Blue catfish

[Scott K]

also for those of you wanting to know the difference, if you're wondering if you caught a channel cat or a blue cat in minnesota, its a channel cat

Thats it, from now on, I am going to fish the Mn River as much as I possibly can, and try to catch a Blue Cat, so I can prove you wrong, even if it takes me the rest of my life

[MinnesnowtaWild]

Let us know how that goes Scott.

[Scott K]

Let us know how that goes Scott.

Well if Ol Mother Nature would stop for a little while and let the river get back in its banks so I can fish, I will get right on that

Right now Ol bag Mother nature and myself arent on speaking terms. She keeps crying all the time

[Blue Kayak]

On our Chanel Catfish Photos thread, there is a post by Whisker Warrior on page 10 (May 1, 2009).

http://www.hotspotoutdoors.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/1779106/10

The third channel (29X17) has a much straighter anal fin than the two catfish above it. It looks like the only sure way to ID a channel from a blue is to count rays on the anal fins, and a channel can have up to 29 rays while a blue can have as few as 30 rays. One ray is not much difference.

What if blues and channels inter-breed like sunfish? I'll bet there are not too many genes that separate the two species. I know every forked tail catfish I've caught I assumed to be a channel. If you are not looking for something, you aren't going to find it.

[goblueM]

that pic you reference is 110% channel, no doubt at all

I've never heard of blues and channels hybridizing, in fact even commercial fish farms have difficulty crossing them, let alone having it happen to a wide degree in nature

Apparently they even have trouble in the lab, they have to inject them with hormones, manually strip the eggs out, and then fertilize with the other species

So any guesses on the age of the new world record? I'm gonna say its 17 years old

[Live2Fish1234]

Any guesses to the below being a Blue or Channel Cat (caught in Minnesota)?

[DTro]

I would ask why you would think its a blue? Color means very little.

99.999999% channel

[Gordie]

I would ask why you would think its a blue? Color means very little.

99.999999% channel

+1 and Tough to tell but the anul fin doesn't look to be long enough but it is coverd by your hand in the photo.

I have also heard that people have caught blue in the minnesota but I have never seen or had an official confirmation on one.

[mrklean]

looks like a channel

[pikestabber]

I live/fish a few hours north of the metro where the rivers are generally very clear and I can say that photo above looks like every channel cat I have ever caught. Almost all fish 3+ pounds are tinted gray-blue around here (those under 3 or so pounds are just as milky blue looking with distinct dots throughout the body). IMO, color alone is a non-factor in determining the difference. An anal ray count is the most accurate that I know of, and that has been covered in some depth here already.

[MinnesnowtaWild]

I would ask why you would think its a blue? Color means very little.

99.999999% channel

I would say 100%

[DARK30]

This is a small blue. Its only a 12 hour drive to skipjack country. Bring a Banjo

[smeese]

If your thumb is still intact that is NO channel! Nice fish!

[Rollincoal]

Here is a odd channel some people might mistake as a Blue. Hopefully these links work not sure if its going to.

http://www.freeimagehosting.net/8jz6h

http://www.freeimagehosting.net/leji3

http://www.freeimagehosting.net/kgfo1

[SteveD]

The first two pictures made me think it was just a huge bullhead but the 3rd picture does kind of look like a channel cat. The state record Brown Bullhead was 7 lbs 1 ounce and this could possibly be just a huge bullhead. You may have had a state record there. Nice fish

[Carp-fisher]

Looks like a classic spawn time male channel...I've caught a bunch that look like that over the years.

[aanderud]

The state record Brown Bullhead was 7 lbs 1 ounce and this could possibly be just a huge bullhead. You may have had a state record there. Nice fish

Wow, a 7 lb bullhead. Who would have thunk it. If you had asked me yesterday what I thought the state record was, I would have guessed 4 lbs.

[Flaco651]

Here is a odd channel some people might mistake as a Blue. Hopefully these links work not sure if its going to.

http://www.freeimagehosting.net/8jz6h

http://www.freeimagehosting.net/leji3

http://www.freeimagehosting.net/kgfo1

Cool looking channel there.

[DARK30]

Looks like some kind of morph...never seen one like that.

[Rollincoal]

Yeah it's definitely a different looking cat. The thick head, the thickest part of the belly being so far up near the head, and being such a dark blue threw me for a loop. It was during my first full year of real cat fishing (instead of the college days in Mankato partying on the shore) so I took a lot of pics of this fish just because how weird it looked.

[davidbigreelz]

last july a couple friends o mine and i were fishing the kettle river up in sandstone at a animal rescue, I caught a 31 inch blue that night, couldn't believe it but i swear i did. I think The easiest way to tell between "big" channels and decent blues is that when large is the skull structure, channels lower jaw increases in size and will exten past the upper jaw, the jaw of a blue will never extend past the upper jaw, If i remember correctly from biology it has to do with the ability/need to crush crustacians/mollusks as pray.

In fact if i can find my old cell phone i even have a pic of it. It's still swimmin in there too.

C&R for anything to big to be tasty.

[SteveD]

I think The easiest way to tell between "big" channels and decent blues is that when large is the skull structure, channels lower jaw increases in size and will exten past the upper jaw, the jaw of a blue will never extend past the upper jaw, If i remember correctly from biology it has to do with the ability/need to crush crustacians/mollusks as pray.

Say What? Skull Structure? You don't really believe this do you? I guess we first need to know what the difference is between a "Big" channel and a "Decent" Blue. I knew I should have paid more attention in biology class.

[davidbigreelz]

idk dont take my word as law until i find a link lol and i should have worded it better more like "channel cats' lower jaws grow to be even with the top, where as blues keep that tiny strong crushing type mouth."

but as for that one i caught... its really sparked a fire in me, ive been searching for everything i can find on blues in the st croix since that 77' release...

[goblueM]

I think The easiest way to tell between "big" channels and decent blues is that when large is the skull structure, channels lower jaw increases in size and will exten past the upper jaw, the jaw of a blue will never extend past the upper jaw, If i remember correctly from biology it has to do with the ability/need to crush crustacians/mollusks as pray.

This is incorrect. The upper jaw extends past the lower jaw for both channel and blue cats. You're thinking of the difference between these two Ictalurids and flatheads - flathead catfish lower jaws extend past the upper jaw.

The easiest way (well... besides the fact that if you're fishing where there are no blue catfish, it's almost certain to be a channel cat) to differentiate a blue catfish from a channel catfish is the anal fin

Blue cats have a straight-edged anal fin, channel cats have a curved one. Blue cats have more anal fin rays (30-36) than channels (24-29)

[Scott K]

This was caught this past weekend, is this a channel? Or a blue?