17^ NORTHERN FISHES 



swift water in which it usually hves. The mouth is rather small, for a 

 catfish, and has very long barbels. In color it is a light bluish olive, 

 lighter on the sides, and more or less thickly covered with circular spots 

 of a bluish-ash color. The anal fin has 24 to 29 rays. Under favorable 

 conditions this catfish attains a length of 3 feet and a weight of more 

 than 25 pounds, but the weight of those usually called "fiddlers" rarely 

 exceeds 3 or 4 pounds, and they are often much smaller. 



The channel catfish ranges from Montana to the Ohio Valley and 

 southward through the Mississippi Valley to the Gulf of Mexico, into 

 Mexico, and into Florida. In Minnesota this catfish is common in most 

 of the larger clear, swift tributaries of the Mississippi, such as the St. 

 Croix and other streams to the southward. Cox (1897) reported it 

 from the Red River at Moorhead and Grand Forks, and from the 

 Ottertail and Red Lake rivers. It prefers large streams w^ith strong 

 currents. 



Its occurrence in Lake Superior and its tributaries is uncertain; 

 Greene (1935) did not find it in the Lake Superior drainage in Wiscon- 

 sin, though he reported its probable occurrence in the Lake Michigan 

 drainage. However, the specimens collected in 1941 from the St. 

 Loui? River and tentatively identified as 7. lacustris ptinctatus may defi- 

 nitely assign this subspecies to the Lake Superior drainage. Cox (1897) 

 reported it from the Red River of the North and its main tributaries, 

 but investigations conducted by Olson and Slager in 1932 throughout 

 this stream and numerous tributaries as far down as Fargo failed to 

 indicate its presence at that time. It still occurs in the Minnesota and 

 Blue Earth rivers and is common in the Mississippi and St. Croix and 

 their larger tributaries. 



Little is known of its spawning habits in Minnesota, beyond the fact 

 that it spawns in very swift waters, usually sometime during early 

 spring and never later than July 1. Efforts to propagate it under arti- 

 ficial conditions have so far resulted only in failure. However, it has 

 recently responded to some degree to propagation under seminatural 

 conditions (Morris, 1939) in Missouri, where the eggs are said to hatch 

 in seven days at a temperature of 78° to 83° F. 



Channel catfish, like others of their kind, are omnivorous in diet, 

 nothing apparently coming amiss to them. They seem to eat more clams 

 and water snails than any of the other catfishes do. In Illinois Forbes 

 and Richardson showed that their principal food, 44 per cent of all they 

 eat, consists of insect larvae. They bite readily on live minnows and 

 crayfishes and are often caught at night by still-fishing or on setlines. 

 Most of the catfishes are nocturnal in habits, but the channel cat is an 

 exception, at least during certain seasons of the year. In June and early 

 July it will often rise during the day to the fly of the bass fisherman. 

 This species is a very desirable food fish, for the flesh is fine, white, and 

 of excellent flavor. 



