The dawn of a new century offers a chance for reflection and prognostication. Daydreaming of Native American river life 1,000 years ago brings to mind images of the cats that once swam in untamed rivers like the Mississippi, the Ohio, the Missouri, and a hundred other streams between the Rockies and the Appalachians. Between the days of Lewis and Clark and man’s alterations of wild rivers, reports of 150- to 200-pound cats were commonplace.

By the end of the 20th century, though, the scene was not so inspiring. The machine age turned many eastern rivers into waste dumps for industry and a burgeoning population. In the South and Midwest, pesticides killed bugs and tainted catfish without discrimination. Big catfish in 1900 were table fare to be captured and sold on the open market. The second half of the century brought the damming of nearly every major river in America, cutting off the lifeblood of cats that lived for the flows and floods that replenished the land. Resilient as they were, catfish populations were on a line toward decimation.

But the final decade of the century promised a brighter future, with cleaner urban effluents and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) bans on toxic heavy metals and pesticides. Growing enthusiasm among anglers in 1990 coincided with the publication of catfish articles in mainstream outdoor magazines, the startup of cat-specific literature like the Catfish In-Sider Guide, and even an International Catfish Symposium that fused scientific understanding of the genus.

Men have been pursuing catfish in North America for two centuries, and records have been kept since the 1930s, but those records are now tumbling at a fantastic pace. Considering past pressures from commercial harvesters, subsistence fishermen casting nets and hooks of every description, and a renewed pressure from savvy sport anglers, it’s amazing that catfish records continue to fall.

Catfish anglers who were surveyed rank catching a big fish as a high priority, more even than bass anglers who also are infected by the trophy bug. With blue and flathead potentials well over 100 pounds, and at least one channel cat topping 50, it’s no wonder that catmen are motivated by weightier issues.

State records were set at a frenzied pace in the last decade. In Oklahoma, for example, the state record for blue catfish was broken three times in the 1990s, with the last two differing by a mere 4 ounces and caught less than two months apart in two separate reservoirs. Blue cat records were set in 18 states, flathead marks in 15, and 19 states registered new channel cat records in the 1990s. The Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame (715/634-4440), tracks line class, state, and world records for North American gamefish. Incredibly, of the 54 line-class records listed for the big-three cat species, 40 (74%) were caught in the 1990s.

The Hall even recognizes catfish catches on fly-rods and maintains categories for each species in both kept and catch-and-release categories. Ted Dzialo, director of the Hall, believes that big catfish are receiving more attention. “It seems as if we’ve seen a resurgence of interest in catfish lately,” Dzialo says. “It’s not just old-timers sitting in boats, waiting all day for a fish to bite. Young guys are going after them and are understanding the potential recognition for big fish. I never thought we’d see the day when we’d have catch-and-release fishing for catfish, but we now track released catfish records, just as we do for bass and other sportfish.”

Whether more attention or better habitat is responsible for the record phenomenon, one conclusion seems obvious: Given the accelerated pace of the 90s, records are sure to rise even farther in this century and probably the next decade. Many avid anglers are just now appreciating the value of large catfish for sport, and some fishery managers are poised to enact conservation measures to improve the potential for monster cats. Habitat continues to improve as power and water-supply companies are mandated to release clean water below dams, and farm and factory wastes are targeted by the EPA for cleanup.

Who knows what potential records swim in American waters, or what 21st-century catfish conservation might do to the record books? Would it be ludicrous, or just optimistic to mention the number 200? Another writer in the year 2100 may look back to this point on the calendar as the bronze age for catfish, marking a departure from the dark ages of wanton catch and kill to an age of enlightenment for catfish managers and anglers.

The World Record Landslide

Less than a decade ago, we predicted that several age-old catfish records were about to fall. At the time, the rod-and-reel record for blue catfish had for 30 years stood at 97 pounds, while the flathead record had been 91 pounds for almost a decade.

