Since it is Friday, I figured it would be fun to head down to our favourite lake for a little bit of fishing.  Don’t worry, I wanted to keep the Cat and Dog theme going into the weekend so we are going to try our luck with the Channel Catfish. The lake may be busy since Channel Catfish are the most fished of all the catfish species.  I can’t wait for summer so I can do a little bit of angling.  This snow is starting to frustrate me although I guess spring is rapidly approaching.

So we now know that lots of people like to fish for channel cats.  This reminds me of those videos of people fishing for catfish using their arms. For the record, that is definitely not my type of fishing and not recommended. What else do you want to know about channel catfish? How about this interesting little tidbit! Channel catfish actually have taste buds all over their body with numerous taste buds located on their four barbels (whiskers). This area around the mouth has 25 taste buds per millimeter! That is a whole lot of taste! The channel catfish also has an incredible sense of smell due to very sensitive odour sensing organs located in their nostrils. I wonder if they are able to detect how bad they actually smell? Although, I suppose a “fishy” smell to a fish wouldn’t be a bad smell.  Perhaps it is humans that smell bad to the catfish? I will stop rambling long enough to let you know that the catfish requires the super sense of taste and smell in order to detect prey species located in the dark, murky water.

We can’t talk about catfish and not address their defense mechanism which is a sharp spine that is often associated with a poison gland. These spines are located on the dorsal fin (back) and pectoral fins (side).  It may sting if you get stung with the spine of the channel catfish, however, it is not deadly and their is no need to worry.  Although, some species of catfish do have a deadly venom that can cause serious injury or death, obviously or else I wouldn’t have said “deadly venom”.  Many people may think it is the whiskers that cause the painful sting but trust me when I tell you it is the dorsal or pectoral spine.  If you want to find out more about poisonous catfish then I recommend you check out this article.  Recent studies have shown that many more catfish than originally thought contain a poison. Check it out here:

Killer Catfish? Venomous Species Surprisingly Common, Study Finds

Well, I guess you guys have read enough for this beautiful Friday.  I know it is beautiful since it is Friday!!  Have a great weekend!