# Huge channel cat



## Fisherman 3234

This fish was caught out of the maumee river a few years ago during the walleye run (and released). This is by far the biggest channel catfish I have ever seen. Sadly I did not catch it. I first saw this picture on the wall in Maumee tackle in Maumee and my jaw dropped. This was the large channel that I mentioned a while ago that might have been a few pounds off of the state record (can't really tell due to it never got weighed). CONGRATS to the angler that caught that behemoth!


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## catfish catchers

Holy crap!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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## bonsai87

wooooow and i thought my 23 pounder i caught was big...thats crazy!!


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## Salmonid

Thats a nice fish, the way he is holding it straight out in front of him and he doesnt seem to be struggling, Im gonna say is maybe 15 lbs or so, the state record is way up there , Im thinking 37 lbs or so. Always a treat when I am on the Maumee as you never know what youll reel in!!

Salmonid


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## wargoth

State record channel is 46# IIRC out of LaDue... The fish in the pic there is an EASY 25# + a 15 is WAY smaller...


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## misfit

> State record channel is 46# IIRC out of LaDue... The fish in the pic there is an EASY 25# + a 15 is WAY smaller...


not sure where you got that figure,but salmonid is right.it's a shade over 37 pounds(40+ inches).........not 46 pounds.
that is a big fish in the pic,but hard to judge length and girth.but that coupled with length just doesn't look like a near record.big fish,yes,but it just doesn't look to be in the 30's,though pics can be deceiving.
if it is,my guess of 20+ is way off.


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## misfit

btw,just for comparison,here's a 24 pounder.


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## Fishman

That picture with Robby has to be from the Red 

That first picture is a nice fish, but I'm pretty sure the dudes holding it waaaaay out. Look at the size of his head and the fishes head. Don't want to be a naysayer or anything... either way nice fish


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## Fisherman 3234

That's why I wrote that I wasn't sure. The picture isn't a very good representation of how big the fish is. The biggest factor missing is seeing what the girth looked like. But keep in mind the distance at which the picture was taken. Even if he was doing go go gadget arms its still a big fish just by the distance at which the picture was taken. Plus, we don't know how big the angler is in the picture. A 6'5" 300lb guy holding a 50 lb flathead would make a fish look like a thirty from the picture. However it could be the other way around. I would probably say that it's somewhere between 20-26 lbs as a final guess. The channel cat caught from Ladue was 41 inches long and 37.5 lbs. I made a mistake in my earlier post too, that's the biggest channel cat that I've ever seen come out of the maumee river. Now out of the Mississippi and red rivers, that's a different story. The fish that Robby is holding right there is a true trophy, no doubt about that. Sorry to get off point, I just would have loved to have seen the actual weight on this fish. You really never know what you might catch during the run.


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## fishdealer04

I remeber when that guy caught that fish. There was an article in Ohio Outdoor news I think. He did not weigh it or anything. Caught it on a black twister tail while fishing for 'eyes. He measured it and I believe it was the same length as the record is, but he didnt think about it being a record until he looked when he got home. I will try and dig up the article to get some more info on it.

Nice fish regardless.


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## wargoth

Hrm... you are correct... What the hell record was I thinking of then? Previous Blue? I have no clue what species I got stuck in my head...


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## Fishman

Looking forward to the article, picture looks awful deceptive to me. Again, don't want to be a naysayer... just curious.


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## FISHIN216

14 pounds


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## FISHIN216

that thing is definitely 25+


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## AkronCATS

If in fact it is a channel, I would say it's at least 20 lbs. It is possible it could be a blue too. Also, I am a little skeptical of a 37 lb channel as our state record. Especially since noone seems to have even come close.


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## wargoth

AkronCATS said:


> If in fact it is a channel, I would say it's at least 20 lbs. It is possible it could be a blue too. Also, I am a little skeptical of a 37 lb channel as our state record. Especially since noone seems to have even come close.


37# is the published official record Akron. Caught in 1992 in LaDue. IIRC the guy hooked it while crappie fishing and fought it on 4# line for over an hour. I suppose it could be a blue, it is a bit difficult to positively ID from the pic, but it does look like it could just as easily be a channel or a blue. 

Either way, it is a big one and certainly over 20#, I still think though that it is over 25# as it is a fair bit larger than the one I personally weighed in at 21.4# (sadly, no pics as my camera went belly up last winter  )


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## Fisherman 3234

Unless someone released a blue from a pay lake up here, it is definetly a channel cat since there is no natural population of blues in maumee river. I've been fishing up here for years and have never seen a legitimate picture or caught a blue catfish out of the maumee. Alot of people will catch a baby blue colored channel cat and call it a blue. The best way to tell if it is a channel or a blue is by looking at the anal fin. If the anal fin has 24-29 rays and is rounded, it is a channel cat. If the anal fin has 30 or more rays and has a straight outer edge it is a blue cat. The chances that this was a blue are very remote. Maumee river produces large 30+ inch channel cats all the time.


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## bonsai87

the fish is deff 25+...my PB channel 23 pounds caught a few summers ago..will try and have to get the pics...thinking the ex has them..o the fun this will be lol....but that fish is deff larger them mine...would be nice if there was a side shot so we could see how "thick" it was


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## bigcatjoe

I know Gus (caught the sate record channel at Ladue) personally and have seen the mount and his pictures of the fish. My father saw the fish the day of the catch as well. It was certainly a channel. 37lbs 8 ounces I believe. Just over 41 inches. Blues were not stocked in Ladue, and the same goes for much of the state, save for maybe a few privately stocked ponds and a lake or two in southwest ohio. I hear Dillon is scheduled to recieve some within the next few years as well. As far as the fish in question, there are no blues in that river system either. Its a big channel, but not overly huge. The angler's arms are nearly straight out, adding probably a foot in appearance to the fish's length. I'd guess 15-17 pounds maybe?


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## collegekid

i read the orig. article. that fish was caught on a black grub tail and did measure very close to the record length. that fish was very very close to the record. I believe there are more pictures as well. i can't believe it was tossed back....


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## wargoth

collegekid said:


> i read the orig. article. that fish was caught on a black grub tail and did measure very close to the record length. that fish was very very close to the record. I believe there are more pictures as well. i can't believe it was tossed back....


Why not? Big cats taste terrible, and not everyone is excited by mounts...


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## All Eyes

Here is a big carp I caught while walleye fishing out of Buttonwood on the Maumee some years ago. Even though it looks big, the pic does no justice for this beast at all. It looks as though I am not struggling but it was one of those 1...2...3...lift type of deals. I have no idea what this fish weighed, but my buddy and I were dissapointed by this picture because it looks like the typical shot held out towards the camera. This pic was shot at a good distance away. Trust me when I say that this is one BIG carp. It is so hard to tell by pictures sometimes, but either way, that is a giant channel cat!!!


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## Jackfish

it's a monster - I have had a couple around #16lbs, and they did not look nearly that large


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## Fisherman 3234

I've caught 15 to 20 lb channel cats before, this one was a BIG channel cat. Plus, it really doesn't look like to me that he is holding it straight out either. I just wish that there was a picture to where we could see the girth.


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## bigcats28

if it had any girth at all you'd be able to see it from this view..the sides of the fish would be bulging somewhat


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## katfish

Rick
You sure keep some ugly pictures 

Last week Chad and I got some forktaills on our bluegills.
2 largest were 14 and 10 pounds.

Last week I was working on home improvement projects (honeydo list)
and gathered gills for bait 2 days and was to tired and/or sore to fish either night.


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