I'm making this thread for me and others to post information, pictures, videos, or stories about catfish that they've seen in the wild. This doesn't mean you have to have ever kept one or caught one, just that you've seen it in the wild before while doing something such as swimming, snorkeling, diving, collecting, etc. The fish can be from anywhere in the world so whether you saw a bullhead in the creek behind your house to you saw a rare syno while collecting in Africa and everything in between, post it here! Also feel free to just share personal experiences about ones you've seen, this is a casual thread, not something where I'm giving you a list of criteria on what to post 
. So just have fun with this guys, that's why I'm making it!
I'll start. I've seen many wild catfish before, mainly while diving but a few while snorkeling. I've seen: yellow bullheads, brown bullheads, and channel catfish while diving or snorkeling and I've also seen a flathead while collecting in my local river. I've noticed that channels are much more "sociable" and comfortable around divers than bullheads are so I've encountered many more of them than any other species. I've seen one or two possible flatheads while diving in West Virginia but I was down at 70 feet in low vis at dusk in cold water so it was hard to get a positive ID on them. One of my favorite wild catfish experiences was on a diving trip in southeast ohio. This place was filled to the brim with channels and grass carp that they fed pond pellets every evening so they always hung around the dock. I happened to be underwater next to the dock during feeding and I can easily say I've never seen such a large concentration of Ictalurid catfish at on time, not to mention they were swimming against me to get the food by my head
. Another good experience was when I was diving at gilboa quarry by the bus and swam past an easily 3' monster channel which was the biggest one I've ever seen in person, thing had to be 15 years old! One of my more recent catfish stories was while I was collecting darters in the allegheny and my group came across an 8" flathead in the shallows. The area around the bank consisted of tons of structure (mainly about a dozen half submerged trees that still had greenery on top to shade the water). I think we all knew in reality none of us could have kept such a predatory fish but we trampled all over the place trying (and failing) to catch it in a seine and me with a dipnet. It would've been a sight to see: about 20 GPASI members (including me) tripping over each other in shallow water with nets to catch one fish, it would've been especially funny for someone who wasn't fish obsessed to observe! We couldn't have kept it but it'd have made for a good photo, especially since Mike Drawdy (owner of Imperial Tropicals) was there, being the expert photographer he is.
. So just have fun with this guys, that's why I'm making it!I'll start. I've seen many wild catfish before, mainly while diving but a few while snorkeling. I've seen: yellow bullheads, brown bullheads, and channel catfish while diving or snorkeling and I've also seen a flathead while collecting in my local river. I've noticed that channels are much more "sociable" and comfortable around divers than bullheads are so I've encountered many more of them than any other species. I've seen one or two possible flatheads while diving in West Virginia but I was down at 70 feet in low vis at dusk in cold water so it was hard to get a positive ID on them. One of my favorite wild catfish experiences was on a diving trip in southeast ohio. This place was filled to the brim with channels and grass carp that they fed pond pellets every evening so they always hung around the dock. I happened to be underwater next to the dock during feeding and I can easily say I've never seen such a large concentration of Ictalurid catfish at on time, not to mention they were swimming against me to get the food by my head
. Another good experience was when I was diving at gilboa quarry by the bus and swam past an easily 3' monster channel which was the biggest one I've ever seen in person, thing had to be 15 years old! One of my more recent catfish stories was while I was collecting darters in the allegheny and my group came across an 8" flathead in the shallows. The area around the bank consisted of tons of structure (mainly about a dozen half submerged trees that still had greenery on top to shade the water). I think we all knew in reality none of us could have kept such a predatory fish but we trampled all over the place trying (and failing) to catch it in a seine and me with a dipnet. It would've been a sight to see: about 20 GPASI members (including me) tripping over each other in shallow water with nets to catch one fish, it would've been especially funny for someone who wasn't fish obsessed to observe! We couldn't have kept it but it'd have made for a good photo, especially since Mike Drawdy (owner of Imperial Tropicals) was there, being the expert photographer he is.
