Last week the fishing world was excited to see the 131-pound new Mississippi state record blue catfish, which was caught in the Mississippi River.
The fish was over 56 inches long, had a girth about 41 inches, and was caught using skipjack herring for bait. You may remember back in 2010 when a 130-pound blue catfish was caught in the Missouri River just upstream of the confluence with the Mississippi River, besting the previous Missouri state record of 125-pounds, also caught in the Mississippi River near Alton.
So the question is why are we not seeing giant blue catfish near the Quad-Cities? The easy answer is because there are no blue catfish around the Quad-Cities.
Blue cats are not found naturally in the upper half of Illinois, and it is questionable on whether they were ever abundant in our area before the lock and dams were built in the 1930s and 1940s. Blue cats, in rivers, tend to be migratory in nature and usually prefer more open water than their smaller cousins.
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They can still be found in large numbers from the greater St. Louis area south in the Mississippi River and in several artificial impoundments within a couple hours of the Quad-Cities. I have heard a few creditable accounts as far as north as Keokuk and one near Muscatine, but never anything north of the Quad-Cities.
The name “Blue Cat” is also commonly used for channel catfish in the spring as male channel catfish turn a dark blue during the breeding season. Some of the biggest channel cats of the season are caught that time of year.
The best way to tell the difference between the two species is the ray count on the anal fin, but there are no absolutes in fish science. The front edge of a blue catfish’s anal fin is usually squared off whereas the channel catfish anal fish is usually rounded.
Those are the two quickest and most definitive ways to tell the difference between the species, but both of those characteristics can be tougher to identify when fish get bigger, older, and many times have small injuries or scars that inhibit a perfect match. Blue cats are also typically a light blue whereas male channel catfish are typically dark blue as well.
I have raised and stocked thousands of blue catfish at the Constellation Fish Hatchery for stocking in our power plant lakes across Illinois. But in the 50-plus years of sampling fish in the Mississippi River north of the Quad-Cities, we have never captured a single blue catfish. That does not mean there cannot be one out there, but it would be a rare catch.
If you do want to catch a giant catfish locally, you are better off chasing flathead catfish, either in the Mississippi River or in one of our local smaller rivers. The key time of year for big flathead movement tends to be in early June when larger fish are on the move for the spawn. Big fish can be caught all summer long however. The key to catching flatheads is lively bait. Many area fishermen use bluegills, creek chub and bullheads.
Remember that it takes a long time to grow big fish, so enjoy the experience and leave it in the river for another angler to catch in the future. I tagged flatheads back in the late ’90s that we are still recapturing almost 25 years later, but that is a story for another day.