# Need help identifying this fish.. blue or channel?



## Fishman (Apr 5, 2004)

I think this is a Blue cat, my two friends were certain it was a Channel Cat.

What do you think? I'll post the rest of the info on this fish after I get your opinions, just don't want you to be bias 

The weight is 24 # 13 oz.


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## katfish (Apr 7, 2004)

Blue cat


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## misfit (Apr 5, 2004)

ditto on the blue.


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## flathunter (Apr 5, 2004)

Blue cat for sure!


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## atrkyhntr (May 31, 2004)

dats a blue labbats man  
...now how about them details


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## Doctor (Apr 5, 2004)

Tom,

Nice blue you got there, the anal fin is straighter in the front a Channels will be rounded, also there will be 30 or more rays on that fin bit tough to count, but when in doubt, also the channels tail is more deeply forked than a Blues, but a very nice fish..details?


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## mrfishohio (Apr 5, 2004)

Blue for sure.......nice one too.


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## TIGHTLINER (Apr 7, 2004)

Nice Fish, Way to go on the Blue! So how about thosse details?


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## Ðe§perado™ (Apr 15, 2004)

Great looking blue!!! Great job!!!!


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## Cat Mazter (May 20, 2005)

Very nice looking Blue Cat, Good Job !


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## catking (Apr 5, 2004)

What body of water did this cat come from ? Like to keep tabs on the blues.... GMR or Lake ???? THE CATKING !!! ...........


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## Fishman (Apr 5, 2004)

Okay I just woke up, fished from 7PM to 9AM Saturday into Sunday. Get this though, and this is what blew me away.

I caught that fish at East Fork Lake.

Two of my old college buddies came down this weekend and we wanted to do some catting. Well, I work on Saturdays, so I told them to find the a spot we could all fish at East Fork. I specifically told them - do not fish off a goat path. To make a long story short here, the went on a hike, infact we needed sherpas to get where we were going. It was nuts, imagine carrying all your catfishing equipment, plus 2 bags of live bait (about 15lbs each) and several coolers containing pop and shad on ice.... there was way to much to carry..and way to far to carry it. I estimated it just over a mile, about a 25 minute walk through woods and log piles. I have no clue what they were thinking.

We had caught a few dink channels, and had already discovered the area we were fishing was nothing but one giant snag. I had been fishing 1 large live bait, and then a peice of cut shad. He ate a peice of cut shad no larger than my thumb. I look over at my rod, its doubled over and the rod holder is pulling out of the ground. I grab a hold of the rod, and horse this fish in. Took maybe 3 minutes from the circle hooking in to having it in the net. I just horsed it out, as I didn't want to lose it to the trees (similar to the fish I lost at 6AM this morning that I refuse to talk about since I'm still in denial)

What was even more interesting is that the 2 friends of mine I was fishing with have all studied some sort of Fisheries Management. Since I was horsing it, it came up to the surface pretty fast thrashing about and thats when we started talking about what it was. Now I have never once heard of bluecats being in East Fork, so when we saw it out in the water the gray blue color of it, we ALL thought it was a channel cat. 

As soon as it hit the net, I said guys thats a blue cat. Personally I can just tell from looking at them and tell what they are  I convinced my friends, for the most part, but there was still some doubt between them. I made sure to photo graph the anal fin, and we let her go. 

So when I got home this morning I washed all the poison ivy off me (Hopefully) and posted these pictures. I was tired, and I'm not afriad to say it - I was actually starting to wonder my self, simply because I had never heard of a bluecat out of East Fork Lake.

Thanks for your help guys!

Anyone want to speculate why I caught a blue there? OH and for the record, I have plenty of other pictures from fishing there last night to PROVE this wasn't at a PAYLAKE!!!!  

edit: By the way, this is my first blue cat from Ohio!


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## flathunter (Apr 5, 2004)

I want to hear about the one that got away!!!!!!


