giant catfish, urban legend?

[Yak Fish]

Guys,
I have a great fishing story and I can't believe i've forgotten to share it. A month or two ago I was up at the conowingo dam walleye fishing. After some time an older guys tells me that catfish have been caught out of the area as big as picnic tables. I'm thinking, "sure, I've heard these kinds of stories before." He then goes on to tell me that years ago his buddy was a diver who was searching for a missing person above the dam and when he was down there he said there were catfish as big as people. The divers were all afraid to go down. Ok, so he's got some more evidence, but still nothing more than urban legend, right?

As time goes on that day, I happen to meet another older guy (I talk to a lot of fisherman :-) ) who was telling me about the old days of the dam and how you could fish on the catwalk. He also said that you weren't allowed to fish above the dam, but sometimes he broke the rules. He claimed that he'd caught an 80 lb and 100 lb catfish out of there. He didn't think anything of it until he saw that the record catfish had just been caught out of the potomac. He decided that he'd go back above the dam and try to catch the monster cat. He never did, but he did get arrested for doing so and had to appear in court. He explained to the judge that he was fishing for this monster and he happened to show the judge the pics, at which the judge was in shock and he got off the hook somehow, no pun intended. I'm not sure how much of this is substantiated, but the guy said he had the pics in his van. I couldn't turn this down. I would say that if the cat at bass pro is 60 lbs, the one he showed me is 80 lbs. I had to take a picture of the guy holding his pictures...so here it is, decide for yourselves. All I have to figure out now is how to convince the guards to let me fish there for a few hours :-) He also happened to have a pic of a massive blue gill that he'd caught.

Has anyone heard of similar stories?

[jffoley]

Looks like a flathead catfish. Bill, what say you?

World record is like 120lbs so the story is certainly plausible.

[ictalurus]

Yeah, I was thinking it was a flathead. I thought the head would be bigger, but I haven't seen many that size, so the head and body might even out more when they get really big. It's definitely not a blue or channel. I know there are flatheads above the dam. The DNR was worried about their impact on the smallmouth fishery. I can't imagine fighting something like that from shore.

[eastonkayaker]

Catfish in Winter

Yeah, I was thinking it was a flathead. I thought the head would be bigger, but I haven't seen many that size, so the head and body might even out more when they get really big. It's definitely not a blue or channel. I know there are flatheads above the dam. The DNR was worried about their impact on the smallmouth fishery. I can't imagine fighting something like that from shore.

Bill, I catch a lot of catfish 12-20" range in Choptank river, spring, summer and fall. I have seen commercial fisherman take truckloads of catfish in late spring out of the Tuckahoe. Where do catfish go/hide during the winter?

Bryan

[Redfish12]

I have always heard similar reports from people on Smith Mountain lake in Virginia about divers running into huge catfish around the dam. I always thought it was suspect at best since all the catfish I have caught have been channel cats and they do not get that big. Well this year has me thinking differently, we caught several nice flatheads, mudcats as we call them, and I know they can get huge and are aggressive. They were caught pulling live shad for stripers, I plan on targeting them specifficaly this year. I hear they like bluegills a lot, which is good for me because they are the spot of the freshwater world as far as I'm concerned. Easy to catch, hold up well, and if all else fails they can still be dinner.

That's pretty funny he keeps the shots in the car, but I can imagine people think he is pulling their leg most of the time! Mudcats are my grandfather's favorite fish to catch and I've spent many night fishing for them on the New in VA and WV. I hear they run strong on the James around Richmond and people regularly target them on the fly... need to get down there.

[ictalurus]

Bryan--I haven't fished for catfish much in the winter, but most everything moves to deeper water when it's cold. I think February is a good time for big blues in the James and Potomac.

In the Tuckahoe, I would look for water over 25ft near a river bend with lots of large woody debris. I don't have my Fishes of the Chesapeake Bay book at home with me, but channel catfish can handle a fair amount of salinity, probably something around at least 7-9, so you might try looking farther downstream than you normally would. A lot of species will go to higher salinity than they normally would if they can find slightly warmer water. Another area I would look would be near where creeks hit the mainstem of the Tuckahoe, especially if deeper water is near by. I think I can spot catfish pretty well on my fish finder, so I would paddle until you see long, relatively linear marks. They're often on the deep side of bumps on the bottom, too. They might be really close to the bottom when it's this cold, so they might be tough to spot. Keep an eye out for schools of gizzard shad and river herring because the cats will be near by.

That's the theory, anyway. I'd have to look through some of my Virginia data at work to get more specific info about depth and salinity for channel cats in the winter. Looking at the chart of the Tuckahoe area, I would hit the area around Deep Branch, the next 3 or so riverbends downstream, and the area where the Tuckahoe hits the Choptank. I had a project on the Choptank, but I never sampled above Dover Bridge on the Choptank, but we caught some channels up to 15in a ways below Dover Bridge in approximately 30ft of water in March and April in 2004. The salinity was nearly fresh. I suspect they probably don't move much between now and March.

[eastonkayaker]

Thanks Bill, I know a spot on the Choptank, Kingston Landing upriver from the Dover Bridge, around 30' of water. I am going to try there when I get a chance.