The Blue Cat Barrage

The blue cat record onslaught began with fish of 103, 107, 109, and 111 pounds over a short period. Our early prediction was that soon enough the blue cat record would surpass 120 pounds. That prediction still makes good sense. It’s only a matter of time. Probably a short time.

In-Fisherman contributor Don Wirth covered the new Tennessee record, Robert Lewis’s 112-pounder.

Clarksville, Tennessee—What began as a pleasant bank-fishing outing on the Cumberland River turned into a wrestling match with a record-class blue catfish for 26-year-old Robert E. Lewis.

Lewis landed the 112-pound blue cat on June 7 after a 30-minute battle. He took up catfishing after moving to Tennessee five years ago. “Back home, I fished mainly for trout, but I’ve become an avid catfisherman since moving here,” he said. “My biggest blue prior to catching the record weighed about 40 pounds.”

Lewis arrived at Lock C on the Cumberland River at 2 p.m., accompanied by his six-year-old daughter Wendy. “I’m a single parent, and whenever Wendy and I have time together, she wants to go fishing,” he said. “She loves it as much as I do.”

The Cumberland was high, fast, and muddy that day. “It had been raining hard on and off for several days, and the river was up,” Lewis said. “Wendy and I fished from the bank with friends, but it was hot and the fish weren’t biting, so the other folks left about 5 o’clock. We decided to stick around.”

The bite picked up as soon as our friends departed. “We immediately caught a couple blues in the 15-inch range. Then I hung a big one that got off. I didn’t see this fish, but it felt like it might go 30 pounds.”

Lewis had set out two lines about 40 feet deep in the swift river channel. “I normally catch shad in a cast net for bait, but the high water made netting them impossible, so I bought some shiners from a local bait shop,” he said. “I was using a two-ounce egg sinker tied to the bottom of my line (25-pound Stren), and impaled the bait through the back with a 4/0 Eagle Claw hook, tied on a loop about 18 inches above the weight.”

Encouraged by the bites, Lewis and his daughter stayed put. “I made a little campfire to keep the bugs away, and Wendy kept busy tossing sticks into the fire while I fished.” Then at 6:30 p.m., the handle on Lewis’ Fin-Nor Ahab #16 spinning reel, which he’d paired with a 7-foot Shakespeare Sturdy Stik, began spinning wildly. “I grabbed the rod and let the fish run a little before I locked the handle and set the hook. I had the rod straight up in the air, but the fish pulled it all the way down to the water and peeled off 50 yards of line as it headed downstream.”

Lewis knew this was the biggest catfish he’d ever hooked. “I figured it was a 50- or 60-pounder. Then after its initial run, it cut to the surface and rolled. It was easily 70 yards away when I first saw it, and it still looked huge.”

The monster blue used the swift current to its advantage, working progressively farther downstream from Lewis’ position on the bank. “I had to maintain maximum pressure on the fish to land it in that current, so I hung on for about 20 minutes until it began to tire.” As Lewis worked the cat closer, he saw that flooded brush lay in the fish’s path. “I was fighting the fish from a little point of land, and when I saw that I was about to lose it in the brush, I stepped into the water so I could work the fish around the obstruction.”

“That’s when things got dicey,” Lewis recalled. “My first step put me in water over my waist. The river was so muddy, I had no idea it was that deep so close to shore. Then the fish made another run, I lost my footing, and was in water over my head.”

Lewis gripped the rod with one hand, backstroked frantically upriver with the other, and finally managed to dig his fingers into the bank and crawl back to land. “Wendy was screaming at this point, but I assured her I was okay. As soon as I was on the bank, the fish took off for the middle of the river again, stripping out about 40 yards of line.”

This time, the giant cat yielded more quickly. Lewis yelled for his daughter to reel in his other rod and run for the landing net. “It was all I could do to get the head of the fish into the net—I couldn’t believe how big this cat was,” he said. “I managed to force the net past its first set of fins, but then the cat started to thrash wildly, busting the net’s handle and metal hoop.”

