120 pound blue catfish caught

[chaffmj]

This is for Dtro and you other cat guys.

Not long after dark on the night of March 9, 2012, John Nichols caught a record-breaking 120 pound blue catfish in the Holt Reservoir in Alabama. In an interview with Tuscaloosanews.com, he said, “I was looking [for] eight or ten this size to eat,” as he held his hands about 18 inches apart. Instead, he managed to reel in a single fish that will likely keep him fed for quite some time.

Nichols had help from his friend Robbie Tierce who helped net the fish. He caught it using a chicken gizzard as bait on a 40 pound fishing line.

Michael Holley, the district fisheries biologist in Eastaboga, said that catfish in that size range are extremely uncommon. Holley estimates that only about three percent of the total catfish population reach a weight in the range of 50 to 100 pounds.

[reinhard1]

that's cat is HUGE!!!!!must of been a battle. you cat guy's better switch to chicken gizzards instead of bullies . good luck.

[Gordie]

Thanks for sharing chaffmj .

That's the stuff that us fattiest en dream about and to tell you the truth it's that 3 percent is what drives me to keep fishing for them.

[mrklean]

ha love the bathtub in the back there

[Dave S]

redneck hottub

[Scott K]

I am headed down next week to catch me one bigger then that

[Gordie]

redneck hottub

Or he takes cialis

[Slabasaurus]

Or he takes cialis

haha, well played...

[DTro]

Yeah I seen this earlier today. Makes me kind of sad actually. It's a beautiful fish and too bad it had to die. I can't believe he's actually thinking about eating that thing. YUK

We need to take a lesson from the Musky guys. Just because a fish is a record doesn't mean it needs to be.

It's catch 22. You promote catch and release and revive a fishery back to a point in which records are being broken all the time, but in order to break the record the fish must die.

How many 100+lb fish have to end up in a pickup truck because it had big meal that day and topped the last one by a couple of pounds?

[goblueM]

I don't know what I would do with a fish that size, certainly not eat it. I'd never want to eat a blue over 20 pounds, first because you wouldn't need that much meat at once, and then the PCB/mercury issue. You can get a replica mount if that is your intent, otherwise why keep it?

In my experience though, its a different fishing culture down south. Lot less catch and release, lot more harvest of large fish to eat, or just because.

There are a few cat guides and trophy fishermen on the James River, Buggs Island, and Santee Cooper and so forth that practice C&R. Honestly though these huge blue cats are quite a bit different animal than flatheads, some of those blues just have freakish genetics or something because a subset of them just put on the feedbag and grow monstrous. Former VA state record of 92 pounds was only 12 years old. There are also just so many of them breaking 40,50, 60 pounds in these highly productive fisheries that the drive to conserve them just isn't there for most anglers I think.

[DTro]

I would disagree with that to an extent. There has been a huge push the past decade by trophy blue cat fisherman in the Southern States. Big Money tournament trails paired with good ol fashioned social networking and Catfish Websites have been leading the way.

I do believe that the changing culture is leading to more and more records being broken.

[goblueM]

Oh, no doubt - thats why I said trophy anglers and guides are pushing C&R. But from all that I've seen, they comprise a very small portion of the catfisherman population. And you also have subsistence-based guys, harvest-oriented guys, and very generalized anglers fishing for catfish, rather than say highly specialized, 99% C&R muskie or bass guys

[pinkfloyd4ever]

thats a beast, call Jeremy Wade

[RumRiverRat]

That is going to be some good eating!

[SkunkedAgain]

Woah guys. You're missing the obvious. That wasn't a redneck hot tub in the back of his truck. It's a redneck livewell. He was planning on taking that cat to the local Cabelas so that everyone could see it. The only problem is that the DNR wouldn't let him use river water so while his friend snapped the picture, he was at the local store buying bottles of Evian to fill his livewell!

[chaffmj]

Yeah I seen this earlier today. Makes me kind of sad actually. It's a beautiful fish and too bad it had to die.

I agree with you. I didn't even think about that when I posted it. I have been following and enjoying your cat fishing exploits on the Minnesota and when I saw this I thought you and others might like to see it.

I haven't been cat fishing since I was in my teens and we fished from shore on the Mississippi. Seeing your posts makes me want to get out and try it out from a boat. Thanks for posting.

