Water quality improved after the Clean Water Act of 1970 went into effect. By the early 2000s, Division of Natural Resources officials considered it clean enough to begin a blue cat reintroduction program.

The fish didn’t just survive. They thrived.

“It’s pretty obvious the fishing has gotten better,” said Nate Taylor, the DNR’s District 6 fisheries biologist. “The state record is being broken just about every year, and the river has the potential to grow fish much bigger than the ones being caught now.”

The heaviest blue cat caught so far, taken from the Ohio River in 2016, tipped the scales at 59.74 pounds. The longest, an Ohio River fish Conner caught and released in 2020, stretched the measuring tape to 49.84 inches.