# Ohio River Tagged Bluecat



## firecat (Apr 7, 2004)

On memorial day weekend I was down fishing out of point pleasant WV on the Ohio River. We caught a small tagged Bluecat. So I took the tag off and called it in. Last night I get a call from the ODNR about the tag, they were wanting more information on where I caught the fish. So I told the lady where I was fishing and I asked why where was the fish released from (figuring that it was one that was released in the ohio). She goes on to tell me that this bluecat wasn't release into the ohio but that it was one of the fish that were released into Dillon reservoir. Wow I was shocked about how much movement that fish did since he has been released. I mean Dillon is near Zanesville. Think about how many dams are on the muskingum river and how many dams that fish went through to get down the ohio to Point Pleasant. Pretty Cool. The lady was really shocked about how far that fish had moved already. I didn't think to ask if any other fish had been turned in. If I would have thought about it though I should have just taken a picture of the tag with my camera phone and then turned the fish loose with the tag still intact. Then maybe I would catch it again when he was much bigger. Just some tidbits of information for everyone to digest. Oh yeah and by the way the little bluecat, which was about 14 inches long took a huge piece of skipjack if he keeps eating like that it will not take them very long to grow to large size.


Larry


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## M.Magis (Apr 5, 2004)

Good grief, that&#8217;s some serious traveling that fish did. I can&#8217;t remember offhand, but that&#8217;s maybe 5 rollover dams he went over, and a 100 miles? Whatever it is, he/she was on a mission. They just released those fish back in Nov/Dec I think.


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## katfish (Apr 7, 2004)

Larry
We figured that some of the blues would go through the Dillon dam and thought some might eventually get to the Ohio. I was hoping most would at least stay in the Muskingum system and spawn there.


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## Fish-N-Fool (Apr 12, 2004)

I bet all the rain and flooding helped send him on his way down, but that is really surprising he made it that far!

Very interesting - thanks for sharing!


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## Joey209 (Oct 17, 2007)

The right thing for you to do is drive it back to Dillon and release it!


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## Doctor (Apr 5, 2004)

That little guy sounds like he has a little bit of Nemo in him just likes to travel thats a long ways to move in water.


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## mastercatman (Jan 30, 2005)

Well, I will add to this! About 3 weeks ago while fishing the Rockeby Dam (Muskingum River). I was throwing my castnet for shad on the upriver side in front of the lock. I kept getting a bunch of small channels in the net....what a pain in the ass that is!!! Anyways, on one throw I had 3 channels and this little blue cat in the net!! He was right around 12" and had no tag in him. I knew they had just done the release in Dillon so I was sure that was his origin. I threw him back after getting him untangled from the net. I thought at the time that was a long way for him to go. Now I hear one has made it to the Ohio! Pretty wild! Thanks for the report!


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## jason454ci (Dec 27, 2005)

Eight dams on the Muskingum and one on the Ohio. That was one determined little fish. lol


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## TeamClose (May 23, 2005)

Good deal Larry! Hope some of the big blues from downriver move up as far as that guy did down!

Does anyone know why the state decided on Dillon to release the bluecats? The lake isn't that big and there is no deep water? I'm sure they had a reason but sometimes the guy sitting in an office making decisions might not have a good handle on real world situations?


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## Joey209 (Oct 17, 2007)

TeamClose said:


> Good deal Larry! Hope some of the big blues from downriver move up as far as that guy did down!
> 
> Does anyone know why the state decided on Dillon to release the bluecats? The lake isn't that big and there is no deep water? I'm sure they had a reason but sometimes the guy sitting in an office making decisions might not have a good handle on real world situations?


I was thinkin maybe cuz there is so much shad in that lake and in the muskingum


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## Salmonid (Apr 14, 2004)

Waaay Cool info Larry!! As far as Why Dillon?? it was a no brainer, that lake has the states Highest growth rates for channel cats ( IE lots of shad to eat) and its not known as a top "any other kind of fish lake" so most folks wouldnt complain, for example, if Burr Oak was used, the bass guys would go nuts since its a top rated bass lake, they would assume they would eat all the bass food until they were big enough to start eating bass. LOL

Salmonid


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## firecat (Apr 7, 2004)

He would gone through two dams on the ohio. Belleville and Racine. I would have to imagine that the movement would probably have a larger deal with the massive flooding that we dealt with this spring. I just hope they get big real big....


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## TeamClose (May 23, 2005)

I hope there are a lot of shad because there is a big difference between a mature 10 pd channel and a 50 pd blue. Channels for the most part eat immature shad, allowing the larger ones to make more shad. A lake full of blues will eat adult shad in the lake year around, probably affecting the shad population. Just figured a larger environment would maybe have been better. 

As far as eating all of the other "good" fish. Look at Pickwick, Wilson, Wheeler, Kentucky, Barkley lakes etc. All know for great bass, crappie, bluegill fishing and still also some of the premier bluecat waters in the country. Not to mention the blues are big enough to eat whatever fish they want. I guess there are more people b$%&*ing about the bass fishing than people wanting blues in other lakes.


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## Joey209 (Oct 17, 2007)

Alot of shad in Dillon doesnt come close to describing the shad population. They are absolutely think in there


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## MDBuckeye (Sep 29, 2009)

TeamClose said:


> I hope there are a lot of shad because there is a big difference between a mature 10 pd channel and a 50 pd blue. Channels for the most part eat immature shad, allowing the larger ones to make more shad. A lake full of blues will eat adult shad in the lake year around, probably affecting the shad population. Just figured a larger environment would maybe have been better.
> 
> As far as eating all of the other "good" fish. Look at Pickwick, Wilson, Wheeler, Kentucky, Barkley lakes etc. All know for great bass, crappie, bluegill fishing and still also some of the premier bluecat waters in the country. Not to mention the blues are big enough to eat whatever fish they want. I guess there are more people b$%&*ing about the bass fishing than people wanting blues in other lakes.


One of my favorite places to catch both bluecats and bass is the Potomac and they are now in there thick. It hasn't seemed to effect the population of the bass at all. Oh, there are also a pretty high number of snakeheads in there as well, which haven't effected the numbers of bass yet.

Didn't mean to highjack the thread...


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## rustyfish (Apr 27, 2004)

Joey209 said:


> Alot of shad in Dillon doesnt come close to describing the shad population. They are absolutely think in there


Is it easy to catch a good number of large shad from the banks at Dillon, my aunt lives near there and the next time I go up I may take the castnet. Iv tried rockyfork and some other lakes down here and I just catch a ton of 1-2 inchers.


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## gryan1966 (Feb 11, 2005)

rustyfish said:


> Is it easy to catch a good number of large shad from the banks at Dillon, my aunt lives near there and the next time I go up I may take the castnet. Iv tried rockyfork and some other lakes down here and I just catch a ton of 1-2 inchers.


Go to the dam for the shad


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## sliprig (Apr 6, 2004)

Larry,
Cool story, it is amazing that a small fish moved that far in a relatively short time. How is your son doing, is he fishing tourys with you yet? He got the advantage of having some excellent teachers. No doubt he will teach us all a few things someday.

Slip


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