# 2013 Ohio Catfish Summit



## Fisherman 3234

On *March 16 2013 10:00 a.m to noon* the Ohio Department of Natural resources is holding a meeting at *Spring Valley Wildlife Area* near Waynesville Ohio over concern for Ohio's catfish fisheries. Over 117 formal comment forms were received from anglers in Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana regarding concerns about our catfish fisheries, in particular the *Ohio River* The purpose of the meeting is to provide the following: 1. Overview of our statewide catfish management program (fisheries opportunities, stocking, regulations, and future research) 2. Update on the pilot project to develop a blue catfish stocking program in reservoirs 3. Summary of comments and concerns received in 2012 4. Open forum for discussing specific issues, ideas, or concerns. If you would like to attend this important meeting, *please RSVP* to Sharelle Jones ([email protected], or by phone 614-265-6343) by March 9th. You need to RSVP so they plan appropriately for accommodations.

We have the ear of the ODNR, it's time the concern for our catfish fisheries are heard. See you there.


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## Fisherman 3234

I cannot stress enough of the importance of this meeting, you better believe the paylake guys are going to be there, the ODNR needs to *SEE* how many concerned catfisherman there are from around the state that are worried about the overharvest of trophy Flatheads and Blues. If you are a member to other Ohio catfish forums please post this information.


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## Strider

I just noticed an obvious typo in the invitation letter. Mr. Hale transposed the letters in part of the e-mail. The RSVP should be sent to: [email protected] . The first RSVP that I sent out bounced back, but when I corrected it the e-mail went through. I contacted ODNR and they said that a letter will be sent next week with the correction. There is plenty of time to RSVP if you plan to attend.


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## Fisherman 3234

Thank you for the correction.


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## Garyoutlaw77

BUMP - RSVP by March 9th


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## mastercatman

I'll be there! Lots of exciting things happening in the world of catfish right now. This is long over due, but I'll take this opportunity to be heard and be a part of this. Nobody can say that state DNR agencies don't respect their constituency. Though response may not be fast, things are getting done!


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## catfish_hunter

unfortunately I have prior commitments that day or I would be there. I hope that anyone who can make it to this event goes and speaks their minds. As was stated, the paylake guys will be there with their BS.


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## LeeWoolery

My schedule changed so I will be there for the meeting. 

As far as regulations for catfish, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources already has set a daily limit of 1 for any channel cats over 28" and flatheads and blues over 35". I would like to see the a daily bag limit put into place for all catfish under those sizes as well.

I think all trotlines, set lines, limblines and jug fishing should be done away with and Ohio paylakes regulated to where they can only stock pond-raised catfish or netted carp and prevent them from purchasing trophy fish from other states. 

I hate to say it because I used to frequent them but I'd just as soon see pay lakes go by the wayside or at least let them operate with the big fish they already stocked. A 20 year pay lake insider told me that a very high percentage of the large catfish die withing a couple of weeks after being transported so those trophies are being removed from their natural environments where they may have lived for 30-50 years just so a pay lake can make money off of trophy fish gambling. What a waste of a valuable natural resource.

The In-Fisherman article on pay lakes from the December issue should have been an eye opener as to the Ohio River catfishery and netting by commercial fishermen but the Kentucky division of wildlife needs to change their approach. They don't even refer to catfish as game fish in their regulations?


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## throbak

Don't forget the Summit I will be there and Be all ears,, Plan on getting some good Ideas to carry back and share with Indiana and Kentucky


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## Fisherman 3234

Please don't forget the catfish summit for Ohio is this weekend.... see you there.


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## fishdealer04

I have to work that day or I would be there. I am curious to see how this will go and what information will be brought up. Ohio already has some very good laws regarding catfish which is great. West Virginia has followed. The biggest issue for Ohio at least in the southern parts is what Indiana and Kentucky do. Maybe one day they will follow what Ohio has done. The slot limit alone I feel would do wonders in those states and benefit Ohio.

For you guys going please report back with what was talked about and what not for us guys that can't make it.


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## Doctor

I'm scheduled for work wish I could have made it bet it will be a packed house.......Doc


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## TeamClose

Wish I could be there guys, but getting ready to leave for the James River to fish the Bass Pro tourny. Hold their feet to the fire!!


