Patuxent River Catfishing, 10/30

[ictalurus]

I had some left over bloodworms and chicken livers, so I thought I'd try my luck trying to catch my screen namesake. I got a bit of a late start and didn't hit the water until 11am. I launched at Magruder's Landing, and headed a little downstream while watching my fish finder. The screen lit up less than a quarter mile from the ramp. I loaded one rod with livers and the other with bloodworms on small hooks in case white or yellow perch were around. On my first drop with the livers, I fished my wish, but I was a little surprised at which species it was:



I wasn't expecting a blue catfish. I didn't think they were in the Patuxent yet. A friend of mine who worked on the yellow perch creel survey said she interviewed someone who had a blue cat in their creel, but I was hoping she was wrong or they caught it elsewhere. If the Patuxent behaves like the Virginia tribs and the Potomac, we'll be up to our eyeballs with blue cats within 10 years.

After that, I started catching channel cats. The bloodworms on the small hooks only caught channel kittens, so I started only using livers. I caught several around 12":



For a while, the action was so steady that I couldn't take a picture without having a hit. I got a cool action sequence:





I moved downstream more in search of larger fish and found some around 15":



There were still lots of marks on the fish finder. I was kicking myself because the manager at the Tackle Box suggested I take some fresh menhaden he had, but I was planning on using up old bait and figured I could catch some eatin' size fish for dinner. The livers weren't easy to use, and I could've cleaned up with some fresh menhaden.

The bite died off around 1:30, but I putzed around until 3pm looking for better fish or some perch. I found neither, and the wind was really howling, so I called it a day. I forgot my temp/salinity meter, but my sonar said ~60* for most of the day, and I knew I was close to freshwater based on eyesonthebay.net. As it turns out, there wasn't a lot of meat on the fish around 15", and it really shrank when we cooked it. Even so, catfish nuggets are pretty good.

[MetroMan]

looks like a great day of fishing. Thanks for the report!

[DOGFISH]

Kittens? I will now refer to undersized rockfish as pebbles or little stones. I like that.

[jffoley]

Nice report, Bill. Them blue cats are fairly abundant now in the Potomac and there are some big'uns. I caught a couple over 40lbs last fall. If I'm not mistaken they grow fairly slowly but once they get over 5lbs they start getting big at a faster rate. I guess they're eating more protein rich prey at that point. They're in many Virginia tidal rivers now. You can bet if you found one there's lots more in there!

[ictalurus]

I studied catfish in the VA tribs for my masters (hence my screen name), and you're exactly right. Right around 16 inches, their diet changes and growth takes off for a while. That's when they become really piscivorous. The biggest blue cat in my study was only about 40lbs, was 9 years old, and was from the James. I missed out on some chances to collect bigger fish. My oldest fish was from the Rapp and was 16 and around 20lbs, I think. I have some buddies that still work on the trawl survey in VA, and the blue cats are expanding their range into saltier water--sometimes as high as 14 or 15. According to the literature, their max salinity tolerance is only about 11.

I really wish I had brought some bigger bait because I think what I caught was only a drop in the bucket of what was really there.

[DOGFISH]

ICTALURUS:

I wrote about rockfish and the water at 56 drgrees in another thread under SPSP 10/30. Is that true. I didn't know about you background. You would be the one to ask.

[mmanolis2001]

excellent day on the water. I love catching catfish that size on lite gear.

I have not taken a Potomac river catfish trip in some years. I might have to chunk up some frozen spot and hit the water this week.

Thanks for the report.

[Grilled]

awesome pics...i haven't fished the potomac in years but its always fun to catch cat fish. nice job!

[ictalurus]

DOGFISH--most of my expertise is with catfish and early life history of many Bay species (juveniles and younger). I don't know as much about adults and adult stripers, but what you said is consistent with what I've read as well as what I've heard from lots of fisherman. Striped bass have a thermal optimum. I can't remember what it is off the top of my head, but most areas of the Bay can get too hot for them in the summer, and they start losing weight. They can't eat enough to keep up with the effect of temperature on their metabolism, even given all food they can eat. So even if the Bay was wall-to-wall with menhaden, stripers would still lose weight in the summer. The amount depends upon how hot it is and the degree of prey limitation. Once things cool off a bit, they make up for lost time and start packing on weight.

mmanolis--where do you go in the Potomac? I've heard that the catfish bite in the Ft. Washington/Piscataway area can be good.

GS--it's been a while since I've gone catfishing, too. I forgot how hard they pull, even the little fellers. It really makes me want to go after the big guys.

[DOGFISH]

Just a note on catfish. I have caught some large channel cats in the upper Potomac. That is one of my favorite places to fish. The area above Harpers Ferry is great. It is a great place to kayak. It would be a nice place to have a meet and greet in the summer. The dry season is best, due to a heavy rain making the river muddy.

Also, yes, the 56 degree story made sense to me from a fisherman's experience. This summer, the rockfish must have lost alot of weight, given how hot it was. They should be eating now.

[NIGHTCREW]

Just a note on catfish. I have caught some large channel cats in the upper Potomac. That is one of my favorite places to fish. The area above Harpers Ferry is great. It is a great place to kayak. It would be a nice place to have a meet and greet in the summer. The dry season is best, due to a heavy rain making the river muddy.

Also, yes, the 56 degree story made sense to me from a fisherman's experience. This summer, the rockfish must have lost alot of weight, given how hot it was. They should be eating now.

I have been catching blue cats in the patuxuant for at least 3 years now. many of them over 24" but no really big ones yet.
i usauul fish around the lower marlboro area and have not cuaght any blues north of there. but it seems like it is almost a 50/50 split between blues and chanel cats now. something must have happend to my favorite spot this year because it has not produced many fish at all, maybe the depthe of the chanel changed in the area or something. anyway just puttin my 2 cents in for what its worth.

[ictalurus]

Thanks for the info, NIGHTCREW. It's interesting you didn't get many this year. I thought that the salinity might've been too high, but there's a Chesapeake Bay Program station at Lower Marlboro, and both salinity and dissolved oxygen were fine all year. Maybe the channel did change.