Starting your own catfish stock is easier than you might think. Learn how to raise catfish at home in a pond to harvest for the dinner table.
Raising channel catfish can be rewarding. Whether you’re looking to sell them commercially or raise them for fishing yourself, watching them grow is therapeutic. Initially, you can stock your pond or lake with channel catfish at a ratio of around 100 fingerlings per acre if you also have bass and sunfish, or you can use more catfish per acre if that’s all you’re raising. Whether you stock with purchased catfish fingerlings or have the conservation department stock them, raising them takes a little bit of care.
Though catfish are hardy, fingerlings are still babies. Carefully transfer your fingerlings into their habitat by gradually replacing the water they came in with water from your habitat before finally releasing them into the water, which will often be warmer than the water they’re transported in. This process is to avoid shock and can take 45 minutes to an hour. Channel catfish thrive in warm water. Once the fingerlings are well-adjusted to your water temperature, feed them with floating or sinking fish food.
If you’ve stocked your pond on your own, consider putting up “no trespassing” signs to avoid someone accidentally finding your pond and fishing it. Here in Missouri, the conservation department will stock your pond for free; however, if it does, you’re required to allow the public to fish in your pond.
You can buy catfish fingerlings in southeast Missouri at about 50 cents each – nearly the same price they were 25 years ago. Some distributors want to get rid of them quickly, as many people prefer to buy bass and sunfish.
I like to feed my channel catfish with floating food, which allows me to find out how well they’re growing as they hit the surface. If they eat often enough and there’s plenty of rain, which produces oxygen in the water, they should grow to be about a foot long within 18 months, and some may be ready to harvest by then. If you feed them regularly, channel catfish are usually ready to harvest between one and two years.
When you begin feeding them, it’ll take a little while for them to get used to the sound of food hitting the water. The sound and smell will become second nature throughout the years. If using floating food, you don’t have to target only the catfish, as smaller bait fish (if present) will eat it, and catfish eat other fish! They’ll eat anything with plenty of protein, so research options at your local feed store.
I like to leave aeration up to nature and the elements; however, feeding your fish can stimulate activity, thereby aerating the water. Floating food will cause discord among the fish, and the churning fish will help introduce oxygen into the water, which will be especially beneficial if you have a smaller pond that needs rain.
Keeping your fish thriving involves only a few simple guidelines. Some people like to have creeks run into their intended body of water and have an overflow area in case it floods. This allows bugs to flood into them quickly, which channel catfish love! Of course, it also prevents any standing water from becoming stagnant.
Some people will put old Christmas trees in their habitat as an added structure for the fish to hide in or around. You can also use straight poles bunched together vertically for an artificial safe haven that’s easier to fish. It’s not ideal, however, to have many bigger trees growing around your pond or lake, because their roots can disturb a new body of water from settling on its own, causing it to crack and lose water. Do your due diligence to customize your designated habitat according to the area it’s in.
Of course, the more you feed your channel catfish, the bigger they’ll get. If you continue stocking your habitat throughout the years, you’ll be able to catch different sizes. This will add an interesting element to your fishing!
Some people like to stock their pond with catfish within an enclosed cage and feed them there for a few years. It’s just a floating, circular tube in the habitat with catfish already inside. You can simply throw the food into the floating circle cage. Some fish may flop out on occasion. However, when they’re big enough to eat, all you’ll have to do is pull in the floating cage, and you’ll have a bunch of well-fed catfish ready to be dinner!
Gradually, your habitat may start producing food for them on its own, and you may find it majestic to see the interdependence of the catfish and the perennial changes and development of it all. You may see a variety of plants growing around or in your pond or lake. Some of them can be beneficial, as they’ll attract insects. Just make sure the plants aren’t invasive.
Channel catfish will eat all kinds of insects, larvae, worms, snails, and even other fish. Because you’re feeding them by hand, remember they mainly need protein to grow big. Also, if you ever have leftover minnows from fishing, you can put them in your pond. Like the plants, make sure not to introduce an invasive species. (Crawfish can be invasive, depending on where you live!)
Channel catfish don’t require a high degree of maintenance. If you really want to raise them efficiently, place a pump and an island or a gazebo in the middle of the habitat to enhance a subtle current, like a simulated “channel.” Read up on aquaculture in your area, and then watch your lake or pond flourish with a diversity of wildlife in your very own fish farm!
As a seasoned writer and outdoorsman, Joseph Neel is passionate about practical living. As it’s been said: “No man enters the same river twice, as it’s not the same man and it’s not the same river.”
