Final Fling on Utah Lake 10-21-20

[TubeDude]

Your investigation shows quite the varied diet. Never knew catfish were that predatory like that. Always though with those big catfish bait doughball baits I've see used that they wouldn't even go after anything that took any effort, but we're learning that is not case. 

I remember fly fishing on the Green river, not having the best day although Jeff was having nice catch and release day (this is typical) Anyway I watched a mouse/vole try swimming across the river when the mouth of large brown tout came up from underneath and just sucked it right in with nary a splash - made my day to see that happen.

Rodents are on the menu for lots of larger species.  That's why there are deer hair mouse flies and a lot of topwater hardbaits that are made in mouse/vole images.  Big browns are notorious mouse munchers.  But DWR studies of the fish at Strawberry show that both cutts and bows regularly dine on furry food around the edges.

There are lots of voles around Utah Lake.  And in the spring...when young voles thoughts turn to rodent procreation...they got kinda nutsy.  They run helter-skelter all over the place...especially at night.  Some of them make a wrong turn and end up in the water...some drowning but others disappearing in big splashes.  Bass eat them but so do enterprising catfish that cruise the shallows after dark...just waiting for such an opportunity.  I once found 3 freshly munched voles inside one 2-footer sized catfish.

The pic of the cat with all the froglets inside was another unique story.  The shoreline south of Lindon had been very weedy and reedy for several years...becoming more like a marsh than most of the lake.  It was home to lotsa frogs...until the shoreline restoration project went through and cleaned up all the greenery.  That was late in the fall one year, after the frogs had buried themselves in the mud for the winter.  But...when it warmed up in the spring the little frogs came up only to find there was no protective green cover for them.  And the catfish discovered the newly exposed froggies...and took advantage of the new food resource.  Haven't seen that before or since.

There is a popular notion that catfish are strictly nocturnal...bottom feeders...with poor vision.  The reality is that cats have good vision and in clear water they become daytime sight feeders and efficient hunters.  Willard is a good example of a water in which the cats readily chase live bait...and lures.  In fact, I have caught grundles of Willard cats on flies...as have more than a few others.  And almost anybody who has dragged cranks at mach 3 for wipers has tales of bringing in the occasional "whiskery wiper" on their fast moving lures.  And, of course we both know that they love fligs.