Maryland Blue Cats

[Fredrick]

This video of blue cats feeding in Maryland is crazy. Anyone ever see channel or flatheads do this ?

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Blue cats feeding

 

[redietz]

Not in anywhere those numbers, but I have taken channel cats on top while fishing for SMB.

 

[ryansheehan]

Not in anywhere those numbers, but I have taken channel cats on top while fishing for SMB.

Was there a feeding machine there, I kept hearing a weird sound. That video is unreal!

 

[Fredrick]

Was there a feeding machine there, I kept hearing a weird sound. That video is unreal!

That noise is the fish gulping.

 

[wildtrout2]

That is crazy!

 

[JeffK]

When I was a kid we caught channel cats on the surface feeding on dropping mulberries. Not like the video though.

 

[goose54cdd]

Are they eating blue crabs?

 

[Mike]

It could be what you say, but I’m not convinced that they are feeding so much as gulping for air air/water surface interface where the water is oxygenated. A possible reason why they are at the surface is that there are so many cats and smaller bait fish upon which they may be feeding that are concentrated in a big school. Their abundance may using up the oxygen below. The bait fish look like they could be gizzard shad or possibly white perch as they go by on their sides on the upstream side of the dock. They are possibly on their sides because of a dissolved oxygen grab or lack of space at the surface.

Also, it is at night so no D.O is being produced, but there are plenty of fish to use it up in a limited space. This happens with menhaden at times causing large kills. Cats aren’t exceptionally sensitive to low D. O. The other question that comes to mind is whether there is a warm discharge of some type just upstream from there, such as an industrial discharge, STP, or other that is attracting all of these fish in the first place.

 

[sixfootfenwick]

🤷
Let nature sort it out.
The superior species will win.
Right?

 

[Tigereye]

It could be what you say, but I’m not convinced that they are feeding so much as gulping for air air/water surface interface where the water is oxygenated. A possible reason why they are at the surface is that there are so many cats and smaller bait fish upon which they may be feeding that are concentrated in a big school. Their abundance may using up the oxygen below. The bait fish look like they could be gizzard shad or possibly white perch as they go by on their sides on the upstream side of the dock. They are possibly on their sides because of a dissolved oxygen grab or lack of space at the surface.

Also, it is at night so no D.O is being produced, but there are plenty of fish to use it up in a limited space. This happens with menhaden at times causing large kills. Cats aren’t exceptionally sensitive to low D. O. The other question that comes to mind is whether there is a warm discharge of some type just upstream from there, such as an industrial discharge, STP, or other that is attracting all of these fish in the first place.

I had a whole bunch of questions about that video. You answered them.

Thx

 

[Mike]

One other observation would be that it isn’t clear from how far the cats were attracted to that spot in the video, so it can’t be determined how abundant they are overall based on the video alone. That does not detract, however, from this impressive concentration of fish and I have read elsewhere that the cats are abundant in the Chesapeake or else in certain regions thereof.

 

[ryansheehan]

That noise is the fish gulping.

Unreal