Lewis jumped into the river on top of the cat and wrestled it ashore. “I managed to get its tailed wedged against the bank and pushed, shoved, and manhandled it onto land. Wendy was as excited as I was.”

Lewis was certain he’d shattered the Tennessee record for blue catfish (82 pounds 7 ounces), but had no idea his catch would qualify as a world record as well. “My first thought was getting the fish to some certified scales, so I loaded it into the trunk of my car and headed to a bait shop to weigh the fish. While we were driving down the road, every time the fish flopped, the car rocked back and forth.”

Lewis took the fish to B & J’s Bait Shop in Clarksville, where it weighed 112 pounds on certified propane scales. “I called Jim Barlow, the area Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency officer, and he verified the weight.” Officially, the catfish spanned 54 inches in length with a 41-inch girth.

West Memphis, Arkansas—Before Lewis’s fish was certified as the all-tackle world record, Charles Ashley, Jr. of Marion, Arkansas, caught a 116-pound 12-ounce blue cat from the lower Mississippi River. The huge fish was caught on August 3, 2001, near the Interstate 55 bridge in West Memphis.

Kirk Harris, a wildlife officer with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission says the new Arkansas record and pending world record measured 62 inches long and had a 38-inch girth. The fish shattered the old Arkansas record, which also was taken from the Mississippi River, by more than 20 pounds.

The Controversial Flathead

We also predicted that a flathead of some 100 pounds would soon come to scale. The new record, though, surpassed that by a triple jump. The story of the 123-pound flathead caught by Ken Paulie was filed by George Glines.

Independence, Kansas—The certified scales at the Star Mill in Independence, Kansas, settled on 121 pounds, and the catfishing world had a new world-record flathead, a fish surpassing the old record by more than 30 pounds. Fishing from the face of the dam at Elk City Reservoir, five miles west of Independence, Paulie hooked the fish of a lifetime on a well-worn pole, medium-weight spinning reel, and 12-pound line. A 20 mph south wind was pushing breakers onto the riprap facing of the dam, where Paulie was fishing for crappies with a jig tipped with a minnow.

“I thought I was hung on the rocks at first,” Paulie said. “I leaned on it a little and it moved. I saw a big log just under the water and thought I was hung on it, but it turned sideways in the waves. The next wave washed it closer, into the shallows. I saw what it was, leaned on it again, and then I was able to grab it and pull it onto the rocks. I wouldn’t have had a chance without the wind.”

The fish was verified by fishery biologist Sean Lynott, of the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks. The 61-inch fish had a girth of 423⁄4 inches.

Controversy accompanied the world-record flathead. Minor detail differences in the story were settled quickly. The fish was certified at 123 pounds, not 121, as was originally reported, or 124, as was suggested several weeks later. We also know that Paulie’s reel was a Zebco 33.

It is, however, Paulie’s description of his battle with the big fish that troubles seasoned flathead anglers. Flatheads are a terror of a fish to land. On heavy tackle, battles don’t necessarily last long, but are memorable for their intensity, particularly as the fish nears boat or shore. Given, too, is that 12-pound line is light by all standards for flatheads, even fish of modest size.

Reporter Steve Harper, in a story for The Wichita Eagle, published on May 15, the day after the event, quoted Paulie: “It didn’t give me a big fight or anything because of where it was, and because of all the rocks. . . . “ In the story, Harper also says that Paulie said the fight lasted about 15 minutes before Paulie worked the fish between two rocks where it turned sideways, impeding its escape.

Glines, the first to interview Paulie after the catch, and the man who shot the initial photos of Paulie and the fish, notes that Paulie didn’t exactly specify how long the battle lasted, but suggested it wasn’t long, perhaps only minutes. Meanwhile, biologist Sean Lynott has verified that the fish was alive, although not lively, when he first observed it.

So speculation that Paulie could not have caught and landed the fish as he suggests is as much a part of the story as the fish’s immense size. “A monster like that on 12-pound line, and the fish didn’t fight?” is the common refrain.

