Ictalarus Furcatas, the blue catfish, is the largest of all sportfish in Ohio, and of all freshwater species in North America, only the alligator gar and a few species of sturgeon grow larger.
With a voracious appetite and a wide mouth, blue catfish are absolute eating machines. They can grow three to six pounds per year until they reach the 20-pound range, at which point they begin to add more girth than length.
Blues grow to ridiculous proportions if conditions are right. The World Record blue catfish, caught in Virginia in 2011, weighed 143 pounds and measured 57 inches long, with a girth of 47 inches.
The largest recorded specimen ever taken from Ohio waters weighed in at 96 pounds and is the current state record. It measured 56 1/2 inches in length and was taken on June 10, 2009 from the Ohio River in Cincinnati.
In 2008, the previous state record blue catfish was also taken out of the Ohio River, this one weighing in at 57 pounds and 3 ounces. It measured 45 1/2 inches in length and was taken below the Meldahl Lock and Dam some thirty five miles upstream from Cincinnati.
In 2008, it was also the first year there was ever a listing for blue catfish in the state record books because the year prior they had just been removed from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) endangered species list. In 2008, they became legal to catch and possess.
Since then, ODNR has been busy managing the growth of the blue catfish population in the state, as well as introducing the species to several lakes across Ohio. By 2010 they had begun their stocking program by releasing blues into a small select number of reservoirs.
ODNR was intent on identifying the best possible lakes for multiple stockings and to expand their territory and increase the angling opportunities for these brute sportsters.
At the time the program was conceived, the only place in Ohio to find blue catfish was in the Ohio River and the lower reaches of its tributaries.
In late 2011, the first blue catfish were released into Hoover Reservoir, a lake that was selected for its abundance of baitfish, especially gizzard shad. ODNR released 22,000 fish, each approximately a foot in length.
Over the course of the next few years they received additional stockings of around half that number. Eleven years later, it’s safe to say that the stocking program at Hoover Reservoir was a success.
According to the Fish Ohio Catch Report for 2021, Hoover Reservoir coughed up 40 blues that qualified for the Fish Ohio recognition program. In order to qualify, fish must be at least 35 inches in length. Compare that to the total taken from the Ohio River last year, which was 33.
For the entire rest of the state there were 53 entries. That means of the 126 trophy blue cats recorded last year, nearly one third of them came from Hoover Reservoir.
Blues can often be mistaken for channel catfish because they are extremely similar in appearance with only two easily distinguished differences between them. They are similar in color, ranging from a pale, silver gray to a grayish blue, with a pale belly.
They are shaped almost exactly the same with large barbels extending from their jaws and they each have deeply forked tails. Their dorsal fins are alike, as are their pectorals and claspers.
Only their anal fins are apparently different.
The blue catfish has a longer anal fin, which will have 30-35 rays. The front and back edges of the anal fin has a definitive straight angle to them, while the channel catfish has 25-39 rays and the front and back edges of their anal fin has a rounded appearance.
Since I learned to identify my catfish in this manner I have only identified a small handful of my catches as blues, and all of these came from Hoover Reservoir.
Now, I have only been chasing big cats since 2017, when a chance hookup with a 48-inch flathead catfish changed the trajectory of my life as an angler. After feeling the sheer power of a fish four feet in length and some 30 to 50 pounds in weight, I was hooked.
I seek to catch larger fish; the sport being the chance to strive against an animal that can outmatch your skills and overpower your gear. The goal is to heave into the boat a fish that was too large to land with the net, and to stare at it with wonder, awed by its size and humbled to feel the power in its jaws as you lower it over the side of the boat to release it.
I have caught four that have made the grade. They are the kind of fish that leave you shaking with the after effects of the adrenaline rush that you get when you are fighting them.
They are the fish that you know you will remember when you are old and can no longer fish. I caught two of these last year on the same day at Hoover Reservoir.
The day was May 16, 2021. I had made plans to go fishing with my good friend Aaron, on what would be my first trip to Hoover Reservoir to target blue catfish. After making our plans to meet, I did my due diligence and researched the best location, bait, and presentation for the trip.
