Wife and I decided to explore some new areas to fish. We went down to the N. Edisto and up near the Dawhoo bridge. Took a right and followed ‘fishing creek’ looking for some likely fishy areas. Found a deep hole that showed a lot of fish on the Lowrance. Dropped in some live shrimp and pulled one in after another of some type of catfish. Google lens says that they were white bullhead catfish. Whaddya think?
My first guess was a Channel Cat, but the lack of any spots/markings leads me to guess a Blue Catfish?
That hole is loaded in the winter, it’s near the delineation line.
You can’t use set poles or trought lines seaward of that spot either, but further inland you can and it’s a great wintertime area to catch “stuff”
I bet you saw alligators too
We just called them blue cats, but didn’t know any better, lol.
edited to add,Those are the absolute best eating catfish I’ve ever had, bar none.
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White catfish of the bullhead family is correct
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Hey @barbawang, growing up we were always taught that only Blue’s and Channel Cats have a forked tail?
Flatheads have a broom tail, kinda like a Scamp, and Bullheads have round tail, kinda like a Mud Minner?
Is that just an old wives tail? (tale)
Since the fish ruler indicated that you can’t keep bullhead catfish, we didn’t keep any of them.
That area definitely held a lot of fish. But I was hoping for something other than catfish.
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Ha, maybe that’s why we called them blues, 
I don’t recall much else up there besides gar, untill you go up a bit further and get into the freshwater stuff like redbreast.
In the spring the banks are lined with gators and because the water is still cold they are reluctant to dive in and it’s an awesome time to gator watch.
Edisto is one of the coolest places in the south, that can’t be denied
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I thought they all had forked tails, but the flatheads were more rounded and not a distinct V shape, but still slightly forked.
I don’t know why I think that, just what I’ve always thought.
barbawang will know
Are you sure it said you can’t keep bullheads? I am only familiar with the restriction on keeping hardhead and gafftopsail catfish, both of which are saltwater species. Whites and blues can tolerate a little bit of salt whereas channels and flatheads pretty much stick to pure fresh.
“moderately forked” vs “deeply forked” is a relative distinction, but the margin of the anal fin is the real tell. blue cats have a straight margin and whites are curved, see first image in this link:
https://baitbinder.com/catfishing/types-of-catfish/
MN, the brown and black bullheads definitely have a square tail. With blues and channels, the tips of the tail come to a point, and with whites the tips are still rounded
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Thanks for the clarification Sir!!
I think you are correct. I confused ‘hardhead’ with ‘bullhead’. I guess we could have had fresh catfish for dinner!! Next time!
That is a blue catfish. I have caught plenty of them by now to know that. The channel cats are more of a golden color with spots. Flatheads well they have flatheads. Bull cats have a wierd tail and a short a head. Almost like they ran into a wall when it was young. At least that how i tell them apart.
I remember when they turned loose the Arkansas blue around here
There weren’t none when I was little
I have ate a lot over the years Lol
Alligators were a rare sight back then
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Traded South Carolina Stripers for them Arkansas Blue’s IIRC.
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