Fishing Species
Blue Catfish Fishing
Blue Catfish bigfishtackle PM
| Label | Details |
|---|---|
| Scientific Fish Name: | Ictalurus furcatus |
| Other Fish Name: | blues, cats |
| Regions Fished: | Blue catfish are distributed primarily in the Mississippi River drainage including the Missouri, Ohio, Tennessee, and Arkansas rivers. These large catfish have also been introduced in a number of reservoirs and rivers, notably the Santee Cooper lakes of L |
| World Record: | |
| Common Tackle: | |
| Additional Information: | 30-35 anal fin rays, anal fin margin is straight, caudal fin is deeply forked. Blue catfish are opportunistic predators and will eat any species of fish they can catch, along with crayfish, freshwater mussels, frogs, and other readily available aquatic food sources (some blue catfish have reportedly attacked scuba divers.) Catching their prey becomes all the more easy if it is already wounded or dead, and blue cats are noted for feeding beneath marauding schools of striped bass in open water in reservoirs or feeding on wounded baitfish that have been washed through dam spillways or power generation turbines. |