Bigger Fish Out There?

Absolutely. The record for blue catfish is particularly vulnerable. And although the flathead record may now seem beyond reach, we believe this record too may soon pass.

The fish are out there in many places across North America. More and more good fishermen are just beginning to fish for them, just as information about how to catch bigger fish is beginning to be published. That’s just part of the story we’ll continue to cover in Catfish In-Sider Guide. The presence of these monster fish will for the foreseeable future be one of the biggest stories in fishing.

Ultimately, how big is really big? We’re confident 140s and perhaps 150s are out there, both blues and flatheads. It’s possible that we’ll see another leap in record size. Odds are, though, that a 120-pound blue will happen along in the next few years. And soon enough, a flathead will just squeak past the Paulie fish.

And what of a new record channel catfish?

The World’s Most Elusive Catfish

A 58-pound channel catfish from Santee Cooper Reservoir, South Carolina, has served as the benchmark for millions of catfish anglers for more than 35 years. In the past decade, though, the record has been threatened four times; first in July 1993 by a 52-pound 10-ounce titan from California, then by a 48-pound 11-ounce fish from Mississippi in March 1995. The cycle repeated a year later with a 50-pounder from California in September 1996 and a 51-pound 12-ounce Mississippi record in May 1997. The only other fish to surpass the 50-pound mark was the former world record, a 55-pounder taken from the James River, South Dakota, in May 1949.

We view these recent catches with as much amazement as the world record, not only because of their immense size but also because of where they were caught. The Mississippi fish came from a 234-acre lake stocked every other year or so with yearling channel cats. Managed as a put, grow, and take fishery, Lake Tom Bailey produced the last five state records in a state brimming with fine catfish fisheries. And in California, the largest channel cats on record came from water supply impoundments stocked and managed as pay lakes. Channel cats aren’t native to the Santee Cooper watershed either, but they obviously found it hospitable.

The Santee Cooper Story

The best insight into the Santee Cooper fishery prior to the introduction of flatheads and blue cats comes from Robert Stevens, former fishery biologist with the South Carolina Wildlife Resources Department. Stevenson published The White And Channel Catfishes Of The Santee Cooper Reservoir And Tailrace Sanctuary in 1960, when the reservoir was about 17 years old. In the paper he noted that the lake’s channel cats grow larger and faster, live longer, and are in better overall condition than any channel catfish described in existing literature.

“For the past five years, a creel census has been maintained continuously on the reservoir,” Stevenson wrote. “Since 1956, the creel census checkers have reported the following giant catfish: 78, 75, 62, 60, 55, and 52 pounds. I examined a snapshot of the 78-pound catfish, which was caught in the Diversion Canal on July 4, 1956, weighed on cotton scales, and witnessed by many fishermen. I couldn’t positively identify the fish from the snapshot, but it appeared to be typical of the large channel catfish in the reservoir. Since I haven’t encountered any blue or flathead catfish in the watershed, I tentatively assume that this large catfish and the others reported by the creel checkers were indeed channel catfish.

“I have personally examined a 49-pound channel catfish from Lake Moultrie and seven channel cats from the Tailrace Sanctuary, weighing 40.8, 41.3, 44, 46.1, 47.5, 48, and 48.5 pounds,” Stevens added. “Channel catfish in the 30- to 40-pound range are not uncommon at either location, and channel cats in the 20- to 30-pound range are common. On March 13, 1959, for example, 18 fish averaging 21.7 pounds apiece were taken by South Carolina Wildlife Resources Department personnel for stocking in other waters.”

One factor that contributed to the incredible size of the channel cats at Santee Cooper was their longevity. “In this study, 60 percent of the channel catfish were eight years or older,” Stevens reported. “That compares to a study in Oklahoma where only three percent of the fish were eight or more years old. A Missouri study indicated that under four percent of the channel cats sampled were of this advanced age.” Even more surprising, Stevens found that more than six percent of the channel cats at Santee Cooper were 14 years old, while researchers in Oklahoma reported that only 0.2 percent of 7,717 cats sampled had reached that age.