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## Montag15

I just caught this post and would have been there if I would have seen it before March 9th. But yes, Im not as educated on the OH river cat fish subject but as for reservoirs, there is absolutely no reason why every major reservoir shouldn't be managed for flatheads and blues. I just got the newest edition of the Sportsman Edition of the Southern OH Fishing Map Guide and if I remember correctly only 1 lake in the Hamilton Parks district lakes had actually been stocked with flatheads/blues in the last 10 years!!?? No wonder there are so many pay lakes, there are so few lakes where you can find trophies to catch them in. What would happen if all the sudden the deer population plummeted and you could really only find deer in high fenced preserves? We have 15 reservoirs over 1000 acres and not one has been managed for flathead or blues.


Posted using Outdoor Hub Campfire


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## Salmonid

Montag the biggest reason Flatheads are not stocked is the cost and space needed to feed out broodstock and them actually get them to spawn and then raise baby flatties until there a full year old where they are not able to be eaten by most other predators, on top of that, adding a MAJOR predatory species into a lake could and would drastically change the dynamice of all the previous fisheries management programs already in place. In other words, if CJ Brown was to add them, ift would drastically efffect the walleye fishery there, same with the muskie and bass fishery at Ceasers Creek, etc. 

BTW Flatheads are already present in good numbers at east Fork and in a limited numbers at Cowan, Paint Creek, Rocky Fork and ceasers Creek.. if these were "ideal" lakes for them, they would have flourished and done well by themselves. 


Just throwing out some other factors to keep in mind regarding the stocking of flatheads. You are probably aware of teh Blue cat fishery slowly being started by the state of Ohio and this will hopefully continue once they establish which lakes they do well in. The lakes in southern Ohio will be the targets as nothing that runs north into Erie will ever be stocked with blues as they are not approved by the great lakes commission for stocking. I know they have rumored about at least 1 lake here in SW Ohio, so keep your fingers crossed that that day will come in the next year or two. 


Salmonid


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## C J Hughes

I always purchase a non resident KY fishing lic so I can fish with more than 2 poles when I am fishing on the Ohio river for BIG BLUES . KY doesn't have a limit on fishing poles . Today at the catfish meeting which was Great and informative I learned that if you are fishing in Ohio's water of the Ohio river you can only use 2 poles (what you say) yes part of the Ohio river is property of Ohio. It is the low water mark of the Ohio River on the Ohio side from 1800 something . GPS numbers are very important on the river if you want to fish more than 2 poles. I had no idea I always thought the river was KY and we had a deal with KY .
Great meeting DNR guys and gals are top notch.


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## LeeWoolery

Ohio's Division of Wildlife did an excellent job with today's Catfish Summit. It was highly informative and very educational, as well as enlightening. 

Everyone was greeted with a handshake, given an information packet, a name tag and offered coffee and donuts.

My guess is there were 10 fisheries biologists/managers/directors and 10 more game wardens in attendance. Everyone was asked to introduce themselves, tell where they were from and given a chance to ask questions and every question was addressed by ODNR officials.

It seemed the biggest gripe on all the guest's minds was the overharvesting of big fish from the Ohio River by pay lakes and why the division of wildlife couldn't closely monitor and police pay lake violations.

From my perspective, the most interesting presentations were on the blue catfish stocking programs for Dillon and Hoover Reservoir and how difficult and costly it is to police the illegal netting in the Ohio River by commercial fisherman from the Kentucky side of the river.

I had some specific questions answered during the break time by 3 different fisheries biologists:

1- Why doesn't the state stock flatheads? Answer: Too costly to feed them as small fish and they are reproducing well enough in rivers and inland lakes.

2-Can pay lake stocking be policed more closely? Answer was no! Not under the division of wildlife's current jurisdiction at this time...it would require action by the Ohio lawmakers.

3-It IS unlawful to transport fish from one body of water to another and a specific example was pointed out to me so there is no gray area...as I was led to believe.

4-Bait stores and pay lakes cannot sell game fish unless they were purchased from a licensed fish hatchery and they'd better have a receipt to validate what's in their bait tanks. They cannot sell bluegills, rock bass, green sunfish, channels, bullheads...etc caught on hook and line.

5-Lake Loramie and Lake Milton were rated the best channel catfish lakes in the state in numbers and sizes.

6-The proposed rule change in allowing 3 fishing rods was not listed as a priority from surveys so it will stay at 2 for now. 

There was not one pro-paylaker in attendance as was feared by some prior to The Summit and everyone made valid points in a very professional and mature manner.

