I am sure they get eaten by bass. But I would think that spineless fish that live in open water are preferred to camo, spiny, tiny, bottom oriented fish.

I think in general, people tend to overthink everything in bass fishing. Bass will eat something that looks like something living. Unless it displays "aposomatic coloration" which signals "im poisonous" like a newt, it will probly get eaten.

I have caught bas on live sunfish before, so I know they get eatin up all the time so who knows? Myabe I'm wrong. but I think catfish is not a prefreed food item!