Other Helpful Tips
You get a little slime on your hands, but it shouldn’t be as bad as painful cuts. Here are other helpful tips when holding a catfish:
1. Do It With Confidence
Catfish, like other animals, can sense whether you know what you are doing or not. If you are scared and do not know how to hold them, they will instinctively fight, which might hurt you and them in the process. Hold the catfish with confidence to avoid getting stung hurting them as well.
2. Grab the Catfish by the Jaw
Another way to hold a catfish is to grab them by the lower jaw. This works for large ones, about 15-20 pounds. This needs extra caution since they are slippery and can slip away if they give a fight, potentially hurting both of you.
What Do You Have to Avoid?
Be careful when using pliers when taking out the hook on big catfish. When the hook is in their stomach, use your hand when taking it out. Do it gently by slowly pushing the catfish meat from the angle. This way, they don’t bleed. Do not use pliers for smaller catfish that you can grab in one hand. Do not shake the hook from the catfish or drastically pull it out.
When releasing the catfish, do not throw, drop, or flick it off from high up as it can potentially hurt the catfish. Kneel from your boat or on the ground before releasing them back to the water.
If you fished them up from 30 feet or deeper, pulling them from the water can cause their stomachs to expand and be filled with gas. This causes them to float upside down and be unable to swim when you put them back in the water. Do not leave the catfish. Rub, massage, and squeeze its belly gently to help it release the air. And then, swish it back and forth to fill its gills with water and oxygen until it can swim again. Do the same with the ones you release that got exhausted enough to swim by themselves.
Debunking Catfish Myths
An old myth says catfish whiskers are dangerous and can painfully sting you. This is far from the truth. Catfish whiskers are harmless. These whisker-like appendages in the catfish mouths help them smell their food and help them swim from far away, and find lures even at the bottom of lakes and ponds. In fish anatomy, they are called barbels. They are soft, very pliable, and do not hurt at all. Catfish can have up to eight barbels, two on its upper mouth and the others under its lower mouth.
