Have any of u guys caught catfish without eyes?? I am serious! 
2 years ago i got a 48″ flathead which only had one eye! The other side had the socket, but the spot were the eye NORMALLY is, it was glazed over with skin!
Same thing with channel cats! 
Last year, i caught a 5lb channel cat with one eye. Later i caught a channel with NO EYES! The odd thing was, the bone formed the eye socket, just like part of the skull. But there was no eye inside the socket. It was COMPLETELY glazed over with skin!!! No presence of an eye at all!!! 
Since cats got such good sence of smell/feel they really dont use thier eyes too much i assume. They are less of a sight feeder, but lean more on thier other sences. Heck….channle cats can basically taste yr cutbait b4 it even is in thier mouth. 
(so be carefull what ya touch b4 ya hook on yr bait…..a cat will probably know it) 
I asked some questions with the guys i worked with at the DNR last summer and they jsut guessed it was cuz the cats rely on smell more than sight….and mayeb some evolved with bad vision….eventaully leading to no vision
