Agressive Catfish?

[Hobeze]

Size aside are catfish aggressive? A friends of mine who i would classify as experienced, seems to paint them as vicious?

[fishypaul]

no mate not at all,they are good as gold on the bank,i have never known one to give any trouble

[Hobeze]

Thanks Paul,

He's taking me out next week on the boat and said that he's going to let me hall in the catfish and that i must be careful or they will take the arm off me. lol he must be winding me up more than his fishing reel :-)

[fishypaul]

i think what he is referring to is the way they fight in the water,they don't know when to give in.

[ruwan]

Catfish are a large group of fish. Some are small and peacefull, others are big, aggressive and predatory. Some can even swallow a fish almost their own length. !!

[SIMPLE MAN]

Hi chap
In the whole no they are not in fact once on the bank they are normally one of the easiest fish to deal with but whilst spawning and there after when guarding their nests they can become very aggressive indeed and in recent years it has come to light where humans have been attacked whilst out swimming in large rivers or lakes but it has to be said that these reports are rare,in fact apart from Jeremy Wades river monsters program i have never heard of any such attacks and even then these were huge huge fish which you will only find on the continent so i think as the answers above and your friend is referring to the fight that they give and not the chunks they will take out of you.
But a word of caution,if you are lucky enough to catch one put a glove on before putting your hand in its mouth as there teeth although very small almost velcro like they will give you a graze like cut but dont be worried and if you go to my profile page and click on ebro photos you will see some photos of myself and a guide with a glove on handling them
Tight lines and good luck

[Ripple]

Only ever caught one about five pounds in weight and that wasn't aggresive at all !

About as nasty as a garden slug on Vallium !

Ripple.

[bobberman23]

Make sure you have a pair of need nose since the mouth is very hard and hooks do not come out easy! Also watch the small catfish which can cut you hand in a instant with a painful cut fron the spike bone on the top near the head! Channel cats are my favorite and are very tasty just like chicken!

[Catdaddy]

Most aggressive catfish I've ever stumbled upon would be the Blue cat, No others have been reported aggressive, like simpleman said they are only aggressive when protecting their spawn.

[yeganet]

Yeah, so far I never get the aggresive cat fish because difficult to get it , only dying cat fish I got..