There are lots of different kinds of catfish, and local traditions apply the name "mudcat" to quite a few of them. In some regions, only the madtom kinds are called mudcats, and they're generally not considered good eating.

In my area, some people call a variety of small "pond cats" a mudcat, although the more popular name for them is a bullhead.

The mudcat name is also applied by a few here to flatheads, but those few are all idiots who should have their fishing licenses revoked.

We've had previous arguments discussions of whether or not there is a specific variety for which "mudcat" is favored by the officious fishfaculty at learned institutions; but I'm not sure there was ever really a conclusion to the research conducted here.

The flathead, blue, and channel catfish are the big 'uns in Kansas, although blues are extremely rare now. (A speculative statement by Fish and Game folk, who admit that even they have a hard time telling them apart sometimes, expecially when they reach respectable size.)

Both blues and channel cats need free-flowing water to spawn successfully. The channels seem to be able to breed successfully in our mud-bottom creeks and lakes, but the blues were more successful when they could go upstream to find rock (or at least clean sand) bottoms to spawn. Dams and dried up streams have cut the blues off from good spawning grounds, making them scarce here.

The "bullheads" are a pond fish, usually found in fairly shallow water, and seldom exceeding a couple of pounds; but they're a great sport fish, since a 2 pound bullhead fights like a 20 pound channel cat - for a little while. (I have caught both, bullheads up to about 2 pounds and one channel a little over 30 - from the same lake.)

Unless the water is extremely polluted, I've never encountered a catfish of any kind that wasn't reasonably tasty; but we don't have the stonecats and madtoms around here; and I do have my doubts that I'd try to eat some of them - knowingly. Some of them are ugly with a CAPITAL UGH, and a few are reported to be "mildly venomous."

John