Diet

In early life, catfish are opportunistic feeders. They will eat just about anything they can fit in their mouth, ranging from small fish, frogs, crayfish, insects, etc etc. I have noticed that a favorite treat of Kerr Lake catfish following the spawn are freshwater mussels. It is quite common in late summer to catch catfish whose stomachs are completely full of mussels. The catfish consume these mussels alive with the shell intact. Once in the fishes stomach, the digestive juices kill the mussel and it opens up, allowing the catfish to absorb the nutrients. The catfish then excretes the opened shell…OUCH!
As catfish become larger however, they become almost exclusively piscivorous, meaning they feed on other fish. A large blue or flathead catfish in Kerr Lake is considered an apex predator. This is to say that they are at the top of the food chain. The only other animal that occasionally feeds on one of these large catfish is a human. This goes to show that despite the common misconception that catfish only scrounge on the bottom for food, large catfish are incredibly skilled hunters. They are known to catch and eat other predatory fish, including largemouth bass and striped bass. There have even been several reports of catfish stomach contents containing small mammals and birds as well. While the primary forage of large catfish in Kerr Lake is made up gizzard and threadfin shad, nothing is off limits for a trophy class catfish!