WVs blue cat fishery rapidly becoming destination resource

WVs blue cat fishery rapidly becoming destination resource

Source: wvgazettemail

3/6/2021

Justin Conner has fished for blue catfish throughout the southeastern United States, and he believes West Virginia’s blue cat fishery ranks right up there with the best.

“We’re catching as many blues here as we would if we fished elsewhere,” said Conner. “The fishery is like a fine wine; it just gets better with age.”

Compared to blue cat hotspots in other parts of the country, West Virginia’s is of recent vintage. Blue cats are native to the Ohio and Kanawha rivers, but were extirpated by the 1960s and 1970s by widespread water pollution.

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.

KANAWHA RIVER

Catfish, Blue

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