Fresh Water Fun

[tj06sti]

I know this isn't in Maryland, but I don't post on Tidalfish or any of those other boards. Me and and a buddy decided we wanted to Kayak, but not go far and have to deal with traffic and the traveling time, so we went to Burke lake last night, which is only about 15 minutes from my house. We got there around 8pm as the sun was setting. After hitting some of the points and structure I know of, trying for some Walleye or bass for a few hours, I decide to just relax and have some fun cat fishing and to try to get Nathan to catch his first fish out of his kayak. I have had plenty of luck catching channel cats up to 5 lbs there and they are fun fighters. Soaked nightcrawlers and shrimp, landed one 16" and then a tiny bullhead catfish, then nada for a few hours. Bait thiefs! I ran out of shrimp and decided to cut up the bullhead into chunks and use him since I didn't catch any perch or bluegill on the crawlers to use. Spent the next few hours trying out coves and soaking bait. It was getting cold and I was ready to leave. I had my iphone in my hands around 3am , quite bored actually, when I had a hit. I set the hook and it felt like a normal cat, until the line started peeling out and my kayak took off at a high rate of speed. I spent the next 8 minutes fighting this brute, before I was able to get him off the bottom! I thought it was a channel cat, I was really excited. He measured 37" and weighed 30lbs 8oz as of 3pm today, 12 hours after catching him. Then I found out that Burke Lake has blue catfish in it as well, and I do believe that is what this is. Its anal fins have very rounded edges, and fewer spines, and if this was a Channel cat, it would be close to a state record, lol. So I got really excited last night in the dark, and my buddy convinced me to keep him. I wish I had released him when I found out it was a blue cat, as he is an inch under the citation size for blue cats, and only 8oz over the 30lb citation lb. So, he is a citation blue cat, but barely. Does anyone else ever feel bad about keeping a monster they kept after the fact? Anywho, he won't go to waste, he is getting cleaned by another friend today and we will have LOTS of meat I am sure!

TJ

[chimo]

Beautiful Blue! I was trying for them the other night in the Potomac but all we got were a few 2 lbers. Must have been a blast in the yak! Good fishin

Chimo

[tj06sti]

Thanks, it was great fun, I certainly was not expecting a big blue, I thought I had to hit the Potomac or James or Rappy. Nothing wrong with a surprise though. Good luck to you!

TJ

[medicyaker]

Nice Cat!! anyday you catch something like that in a Yak, you shouldn't feel bad about the after the fact catch. Its a nice fish. I'm all about catch and release as well and leaving the big ones to breed the future big ones but I'm sure he's not the only one down there on the bottom of that lake. Nice job!! Bon-a-petite

[DOGFISH]

Guilt

Every time.

[ictalurus]

That's an awesome blue, TJ. Nice work! I haven't had much luck eating cats that size (I had a few fish that size for my Master's project). Based on my failures at cooking them and assuming you haven't cooked it yet, I would recommend steaking the fillets and cutting them up so that they're less than an inch thick. Grilling them might work, too.

As for keeping monsters, I haven't caught any, so I haven't had a chance to feel guilty yet. I wouldn't feel guilty about keeping a big blue cat because they're an introduced species and are pretty voracious piscivores. They hammer American shad, hickory shad, and the other river herrings during their spawning migrations and as the juveniles head out to sea.

Another thing to consider is that it's always better to eat food that was acquired locally rather than shipped across the country (or world). It has a lower carbon footprint.

[tj06sti]

Thanks a lot Medic. Thinking about it that way helps out bunch!

Nice Cat!! anyday you catch something like that in a Yak, you shouldn't feel bad about the after the fact catch. Its a nice fish. I'm all about catch and release as well and leaving the big ones to breed the future big ones but I'm sure he's not the only one down there on the bottom of that lake. Nice job!! Bon-a-petite

Every time.

I am glad I am not alone. :P

[tj06sti]

Thanks for the advice and words of wisdom! I will trim down the filets, was going to Fry some of them, and I will try grilling some other portions. Hope I have some luck. This guys (or gal's?) tummy was loaded full of clams! He had a 26 inch Girth, I was expecting him to be full of Gizzard Shad, since those things seem to have really taken over on Burke. He sure seemed built for gorging himself with the way his belly distended. and now I know how to identify a Blue Cat!
TJ

That's an awesome blue, TJ. Nice work! I haven't had much luck eating cats that size (I had a few fish that size for my Master's project). Based on my failures at cooking them and assuming you haven't cooked it yet, I would recommend steaking the fillets and cutting them up so that they're less than an inch thick. Grilling them might work, too.

As for keeping monsters, I haven't caught any, so I haven't had a chance to feel guilty yet. I wouldn't feel guilty about keeping a big blue cat because they're an introduced species and are pretty voracious piscivores. They hammer American shad, hickory shad, and the other river herrings during their spawning migrations and as the juveniles head out to sea.

Another thing to consider is that it's always better to eat food that was acquired locally rather than shipped across the country (or world). It has a lower carbon footprint.

[summerschool]

Great job TJ, that must have been fun getting a tow, catfish are usually good to eat!!

[mmanolis2001]

Now that's a pig...

Good job. I fish Burke lake in the spring and fall but have never cat fished there. I might have to make a trip there after work one of these days. I just found 2 lbs of croaker that's been sitting in the basement freezer for 8 months . Maybe i should recycle it into a couple catfish pulls.

[ictalurus]

I never thought of frying it. That sounds awesome. I'd like to hear how it comes out.

Another way to tell a part a blue cat from a channel is to look at their swim bladders when you're gutting them. The swim bladder is a white balloon-looking organ near the spine. If it's shaped like an hour-glass, it's a blue. If not, it's a channel.

You can tell a male from a female when gutting them, too. If you saw a pair of pinkish to white tubes when you first opened it up, it's a female. If you saw a pair of strings with weird finger-like projections hanging from it, it was probably a male. The testes can be easily confused with visceral fat if you don't know what you're looking for. There are other ways to tell externally, but it's too gross to describe in a public forum.

Blue cats love mussels and clams. The ones on the Pamunkey and Mattaponi Rivers eat big ones that are difficult to...uh ... pass. You can sometimes hear the shells rattling around inside them. Gizzard shad (live and cut) and eels make good baits for the big ones, though.

Somewhere I have the stocking documents from the 1970s and 1980s when the VDGIF did a lot of blue cat stocking, but I can't find them at the moment. I remember seeing Burke Lake on the list. That would be an easy way to get a rough idea of how old the fish was.

That's probably way more than you wanted to know about catfish.