Secrets Of A Productive Reservoir

When Stevens first began sampling big channel cats, he wasn’t even sure what they were. “I had three different opinions from three topnotch taxonomists,” Stevens says. “One said they were huge white catfish, one thought they were channel cats, and a third insisted that they were blue cats. I eventually sent a 55-gallon drum of catfish of various sizes to a catfish expert at the Smithsonian Institute for positive identification. He said they definitely were channel cats, but probably deserved a sub-species ranking because they were different from channel cats sampled elsewhere in North America.

“At the time, though, Santee Cooper produced more than big channel cats,” Stevens adds. “It has to be considered one of the most fascinating fisheries ever studied, almost unique in its production of giant fish. Roland Martin and other top bass guides called it the greatest largemouth bass mecca in the world, and pickerel anglers caught dozens of fish in the six- to eight-pound range. The reservoir also hosted the first and probably finest landlocked striped bass fishery ever documented, and also produced many record-class crappie, bluegill, and redear sunfish.

“The long growing season certainly contributed to the numbers of big fish at Santee Cooper, but other impoundments in the same region never demonstrated the same productivity. Sea-run herring entering the lake through the lock certainly added a new element to the food chain, but the number of gizzard shad we sampled never compared to midwestern impoundments. Some researchers, for example, estimated 1,200 pounds of shad per acre in some lakes, while I found only 350 pounds per acre at Santee Cooper. The last time I sampled shad, I found only 75 pounds per acre, and one year, I didn’t capture a single shad fingerling. I wish I knew why the lake is so productive, but I don’t.”

At the conclusion of his 1960 report, Stevens noted that while channel cats were abundant in the Tailrace Sanctuary, they didn’t completely fill the niche provided by the 60,000 acres of water in Lake Moultrie and failed to use the 100,000 acres in Lake Marion. He recommended that flatheads and blue catfish be introduced into the reservoir, and in February 1966, he followed through. A relatively small number of blues and flatheads from Arkansas were released into the Diversion Canal, forever changing the channel catfish fishery at Santee Cooper.

“There’s no question that the channel cat population was curtailed by the introduction of blues and flatheads,” says Scott Lamprecht, a fishery biologist with the South Carolina Wildlife Resources Department. “But fishing pressure may be the primary culprit. Few anglers targeted big catfish in the early days, preferring instead to catch numbers of smaller bullheads and white cats. Most of the big channel cats probably never left the Tailrace Sanctuary below Pinopolis Dam. They were left alone to grow at maximum rates and achieve top-end size for the species.

“We don’t see channel cats approaching record proportions these days, but their numbers have rebounded since the hydrilla outbreak in the early 1980s. The reservoir supports incredible numbers of channel cats in the 6- to 12-pound range, and fish approaching the 20-pound mark occasionally are reported. Competition with larger blues and flatheads likely limits their top-end size, but another giant channel catfish always is possible.”

Controversial Records

In recent years, the records for muskie, smallmouth bass, and walleye all have fallen not to larger fish but to discredit. According to Mike Leech, President of the International Game Fish Association (IGFA), though, Mr. W.B. Whaley’s application to the 1964 Field & Stream fishing contest is well documented. It includes a signed and notarized affidavit from Whaley; a report on the certification of the scale used to weigh the fish, which was checked by the South Carolina Department of Agriculture; a form signed by Dr. Reeve Bailey, Curator of the University of Michigan Museum of Fishes, which verifies the fish’s identity; and even a line sample.

But what about the former world-record channel cat, still the second largest on record? The 55-pound South Dakota record was taken from the James River by Roy Groves in May 1949. We know that the James is a far different river today, suffering from excess siltation as a result of farming practices throughout the watershed. Twenty-pound channel cats now are as unusual in the James as giant blue cats are in the South Dakota section of the Missouri River. Perhaps, though, record-class channels never existed in the Jim.

