What most people around here call "catfish" are usually Brown Bullheads, or "Horned Pout"
They can be found in almost any lowland lake in washington.
The Columbia and Snake Rivers are notorious for big catfish. Most rivers in WA are likely to contain at least a few catfish. They will also be found in some ponds, parks, small lakes and of course some of the major lakes in Washington. These major lakes include Alder Lake, Banks Lake, Franklin D Roosevelt Lake, Lake Bryan, Lake Chelan, Lake Sammamish, Lake Umatilla (John Day), Lake Wallula (McNary), Lake Whatcom, Mayfield Lake, Palmer Lake, Riffe Lake, pirit Lake, Vancouver Lake and Wanapum Lake.
The Washington state record blue catfish was taken out of the Columbia River and the state record channel catfish was caught from the I-82 Pond No. 6 . The Snake River produced the WA state record flathead catfish.