# 2014 Catfish Summit



## fishdealer04 (Aug 27, 2006)

Nice seeing some OGF guys at the Catfish Summit today. Overall I think they did a nice job with the presentations and talking about what they have done this past year and what they plan to do.

All of us that fish the Ohio River were really interested in what is going on, in particular with other states which they touched on briefly. I hope these other states do get their regulations in place and they start to enforce them.

I was able to talk to a couple of the wildlife officers there and they are all very adamant about stopping any illegal activity and that we should use the poacher line if we see anything that is not right. It is manned 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. I talked to the Hamilton county officer who was also at some of our tournament weigh in's last year and he is a really good guy and was talking about pulling up nets last year and doing undercover operations at some of the local ramps.

What I am really interested in is the tagging program they are going to be starting. In 5 years it will be pretty cool to see the data on those fish and where they traveled, or when/where they were caught. For those of you that did not make the meeting- The ODNR is going to tag blue and flathead catfish in particular that are over 24 inches. They will have an internal radio transmitter and a tag on the outside. If you catch one of these fish there is a 1-800 number on the tag to call and on the other side of the tag is a number specific to that fish. They said they are offering a cash reward for the information. The battery life is good for 5 years on the transmitters. They are planning buying all supplies this year and to really start tagging fish starting next year I believe they said and hopefully by 2018 they will start having a lot of good data.

Also the 3rd catfish summit will be in Columbus next Feb.


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## whodeynati (Mar 12, 2012)

Thanks for the post. I would have been there for sure, but today was the start of my work week. I seem to miss all the meetings and almost all of the close tournaments. Time for a new job!


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## fishdealer04 (Aug 27, 2006)

whodeynati said:


> Thanks for the post. I would have been there for sure, but today was the start of my work week. I seem to miss all the meetings and almost all of the close tournaments. Time for a new job!


I hear ya on that! I was lucky to be off today. I missed last years meeting due to work as well.


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## throbak (Jul 8, 2012)

I liked the Part where we were told that Pay Lakes are Saving Big Cats by keeping them from the Kill Market,,, By a pay lake Owner or friend I think LOL


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## fishdealer04 (Aug 27, 2006)

throbak said:


> I liked the Part where we were told that Pay Lakes are Saving Big Cats by keeping them from the Kill Market,,, By a pay lake Owner or friend I think LOL


Haha yeah I agree. That was John from Triangle paylakes and some of his buddies.


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## Fisherman 3234 (Sep 8, 2008)

It was great seeing everyone down there again and meeting some new people, the best part of the meeting was when that clown and his crownies stormed out cussing up a storm, because they could tell their bologna wasn't working. We just have to remember that we are driving force in all of this, we will prevail. The DNR seems to have the same passion in protecting the resource as we do, I'm also willing to bet that was one of their biggest gatherings of any group of fisherman they have ever had.


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## katfish (Apr 7, 2004)

Got to meet a few folks and see some old friends. Hadn't seen Doc since GFO days but he was there.

Made some suggestions to the investigator that may or may not be helpful.

Had some laughs with guys I only see at the catfish summit and met folks that I only knew from the computer boards/facebook.

They didn't have any topics to put dots to discuss flathead management.

Would have been lots more fun if we didn't spend 9 hours in the car that day.


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## 33highland (Feb 5, 2014)

The best part was when so many started clapping when they left.I was sitting in front of those jokers and they ran their traps every time someone said something they didn't like. I was glad to see them leave. I spotted a bunch of folks from the web but didn't talk to many. I spotted robby and vince from their pics on here.


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