Look at the photo of Roy Groves with his record channel cat, then compare it to the picture of his former world-record blue cat, a 94-pounder taken from the same area. Beyond the obvious observation that Groves is wearing the same clothes in both photos, it’s also clear that both fish hang the same way from the scale. The barrel-shaped head and straight edge along the long anal fin seem to indicate that both fish are blue cats. Asked if he had any doubt about the identity of either fish, In-Fisherman editor and staff fishery biologist Steve Quinn stated, “No, they’re both blue cats.”

So what about the other huge channel cats currently in the record books? Our research found only three other fish exceeding the 50-pound mark: two from separate pay fishing lakes in California and a third from Tom Bailey, a tiny lake in Mississippi. From the photos we obtained and the conversations we’ve had with lake managers and biologists, we believe that these fish also might be blue catfish or even blue and channel hybrids misidentified as channel cats.

The Hybrid Question

According to Dr. John Liu, a professor of molecular biology at Auburn University, a blue cat and channel cat hybrid is easy to create through artificial propagation, but is unlikely in nature. “We typically squeeze the eggs from a female blue cat, remove the testes from a male channel cat and fertilize the eggs in a beaker,” Liu says. “The fertilization rate usually is low—something like 10 to 20 percent for hybrids compared to 60 to 70 percent for either parent species, but the hybrids offer several advantages for catfish farmers.

“Hybrids tend to grow faster than either blues or channel cats, in part because they seem to feed more aggressively,” Liu continues. “They also have a stronger immune system, since each parent species shows resistance to a particular set of diseases, and the hybrids seem to inherit both sets. Most importantly, though, their body shape is slightly different than blues and channels and also tends to be more uniform. This improved shape often increases processing yields by four to seven percent and makes the fish easier to seine from ponds during harvest.

“No one knows the top-end size of a hybrid catfish, because aquaculturists aren’t interested in growing large fish. I assume they would grow larger than a true strain channel catfish, but not so large as a blue cat. It’s also difficult to distinguish a hybrid by appearance, though a simple genetic test can quickly and accurately determine a fish’s identity. Most of the physical characteristics fall somewhere between a blue and channel cat, but probably most resemble a blue.”

“You probably can tell the difference if you’ve seen numbers of hybrids,” says Randall Goodman, Experimental Station Superintendent at Auburn. “Lacking that experience, though, it’s a tough call. The anal fin ray count usually is intermediate and therefore not conclusive. Likewise, the overall appearance of the anal fin—either long and straight like a blue or shorter and more rounded like a channel—usually falls somewhere in between on a hybrid. On smaller hybrids, the barbels tend to be thin and light colored, while channels have thicker and darker barbels. The swim bladder is unique to each species, though it can be observed only postmortem.

“My feeling is that few hybrid catfish are swimming in public waters. I don’t know of any state agency or private hatchery that supplies fish for recreational fishing that is producing or has attempted to produce hybrid catfish. It’s not outside the realm of possibility that such a cross could naturally occur, but I’ve never seen it happen without hormone injections. All of the hybrids we’ve seen were the result of artificial fertilization.”

California Dreamin’

The status of record-class channel cats in California remains muddled for several reasons. First, as we mentioned, the largest channel cats all have come from pay ponds. These water-supply impoundments are owned by county water departments but are leased to private businesses that stock catfish during summer and trout during winter. Fish seldom are able to reach trophy size, however, as water departments periodically drain the lake to remove debris from the lake bed. Lake operators often counter this routine drain-and-fill cycle by stocking trophy fish from private hatcheries.

California lists a 52-pound 10-ounce channel cat from the Santa Ana River Lakes as the official record, but we weren’t able to obtain a photograph of the fish. According to Sandra Debanes from Corona Recreation, her company didn’t lease the lake in 1993 when the record fish was caught. “Another organization operated the lake from about 1987 to 1997,” Debanes says, “and we have no record of the fish that were stocked or caught during this period.”

