Last fish of the day

Comment

Comment by chris kowaleski on May 13, 2012 at 9:22pm

ahh okay, thanks for the info!

Comment by Jim Gronaw on May 12, 2012 at 9:34pm

OK...just looked it up from a couple sources...the blue cat has 30 or more rays on the anal fin. The channel cat has 24 to 29.

Comment by David, aka, "McScruff" on May 12, 2012 at 6:02pm

what Jim said - rounded anal fin for channels.

Comment by Jim Gronaw on May 12, 2012 at 3:31pm

A quick look tells me this is a channel cat, despite the 'bluish' coloration.

Male channel cats, as they approach adulthood, develope a cobalt-blue color to the top half of their body, and loose most of the small 'dots' that are prevelent on the olive -colored females. The long anal fin underneath has a rounded edge, as does this fish in the photo. On bluecats, the anal fin is straight and somewhat pointed at the back tip of that fin.

When channel cats spawn, bigger males have swollen and pithy heads as a mating charcteristic and possess a grayish dark underside around their lower jaw.

I'm gonna look up the 'ray count' for the anal fin, as that would tell the whole story, rather than my casual glance. Stay tuned!