Hardhead Catfish - Fishing

Fishing

Hardhead catfish are voracious feeders and will bite on almost any natural bait. Hardhead catfish are also known to steal bait. Shrimp is a particularly effective bait to use. When fishing for this species in fresh water, assorted meats tend to work best as bait. For example: bacon, chicken, cuts of steak, and smaller fish. Hardhead catfish are generally regarded as an undesirable catch by most anglers, this may be largely due to the risk associated with handling the venomous fish as well as its 'fishy' taste as opposed to desirable game fish. A size 1 hook is usually effective for catching this fish. Anglers commonly use lightweight tackle if they are fishing specifically for this species, but many others use heavyweight tackle because the hardhead catfish seems to bite equally well on both. Care must be taken in handling hardhead catfish because the slime on their spines is mildly poisonous. If the skin is punctured, pain and swelling will ensue, and infection may set in. The spine is barbed, which makes withdrawal an even more unpleasant process.

Hardhead catfish are edible but, like all catfish, require some effort to clean. It is one of the thirty most recreationally harvested species in the 5-county area (Volusia, Brevard, Indian River, St. Lucie, Martin) encompassing the Indian River Lagoon (IRL)in central Florida. From 1997-2001, 361,022 hardhead catfish were harvested within 200 miles of the shore in the IRL region.

Hardhead are also harvested for industrial purposes in commercial bottom trawling operations. Annual harvests vary greatly, but from 1987–2001, 1.04 million pounds of marine catfishes (including both the hardhead catfish and the gafftopsail catfish) were harvested in the IRL region. The harvest was valued at $777,497.