Catfish spines may cause a painful injury, so take care when handling these fish. Florida offers six varieties of catfish. Channel catfish are found statewide and are the ones most commonly raised for restaurants. A deeply forked tail and black speckling identifies the channel cat. Richloam Hatchery produces 200,000 - 300,000 channel catfish annually for stocking in urban lakes.
White catfish are similar and found statewide, but lack speckling and are smaller.
The Big Catch qualifying size is 22 . The state record is 18.9 pounds. Blue catfish are the biggest catfish in Florida found primarily in the Perdido and Escambia Rivers. The record is a whopping 61.5 pounds, and it takes a 34-incher to qualify for a Big Catch. The current state record is 48.4 pounds, but look for it to be broken again soon.