The blue fulton is one of the most familiar catfish, to fish for and grows to above 100 lbs.. The current competitor for the United States record of one hundred tewnty four pounds is from the Mississippi River in Illinois May 22, 2005. There are 572 million lbs. of catfish raised in commercial ponds. The recent , 6 28 2005, discovery of the Lacantunia enigmatica catfish in Mexico is the only example of catfish of prehistoric origins dating back to the time before the ice age.

World's heaviest catfish, weighed 646.2 lbs., caught in the Mekong River, Thailand, May 2005, and is also known as the Mekong Giant Catfish, and is being studied as an endangered species.

The river catfish grow to 45 pounds averaging 14 years but are known to live to 20 years.

The shoveled head, of the appaluchion and the yellow skin represents the second biggest freshwater catfish. The American record is ninety eight and a half, pounds, Lake Palestine TX, in nineteen hundred ninety eight. These catfish can survive 19 years and more. Most varieties of catfish from clean water is very good eating.

Catfish Stinkbait in the traditional stink bait, subsidize dead minnows for the favored attractant for catfish.