120 pound blue catfish caught

[goblueM]

Quote:

. 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.’”

That is the TRUTH. I have been interviewing a bunch of guys this summer, and they ALL think there are blue catfish in the local river. They're all channels, of course. But good luck trying to convince them of that. Even if you tell them the habitat isn't correct, and that they aren't native and have never been stocked either...

I've heard some awesome incorrect names for fish this year

"Sun perch" (too me awhile to figure out that these were pumpkinseeds)

"Blue gunts" (green sunfish)

"Green pike" (walleyes)

"ring tails" (yellow perch)

"pinheads" (channel cats)

[JIvers]

I occasionally run in to more, um, rural types in southern Iowa who refer to sheepshead, AKA freshwater drum, as "river perch" or just plain "perch".

Small channel cat are sometimes called "fiddlers" around Iowa City and Cedar Rapids.

Don't get me started on people who refer to white bass, yellow bass, and wiper collectively as "striped bass" or "stripers". This is very common around here.

And did I mention the time a couple fisherman on the Iowa River asked me if the 16" or so fish they had on their stringer was a muskie or a Northern? Iowa's minimum size limit on muskie is 40", but that didn't matter in this case because the fish in question was a gar.

But then, having grown up near the Mississippi in southeast Minnesota I still refer to flathead as "mudcat", and may call a sauger a "sand pike" from time to time (NO ONE in southern Iowa ever knows what I am talking about when I say "sand pike" or "mudcat"), so who am I to judge?

[LOTWSvirgin]

Hmm this is intresting I might have to find some info on the Big sioux I have a Iowa lic and have always wondered obout going down and trying but have no idea where to start once there lol anybody have any info??

[JIvers]

Hmm this is intresting I might have to find some info on the Big sioux I have a Iowa lic and have always wondered obout going down and trying but have no idea where to start once there lol anybody have any info??

The "two holes somewhere around the west entrance of Stone Park" in Sioux City might be a good place to start. http://siouxcityjournal.com/sports/recre...871aa321ac.html

[aanderud]

Wow, rumors abound of a new Kansas record now too, 102 lbs. It was apparently caught AND RELEASED as well.

[fishuhalik]

So why is it that our 'sippi can't maintain blue cat populations? What do they need that our waters don't provide? I can't imagine water temps are a huge difference between sodak and southern mn

[JIvers]

My understanding is that habitat, not water temperature, is the critical reason there are no blue cat in the Mississippi in Minnesota, and very few if any blue catfish in Iowa except for the Missouri and Big Sioux Rivers. We have warmer weather and water in southeast Iowa than South Dakota has, but seemingly no blue catfish in the Mississippi here.

I couldn't find a citation in a quick search, but I have read that before the construction of the lock and dam system in the 1930s, blue catfish were not so rare in southern Iowa's portion of the Mississippi.

Blue catfish like deeper, faster water than do channel or flathead catfish, and the lock and dams reduced that sort of habitat, and blue cat's ability to migrate in search of it. The Missouri Department of Conservation says blue cat numbers have "declined" in their stretch of the Mississippi above the mouth of the Missouri River as well: http://mdc.mo.gov/conmag/2006/06/catching-big-river-blues?page=0,1

My own guess is that if bighead and silver carp can spread from Louisiana to Lake Pepin, and the occasional bull shark can make it from the Gulf of Mexico to St. Louis, then once in a while a blue catfish from southern Missouri makes it up the Mississippi at least as far as Iowa, if not to Minnesota. But if someone catches one of these lost and confused blue catfish in Iowa or Minnesota before they turn around and head back south, they probably just think it is a male channel cat in spawning colors.

[DTro]

Those big blues are gorging on them silver carps. Its a favotite bait for a lot of folks down there.

Funny how times have changed. Forums such as this used to be the first I would see this stuff from different states, but now with FaceBook and Twitter, I could have seen this fish in person at the launch had I been closer.

[aanderud]

Facebook? What's that?

[CANOPY SAM]

It's a HUGE waste of time! Don't bother, and for certain, don't invest in it!

[Mr Special]

It's a HUGE waste of time! Don't bother, and for certain, don't invest in it!

are we talkin about FB or Cattin? LMAO

[aanderud]

The flathead length/weight estimator put the fish at like 98.5 pounds (length x length x girth / 1275). It was 56.75 inches long with a 39 inch girth.

Nice to know that the formula is relatively accurate on fish that big, for when I catch and release a 100 pounder on the MN river and my scale doesn't go that high.

[DTro]

Well it's semi close anyways. The one that REALLY baffles me is the South Dakota record. It weighed 63lbs and measured 47x30. We catch fish with those measurements all the time around here...

[aanderud]

Semi-close? Hmm. I guess I've never seen a FORMULA-based estimation that's less than 4% off. Most scales aren't calibrated to less than 5% I'd guess.

[TruthWalleyes]

Well it's semi close anyways. The one that REALLY baffles me is the South Dakota record. It weighed 63lbs and measured 47x30. We catch fish with those measurements all the time around here...

Huh...Maybe a 15# tumor on its head. Any pics of the record? The extra weight should be in the girth, but - this is perplexing!

[DTro]

Well the formula gets you in the ballpark anyways. Brian I thought you were talking about the 120lber and not the 102.

Still can't figure out that South Dakota fish:

In comparison, here's another 63 that was just caught recently that was 52x32 (measurements I would expect of that size)

[TruthWalleyes]

I bet you could put a basketball in that fish's mouth!

[nsnutter]

Somebody say basketball??

[TruthWalleyes]

Bobber Down!