Albino Channel Cats

Took my kayak to Cedar Creek on Sunday night for a couple of hours' relaxation.

Ended up catching 13 small channel cats in 2 hours.

Here was the interesting part. The 3rd one I caught was an albino. It wasn't just light, it even had pinkish colored eyes. I thought that was fairly unique until I caught 3 more just like it. It is possible that I might have caught one of them more than once as they were all about the same size, but I checked pretty close for hook marks on the others and didn't see any.

The game warden came over later doing a creel survey and I mentioned them to him. He seemed to indicate he'd heard about them from someone else but hadn't seen any. He said he was intending to report them to his supervisor.

Anybody else catch any albino fish?

Although I've yet to catch one I see several albino blues/channels weighed in at catfish tournies throughout the year. I've never seen an albino flathead.

I caught one at Lake Linville years ago. The body and eyes were light pink. Very cool.

Albino channel cats are commonly and cheaply sold at pet stores for around $5 at 2-3" in size. As you can imagine they would quickly outgrow your average aquarium and being native, any released fish will survive our waters.

I'm a collector of rare and odd fish rather it be a rare species or an odd color morph of a common species. Catch me an albino bass or bowfin and youll make me VERY happy!