I had some great talks with the game wardens, fisheries biologists and officials from all parts of the state and learned about some real hotspots in my part of Ohio and where some really huge fish were netted, weighed and released.

I urge everyone to attend the next Catfish Summit.

One thing was very clear...fish management and all the fisherman in attendance have one goal...make the catfishing in Ohio the best it can be for the present and generations to come.


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## Salmonid

Thanks for the update guys, I know another dozen guys who would have been there today except they were at at least 3 different tournaments today ( we were at Grand Lake and another in Owenboro and another in S Central Indiana) perhaps in the future they could schedule earlier in the year.. LOL


Salmonid


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## C J Hughes

The DNR made it very clear at the meeting that they want to know where the hoop nets are being set in the Ohio River (low water mark ) Ohio water . Also where the commercial catfishermen are launching their boats and hauling the fish from . There are restrictions on how much they can haul without a special permit . No channel cat can be hauled unless they have been checked for VHS . They would also like to know where their holding nets or tanks are . It sounds like the DNR is going to stop the acess to our boat ramps for commercial catfishermen in the near future(no hauling fish out of our ramps) . The DNR is looking into how often they have to check their hoop nets. If you have any info of this type they urge you to call TIP.


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## Fisherman 3234

I think we have the DNR's attention, now we just have to be vigilant. It was great to see everybody out there.


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## LeeWoolery

In all honesty guys...the impression I got from yesterday's meeting was that nothing will be done, in time, to stop the commercial fishing and removal of the largest catfish in the Ohio River before it's too late.

It's not an Ohio issue, it's a Kentucky issue and unless their legislator's pass a bill, we will see the steady decline of big fish in the Ohio River.

We can only hope and pray that the Kentucky House Bill 403 passes, effectively ending the wholesale slaughter of trophies so paylakes can hold jackpots.

I give the ODNR credit for implementing the current size and bag limits on the three major catfish species in the state, the channel and blue cat stocking programs and doing what little they can to keep the Ohio River commercial fishing violations by Kentucky-licensed individuals on the Ohio side of the river in check.

I am convinced that the channel catfishing within the boundaries of the state of Ohio will continue to be excellent and, hopefully, the blue catfish stocking program will take off and we'll be seeing 50-75 pound blues in the next 30 years.

One of the fishermen in attendance yesterday made an excellent point when he stated that all the pay lakes in this area will prosecute if you try to remove any fish over 10 pounds. If all of those big fish they have been putting in their 2 acre lakes survived, why do they need to keep netting?

Another point that was brought up was the deadly fish virus and how the USDA was requiring all channel catfish to be tested. I wasn't sure if this was before they entered the state of Ohio or not?

There's the catch to try and immediately stop the transport of untested fish into the state.

I am holding out hope that the "Great Ohio River Slaughter" can be stopped by a mere technicality or loophole in the laws.

Write your state senators and maybe someone politically-minded could introduce a law banning catfish smuggling into the state of Ohio disguised under a USDA directive.


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## Fisherman 3234

The fact that the ODNR knows that there are a lot of people watching this issue closely is a plus in my book. They did seem concerned about the spread of VHS, ESC and other diseases along with the illegal sales of fish. I think a lot is going to hinge on what they find data wise through the Kentucky study, and also some of the future Ohio studies that were talked about. There was also some interest with the DNR maybe trying to talk with the Dept. of Agriculture about setting some standards for paylakes to operate as a business. 

My take was that they are taking the issue seriously, it is just going to take time. But we have to be the driving force.


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## C J Hughes

If the state of Ohio stops the commercial guys from hauling there fish out on the ohio ramps it could cost them a chunk of money .Hauling 1000's and 1000's of pounds of fish in no way means good gas mileage . There are only so many bridges to drive across the river .
I know of ramps that were offered 500 bucks to allow them to use their ramp .
I think the speech about the orange at the meeting said it best. We won't get everything we want but we could make it better than what it is .


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## autogyroenthusiast

I was able to go and was impressed with the turnout of ODNR officials and the information presented. Ill add a couple other things I wrote down besides the good posts already here:

1.	Restricting Ohio boat ramps  not allowing KY commercial netters to use Ohio boat ramps. This is NOT a done deal yet but Scott Hale is working on it. His basic theme was that we cannot change KY laws but we can make it so Ohio is not facilitating KY commercial fishermen. One other key point they are looking to is live holding tanks/cages sunk on the Ohio side. The way I understand it is KY fishermen are catching catfish with terminal tackle then running them over to these live tanks to hold catfish until they can remove them for sale. Officers are 99% sure its not legal to have these in Ohio water and a couple fishermen at the meeting have volunteered to give wildlife officers GPS coordinates of these tanks/cages so they can be removed/ticketed. This would be a good thing and we need to keep pushing for updates/status on the holding cages and the boat ramp access.

