Willow Cats Question

What is the best way to keep Willow Cats ?

Cool w/ lots of items in the tank for them to swim/stay under.

How do you keep the water cool in the summertime without constantly running a hose into the tank? When the warm summer temps get here, its tough to keep even bullheads alive.

Keep them out of the sunlight for an extended time and keep them in a cooler. My Dad stores his in his garage and keeps the water fresh. Changing it as needed. I store mine in my basement. I was lucky enough to have a great friend of mine borrow me his aerator. That helps.

Another thing that helps them stay alive is throwing in some weighed rags for them to swim under. The can swim themselves to death.

I fixed up a refrigerator that was being replaced from a restaurant. My wife has a problem with bait in our frige. (She’s been going down hill since she started golfing)Still, in the summer months you need to change the water at least everyother day.

One thing that’s nice about your own frige is that you can keep your fish guts in there until garbage day.

I’ve seen those “college” frige’s at Wallmart and Fleet Farm for less than $75.

If you guys are catching your own how and where do you get them? They are quite $ to buy and not at all bait shops.

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If you guys are catching your own how and where do you get them?

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Ancient Chinese Secret.

But I can tell you, I’ve never ever found them in rocks.

Hey ecnook – Willow cats are basically little bullheads, aren’t they? I’ve got this little creek near here that I was catching all these little bullheads with my smelt net. One scoop and I would catch a about a gallon of them. They are about the size of your thumb, are those Willow Cats?

Hey, Brian – I’ve got to tell you, my cartoon bubble was pretty bad when you talked about storing fish guts in your fridge. How many times you forgot about them?
My bride has been pretty tolerant too but I think she would draw the line at fish guts in the fridge – I’m not going to go there!!

Willow cats are different than bullheads in a few ways. One, they don’t get as big as bullheads. Two, they are a different color. Three, bullheads don’t catch walleyes nearly as well as willow cats do. If you were catching the those fish with a smelt net in open water then I doubt they were willow cats. One distinct way to tell if it’s a bullhead or willowcat is to lok at the belly to back coloring. The bullhead has a white/cream belly w/ a dark back. As the willow cat has a tan/brown belly with a dark brown back. If I’m not mistaken, the willow cat has shorter whiskers than a bullhead too.

I catch these little bullheads in this small pool that is below a culvert that runs under the road. There is a shallow scour hole just below the culvert. They sometimes go up into the culvert and you have to scare them out to catch them. It sometimes gets pretty exciting – I was reaching up into the culvert with my smelt net to chase them out and out popped this huge snapping turtle looking me straight in the eye – I about had a coronary right on the spot. I almost reached up there with my hand to chase them out. I’m glad I didn’t. I am sure they are bullheads because I catch some 5″ to 8″ bullheads in the same spot plus it is full of real small sunnies too. Those little bullheads look like they would be perfect walleye bait though – I bet them and willow cats look pretty similar.

To an untrained eye they do look similar. Too many times I’ve seen bullheads being sold as willow cats. To a walleye in my experience they are light years apart. A willow cat will outfish a bullhead hands down.

Watchout for those snappers! They are mean all day long.

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How many times you forgot about them?

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Ummm, I’ll be back in a few minutes…..

Another way to tell the difference between the two is to let them horn you. The one that makes your hand swell to the point you want to cut it off is the willow cat.

What’s the best way to handle the little buggers so you don’t get horned?

Put them in a rag. The rag can be wet or dry. I prefer wet. Don’t squeeze them. The texture of the rag holds them in place. I handle dozens per year and rarely get stung.

I buy a lot of cats so I keep them in a large heavy foam cooler. From time to time I’ll add some bag ice to cool them down, bag ice is de chlorinated. I also sink a few clean pop cans into the cooler for them to go into. My cats usually last well over a month, they don’t eat in captivity so long life is not expected.

Mine eat like crazy. I give them regular earth worms cut up in pieces, one inch is small enough. They eat them up FAST!!

It is important to put something in the bottom for them to hide in. Cans, PVC etc. Also, they prefer the dark.

I tried the cut up worms, they were still floating around in there a week later. I’ve tried coating the bottom of the cooler with sand as well, that just ended up in a big mess. Perhaps I shoul try playing some clasical music for them to enhance their apitite, If I can get two months of life out of them, I’ll be happy.

They also eat wax worms, although earth worms sink faster.

On a side note, becareful mixing willowcats with other bigger minnows. I had them in the same tank with some creek chubs and retails and the creek chubs liked to eat the willowcats….atleast they liked to try to. They would get stuck in there mouth and they are very hard to get out when they go in head first

I use the Lindy glove (orange one for toothy critters) to handle those buggers. Trust me, you DON’T want to get stuck by one.

QUESTION, could it be possible that the larg 3″ plus cats wont eat vs. the small ones. All of the bulk cats I get are the big ones.

Not sure on that one, but I have had all size and they all seem to eat. One thing I know is they don’t like to eat in the light. They eat when it is totally dark.

This is a pic of a 25″ walleye I got last summer (21 Aug) on a 6″ bullhead while fishing for flathead catfish on the St Croix. On 5 September my son was out with me and he got a 23″ walleye on a 5″ bullhead. I think you walleye guys need to move up on the size of your willow cats – better yet start fishing for real fish!! Big ugly ones!!