25+lbers in there, I'll post them if/when I actually manage to get one up and out of the lake.lol He was stocking it with trout up until this year when he stopped do it, so thoughs big cats had plenty of food to eat once the remaining trout died off the following spring/fall.


----------