2.	Officers emphasized that the 1-800-Poacher is now 24/7 live operator and that we MUST report illegal activities in order for them to act upon them. They confirmed that they DO have authority/jurisdiction to visit paylakes based on a tip from you. Example: You see someone cast netting a local river/creek for rock bass/crappie/gills/smallmouth/etc. and taking them to a paylake for sale. You provide time/date/vehicle/person description and the officers can enter the paylake and question paylake employees and the person seen cast netting (if hes still there) and request valid receipts for fish seen in their bait tanks. I know 1800Poacher has gotten a bad rap, and in some cases justifiably so. But it seems they are improving and the wildlife officers at the meeting said do not hesitate to file complaints OR follow up to find out what the result was  hold them accountable to act upon your tips.

3.	Hoover blue cat stocking is working thus far (the cats are staying in the lake based on electronic tracking). Dillon stocking is not. Most if not all cats put in Dillon are now either in the river below the lake or in the Ohio River. They had an almost comedic illustration of how quickly the cats moved to the dam at Dillon and subsequently entered the river below. Hoover cats are spreading out somewhat and seem to be staying put in the lake. Electronic tracking and tagged fish will help them get data on seasonal movements and growth rates. They will continue to look at Hoover-type lakes for additional stocking (ie. Steady water levels, fairly low flow towards the dams/rivers, abundance/over-abundance of shad, etc) but one key point is that any reservoir with decent muskie population or stocking is not on the list. For me, that rules out East Fork which I was kind of hoping for, but thats OK since Im close to the Ohio. Based on the number of shad at Hoover, I am excited to see how quickly these fish grow.

4.	They are just in the beginning stages of an electronic tracking study for cats on the Ohio River. They want to track growth, pool movement, and habitat by season. Data for this is a long way off obviously, but at least its getting started. The large creel report conducted in 2011 for the entire Ohio stretch using both state employees using gill nets and fishermen interviews is complete and the data is expected by the end of this year (Dec 2013). That should be interesting.

5.	One other bit of info that Scott Hale shared is that KY commercial fishing licenses are not profitable for the State of Kentucky. So the economic impact of shutting down commercial fishing in Kentucky affects the commercial fishermen themselves mostly (and perhaps state employees who are in cahoots to keep this nonsense going). In other words, the State of KY is not making a windfall on licensing. He worked there for a number of years so I tend to trust him on this. Now obviously, the state of KY benefits from the taxing of income of the commercial fishermen  but its so easy to see how short-sighted this thinking is. When you look at the economic impact of what the Santee-Cooper fishery has brought to that area as far as being a catfishers destination trip, hotel/guides/restaurants, etc.  my opinion is that KY, OH, IN, WV can all benefit from having a strong, sustained trophy catfish fishery that benefits many more business, rather than just the commercial netters and their buddies. 

6.	On final thing that maybe we can discuss here that was brought up at the meeting. What do you guys think of an online database devoted to Fish Ohio size+ catfish for inland State waters and for the Ohio River? Similar to what the Muskie guys have put together with MAL(Muskie Angler Log)? Both private fishing and tournament results could be uploaded to the database. I think this would be beneficial in a number of ways. A) It shows a commitment from Ohio catfishers to work with the ODNR to ensure the continued growth/success of catfishing in Ohio B) It would provide good hard data to supplement the ODNRs tracking/creel/management efforts C) it perhaps could shine a light on the impact the netting is having on the Ohio River population  we know the netters think its an endless supply, but unselfish catfishers know better. Scott Hale basically said they will work with us if we want to do this, but like the Muskie guys, we would be doing a lot of the set-up/legwork to get it going. What are your thoughts on this? 

7.	Based on the turnout and the surveys they gave us to complete at the end of the meeting, you can expect to see more of these meetings  I hope so anyways. Its our responsibility to continue to have our voices heard when the ODNR presents these opportunities to us. Im proud of the intelligent discussion at the meeting from concerned catfishers. Points were well made and direct.

Happy fishing out there.


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