Since the lake would have been drained and filled several times during this 10-year period, though, it’s likely that the fish would have been nearly the same size when it was stocked as when it was caught. “We typically net the large fish when the lake is being drained and transfer them to one of the other waters we manage,” Debanes adds.

This allows managers to inventory the number and size of the fish in the lake, then advertise this information to anglers. And with so many competitive operations in southern California, the lake with the most and biggest fish often draws the most attention from anglers.

“Since we reacquired the fishing rights to Santa Ana River Lakes three years ago,” Debanes says, “all of the big catfish taken from the lake have been blues. Since the lake was drained by the Orange County Water Department last summer, though, the only catfish species we’ve stocked have been channels obtained from a hatchery in Brawley, California. Most of these fish average about two to four pounds, but some approach the 16-pound mark. All of the blue cats that remained in the lake were transferred to Anaheim or Corona lakes, which historically have been our top producers of big catfish.”

Irvine Lake also produced a 50-pound channel cat in 1996 that has been recognized as the 10-pound line-class record by the Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame (FWFHF) and a 44-pounder in 1995 that the IGFA lists as the 16-pound record. It seems clear from the photographs, though, that both are blue cats. Asked about other big channel cats taken from Irvine Lake, manager J.R. Smith said, “To the best of my knowledge, all of the big cats (over 40 pounds) taken from Irvine have been blues.”

The Controversy Continues

Both major record-keeping organizations require positive species identification by a fishery professional, but that doesn’t mean that mistakes don’t happen. Most ardent catmen, for example, would recognize the photograph of the IGFA 8-pound line-class record channel cat as a flathead. But fishery biologists who haven’t handled many catfish can and sometimes do make the same mistakes as anglers, misidentifying mid-range blues or flatheads as large channels.

Our purpose is not to point out the mistakes made by record-keeping organizations or fishery scientists, but rather to illustrate the rarity of giant channel catfish. Accurate records serve an important function by demonstrating the size a particular fish species is capable of attaining. Erroneous records, on the other hand, may have an opposite effect. In California, South Dakota, and other states across the country, blues or even flatheads that have been misidentified as channel cats deter an accurate assessment of regional productivity and prevent record-class channel cats from receiving the attention they deserve.

This likely is the case in Mississippi, too, which lists a 51-pound 12-ounce fish taken from Lake Tom Bailey in 1997 as the state record. This 234-acre lake near Meridian produced the last five state-record channel cats, including a 48-pound 11-ouncer in 1995 that still is recognized as the 20-pound line-class record by the FWFHF. But once again, the photographs we’ve obtained aren’t encouraging for the anglers who hold these records.

Bubba Hubbard with the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks says Lake Tom Bailey historically has been a top producer of large channel cats, but biologists aren’t sure why. “So far as I know,” Hubbard adds, “there never was any controversy about the identity of present or former state-record channel cats. The lake is only half full of water right now to repair a problem with the levee, which may give us the opportunity to investigate the catfish population, forage base, and other factors that could contribute to such an unusual fishery.”

When asked about the possibility that blue cats instead of channels were stocked, Hubbard researched the lake’s stocking records. “Channel cats typically are stocked in the fall when they’re about eight inches long,” Hubbard says. “The last crop was planted in 1997, but prior to that, channels were stocked in 1995, 1994, 1991, 1989, 1987, 1984, 1982, and 1976. The fish stocked in 1994 came from our Lyman Hatchery, which also contains blue cats. It’s possible that some of those fish could have been blue cats or even hybrids, but it’s unlikely that they could have reached such a large size in such a short time.

“In 1982, though, the fish stocked in Tom Bailey came from the Meridian National Fish Hatchery,” Hubbard continued. “Mississippi took ownership of that hatchery in the mid-1990s; but in 1982 it was operat