very interesting! you could be right about the bass eating the cats. Maybe the stripers are pushing the shad, and the cats are hanging underneath waiting for the dead/wounded shad to come down. And maybe a few big ol bass are following the whole deal just picking off whatever they can get along the way, including the small catfish. It doesn't seem that farfetched to me when I think about it. I know cats will follow bait and push bait, even into open water. Maybe catfish 6 or 10" aren't that hard to catch for bass, who knows? Cool topic though, very interesting to me.