Bullhead from my backyard

Comment

Comment by dick tabbert on May 6, 2012 at 9:09pm

Never introduce a bullhead into a pond. They will take over and everything will be stunted they multiply like crazy. I can only talk about the Yellow Bullheads I don't know that much about the Brown other than they are the larger cousin to the Yellow. 

Comment by Leo Nguyen on May 6, 2012 at 9:02pm

Nice bullhead. I don't know about handling them without a glove. Years of handling them, and I still am not used to their freaking micro razor teeth. That's why I purchased my leather gloves and taylor the gloves for fishing to handle larger cats, including ocean fish.

Comment by Allen Morgan on May 6, 2012 at 8:33pm

Eric, imagine sticking your hand into the mouth of a 30-lbs Blue or Flathead.  Even I'm not that brave.

Comment by Eric White on May 6, 2012 at 8:29pm

It was just a little guy 8-10 inches.  After a decade of jamming my finger down their throats to remove the hook Ive gotten used to there powerful bite, you might hear some obscenities, but that's what get for putting my finger where I'm not supposed to :)

Comment by Allen Morgan on May 6, 2012 at 7:49pm

Nice!

Bullheads make great flathead bait.  Flatheads see them as competition, and nest-robbers, and will kill them.

I've got a few places here that have them.  Only one of those has a good number of them.  That is a small pond, and they are taking over.  I think of it as a "bait hole", as many of the fish species present make good Flathead bait.

Comment by Josh Milczski (Omaha) on May 6, 2012 at 7:25pm

Jim, I discovered brown bullheads in Florida a few years ago before I was much of an angler.  It took me a couple years to eventually figure out what they were, because they were nothing like the small bullheads we have here in Nebraska.  These were consistently in the 12-15" range which made me second guess for a long time that they were bullheads.  I had no idea what I was pulling up was so rare.  

 

Great bullhead Eric!  How is he not chomping on your finger?  Every bullie I've ever tried to lip, or simply take a hook out of its mouth, has death gripped my finger.

Comment by Jim Gronaw on May 6, 2012 at 7:03pm

We have brown bullheads at a local lake. Some of them are huge...I have taken one at 18 inches and another at 19.5, both while fishing for big channel cats. The 19.5 was probably over 4 pounds, and would have easily been a Maryland state record, but at the time when I caught the fish, the state was not recognizing bullheads for record consideration.

My only chance at fame and fortune vanished with a released mudcat!

Comment by dick tabbert on May 6, 2012 at 6:35pm

Wow I haven't seen one of them for a long time. Use to fish for them in Lake Erie 35 years ago with many of them being 100 bullheads a day on many occasions.

Comment by Zach Pierce on May 6, 2012 at 6:20pm

How big was that bullhead and did you keep it?