They feed mainly on crayfish, fishes, and insects generally at night in swifter moving currents. The following are fishing methods used to catch this fish:
The distinctive channel catfish can often be recognized at a glance by its deeply forked tail and spots on the body (though not all specimens have them). The only other catfish with forked tails occurring in the U.S. waters are the blue catfish and the white catfish, neither of which is ever spotted.In addition to the spotted specimens, some channel catfish may be entirely black dorsally (males during the spawning season), or dark blue without spots, or even uniformly light blue or silvery exactly like a blue catfish or white catfish. In the latter cases, the species can be identified by the number of rays in the anal fin. White catfish have 19-23 rays, channel catfish have 24-30, and blue catfish have the longest anal fin with 30-36 rays. Internally, the channel catfish has two chambers in the swim bladder and the blue catfish has three.