Big River Blue Cats

Giant blue catfish present one of America’s most exciting but overlooked angling opportunities. If you haven’t gone gunning for these monsters, get yourself properly geared up with a safe boat and the right tackle, and head for the nearest big river.

Rivers like the Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, Tennessee, and Cumberland are some of the best venues for big blues. In this chapter, top catmen fishing some of these waterways share their methods. But if you fish other rivers not covered here for blue cats, the same principles for success apply.

Jim Moyer of Clarksville, Tennessee, is a living legend among catfishermen. Over the last 30 years, the retired military officer has spent thousands of hours fishing for big blue cats in the nation’s best trophy waters. His largest, from the Mississippi River near Alton, Illinois, weighed 87 pounds 3 ounces; he’s caught hundreds over 50 pounds. Moyer knows that major rivers, with their swift current, snaggy cover, and relatively light fishing pressure, offer the best potential for world-class blues. Here he offers a primer on fishing these great waterways for the mightiest of freshwater gamefish.

Moyer on Blue-Cat Fishing

The major rivers of the central U.S. have always been premium venues for giant blue catfish. Waterways including the Mississippi, the lower Missouri, the mid- to lower Ohio, and the Cumberland, where I went to school on the haunts and habits of this great species, rank among the best bets for trophy blues—fish over 50 pounds.

Blue cats can be found in slackwater reservoirs, but big rivers have what it takes to grow these fish to giant size: the right temperature regime, plenty of dissolved oxygen, deep swift channels, structure like cascading ledges, snaggy bottom cover, and an ample supply of baitfish. Compared to reservoirs, bigger rivers receive relatively light fishing pressure, most of which is concentrated within 5 miles of a boat launch.

There’s no telling how large blue cats can get in the rivers mentioned—I wouldn’t be surprised to see a 130- to 140-pounder caught in my lifetime. Historical records mention blues weighing over 200 pounds in the days before dams were constructed along these waterways.