Following the advice I had received from successful blue catfish anglers that frequented the lake, we headed north from the ramp, toward the mud flats where Big Walnut Creek flows into the reservoir.
We fished the mudflats first, casting toward cover or into the river channel. For bait we used cut shad that I had caught that morning with my cast-net. We used chunks about an inch-wide on two of our lines and we put whole shad with their tails cut off on the other two. Our rigs were modified Santee Cooper and Carolina.
After 20 minutes on the mudflats without a hit we backed off a little and fished the edge of the mudflats where it shelved down to 10 feet. We fished there fruitlessly for a while before moving out to the expansive flats where we drifted in 10 feet of water, letting the northerly breeze drift us toward the mudflats, our sinkers dragging along the bottom while our baits floated either a few inches to a few feet above the bottom.
We tried to fish where we noted cover on the depth finder and along the river channel that cut through the flat. Sometime around noon we hooked up with a small blue, a 4-pound fish going 20 inches or so.
About 15 minutes later as we were sitting idly and visiting, the pole to my right bent in half. It took me a few seconds to grip it, open the rod holder, and remove it but the rod stayed bent over and I knew before I had it out of the holder that there was a decent fish on the line.
In a matter of five minutes he was at the side of the boat. Aaron had the net but it was too small for the fish. We could both see that so I handed Aaron my rod and reached over the side of the boat and gripped the fish by its jaw and heaved it over the side.
When we measured it, it was 35 1/4 inches long and weighed 18 pounds 3 ounces. Pleased with our catch, we snapped a picture and released it.
Several hours later, still dragging that big flat north of oxbow road, my pole went down hard.
The line screamed off the spool of my reel even though the drag was set to 20 pounds. When I set the hook it felt like I was hooked into a log. I horsed back on the rod and reeled down as I lowered the rod tip.
When I heaved back a second time more line ripped off the spool and my rod jerked hard. Our small jon boat spun as the fish arced at the end of my line, some 70 yards away from the boat. I heaved back several times in a row, hard and fast, attempting to break the fish’s momentum and stop its run.
It seemed to work.
First the fish eased up a little, then my line went slack. Reeling down, I couldn’t seem to bring the line in fast enough to put any pressure on the fish. It was running fast toward the boat and I cranked for all I was worth. By the time I caught up to the fish it was only 15 yards away from the boat but still running deep.
As I cranked and heaved, the fish struggled against me. He would pull and run in long sweeping arcs, causing the boat to swing. When he started to raise toward the surface he took another run at the boat and dove when he got to its side.
I managed to get it within five yards of the boat when it gathered its reserve of energy and made another energetic run, ripping more drag off the reel.
Finally it tired and gave up its struggle. As I brought it alongside the boat, I knelt, reached over the side and grasped this blue by its jaw. When my hand went in it clamped down hard, its small raspy teeth abrading my skin and drawing blood. Once again Aaron took my rod and this time I used both hands to heave the fish over the boat’s side.
This fish looked close to the same length as the previous one but it was much heavier. It’s head was half again the size of the former catch. We measured it at 39 1/4 inches and weighed it on my scale.
It went 30 pounds 11 ounces. I posed for several pictures with it and we took a video of the release.
As I was letting it go, it clung to my hand and I had to pry its jaw open before it swam away. I watched it disappear back into the water and felt the adrenaline drain away. I stayed hunched at the edge of the boat, laughing to myself, awed by the encounter, aware that this was a moment I would remember for the rest of my life.
As I think back on that day I realize just how lucky we are to have the opportunity to catch blue catfish so close to home. Thanks to the efforts of the ODNR, the best blue catfishing in the state is now a local option.
Hoover Reservoir is located just 50 miles southwest of Mansfield and is only a few miles off Interstate 71. With a large population of trophy fish in a relatively small body of water, Hoover is hard to resist for an avid catfisherman, especially when it’s so close to home.