[Scott K]

It is nice seeing big fish, but come on guys, take a picture, and put it back in the water! I could care less about some record book, that no one will ever remember who you are anyhow. The DNR needs to find a better way to weigh these fish, so they can stay alive. If I ever catch a record, I will take a bunch of pictures, and get her back in the water as soon as possible.

[Lowblazah]

It is nice seeing big fish, but come on guys, take a picture, and put it back in the water!

If you have ever lived in the deep south and experienced that culture, you'd understand how much of a tall order that actually is. These guys don't care about PCB's or any of that...and you certainly aren't going to persuade them otherwise.

[CarpinMNRiver]

I would eat a state record walleye.

[Scott K]

I would eat a state record walleye.

I wouldnt even take a picture of a state record walleye. Darn bait thieves!

[live4chrome]

Yea...not too bright.they still think the south will rise again. They need someone to go down there and remind them who. Won the war.

[DTro]

I agree with you. I didn't even think about that when I posted it. I have been following and enjoying your cat fishing exploits on the Minnesota and when I saw this I thought you and others might like to see it.

I haven't been cat fishing since I was in my teens and we fished from shore on the Mississippi. Seeing your posts makes me want to get out and try it out from a boat. Thanks for posting.

No worries chaff, thanks for sharing. The Big Blues are on my bucket list for sure.

[aanderud]

Hey, check it out -- South Dakota has a new record blue cat -- 99 lbs. The best part of the story to me is that it was weighed on a certified scale and THEN IT WAS RELEASED!!!

http://siouxcityjournal.com/sports/recre...871aa321ac.html

Quote:

That was the evening of July 21. The big fish was weighed on a certified scale and an application was made to the South Dakota Game Fish and Parks to certify the fish as a new state record.

The big fish was released at the Sioux City boat ramp.

I would like it if more records were put back in the water. Heck next year that fish will be a few pounds bigger and someone else can re-break the record!

Congrats to the angler, and thanks for practicing C&R!

[CANOPY SAM]

Were all those big blues really caught in or around Sioux City? I didn't realize we had Blue Catfish that close to home.

That freakin' fish is RIDICULOUS! Can't even imagine how you could pick it up! Wow!

[JIvers]

Yes, those blues really were caught on the South Dakota/Iowa border section of the Big Sioux River.

The 99 lb. fish will be the new South Dakota record blue catfish, barring some unforeseen development.

Blue cats show up pretty close to Minnesota, but that little distance makes a big difference. Not one genuine blue catfish has ever been proven to have been caught in the state of Minnesota. (Remember the "Minnesota state record blue catfish" of a few years ago that turned out to have been caught in South Dakota? There is no record for blue catfish in Minnesota now.)

The Iowa DNR says on their HSOforum that blue catfish have been documented as far north on the Mississippi as Dubuque, so at some time it must have happened. http://www.iowadnr.gov/Fishing/IowaFishSpecies/FishDetails.aspx?SpeciesCode=BCF

FWIW, I have lived in southeast Iowa for over ten years now, and I have never seen a credible photo of an actual blue catfish taken from anywhere in the Mississippi drainage in Iowa, much less seen one in the flesh or caught one.

Every "blue catfish" reported caught in the Mississippi, or anywhere in Iowa besides the Missouri and Big Sioux rivers, always turns out to be a male channel cat in spawning colors if a photo or the actual fish is produced. Just like the Iowa DNR fisheries official quoted below, I have noticed that people don't always like being told their "blue catfish" is just a male channel cat:

“People tell me they caught a blue catfish from the Des Moines, or the Raccoon, or the Cedar, or the Iowa River, and every time we’ve checked, it’s been a male channel cat in spawning colors,” said Marion Conover, the IDNR’s chief of fisheries. “Male channel cats get dark, dark black during the spawn, almost a bluish-black. But folks like to think they caught something different than a regular channel cat — so I learned a long time ago to quit arguing and let them enjoy their ‘blue catfish.’”

Read more: http://www.gameandfishmag.com/2010/10/04/fishing_catfish-fishing_ia_0605_01/#ixzz22VrgpEwb

The only places in Iowa where you have a real shot at a blue catfish are the Missouri and Big Sioux rivers on Iowa's western border. The current Iowa state record blue cat of 101 lbs. came from the Missouri River system, as have Iowa's previous record blue cats. The Missouri and Big Sioux are also the only rivers in Iowa where photos of "blue catfish" caught there actually show real blue catfish, at least some of the time.

As to your odds of catching a blue on any given trip to those western border rivers, I have no idea.