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## mrfishohio (Apr 5, 2004)

Call it The Nile Catfishing Club, you and Jack could be charter members, I could be an honorary member...I got over mine from a few years ago  


> I'm still in denial


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## flathunter (Apr 5, 2004)

I did not want to say this but I lost what FELT LIKE ANOTHER BIG FISH TONIGHT!!!!!..It slammed the cut bait, doubled the bigcat rod over, I picked it up and felt the surge of a bigfish then BAM!!!!! Got me in a snag  Mellon head lost what may have been a huge fish last night, ask him about it.


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## Fishman (Apr 5, 2004)

Alright, I'll tell you about 2 nice fish that got away... 

First my friends. He had out a big hybrid gill, probably 6 inches long. Got a pick up, fish was moving off slow and steady. He locks it down, rod doubles overs, has the fish on for a few seconds then gone. Reels in his bait, the darn circle hook hooked itself into the bait again, and completly buried the hook point.

After seeing this, I am no longer going to use circle hooks on live bait. It's simply WAY to risky.

As the sun was rising this morning I got a screaming run on a 8" live shad. Litterally, I'de never seen a fish run so fast. It was almost like it was hooked and making a tough run but imagine what it might sound like if the clicker was on and the reel was in free spool. It was so fast, it actually backlashed my 6500. Luckily my rod was in a holder and the rod quickly lurched downward. I pulled my rod out of the holder rod, turned off the clicker, engaged the spool and I couldn't reel, you know how the handle turns but the spool doesn't? The line was tangled all over the place. Mean while the fish I pulling very strongly. I manage to get the back lash out quickly, but holding the line with the fish on it to create slack to work with. I managed to do this in what felt like a matter of seconds. As you all know, a matter of seconds is all it takes for a fish hang you up like it's going out of style. 

I had had my bait maybe 2 feet from two standing trees in about 10 foot of water, a text book area to get a big fish. In that blazing run he made, I'm sure he got more than enough of line to hang me up where I had my bait placed. This was the fist that really had me upset.

I lost another fish that picked up a smaller (5") live hybrid gill, but he had picked it up by the head, and never got the circle into his mouth.

To recap, I'm done with circles on live bait, unless someone can convince me they have a higher hook up ratio with circles on live bait, aposed to setting the hook.

The only fish that was hooked last night on live bait, was on a shad, and shad are soft. Hybrid bluegills are tough, and I personally think that if you want to make sure the hook finds it's mark you need to rip the hook free of the bait to meet the fish when it counts.

So far though, this year has been simply amazing for catfishing for me. I personally think I've lost 2 fish now that would of went 20#'s of better, but there really isn't any way of knowing, guess thats what keeps me going back.

And for the record, I would of rather seen that blue been a flathead


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## flathunter (Apr 5, 2004)

Tom, I cant count the number of times I have had the point of the circle hook turn into the bait and has cost me what has felt like a big fish.


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## H2O Mellon (Apr 5, 2004)

I guess what you have to look at is how many of times youd be able to set the hook vs how many times the circle hook hooks up. For me, since I'm still new to Flatheads, I think I've made up my mind to stick w/ circles , however I'm done fooling around w/ Red Caujin line, I'm going back to Big Game! I will say though that if your using big live baits like the Bluegills you get, I'd use a reg hook. I think for the small bluegills that I get or Chubs I can still use the circles.


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## truck (Apr 12, 2004)

Real nice fish congrats!!!!


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## Fishman (Apr 5, 2004)

Plans have changed, I'm free this weekend Jack and Bryan, make room to accomodate the infamous FishlessMan!

Went and loaded up on some cattin stuff at BPS just a little bit ago, and dare I say it, some bass baits!!!


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## atrkyhntr (May 31, 2004)

> some bass baits


.......


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## catking (Apr 5, 2004)

As a matter of fact , there are blues caught out of that lake every so often , and more often lately ........ I've seen 25-30 pounders caught there so they are in there and this is GREAT news... I had a sneaking feeling you caught that one at East Fork .......... Now if you have a boat and was to drift fish for them in say 25 30' of water in the summer time at night with cut shad..................  In the flats ............... THE CATKING !!!


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## rustyfish (Apr 27, 2004)

Great fish tom, anal fin looks strait to me. Why didnt you do a ray count ...........hahaha. Who was with you? I just gave up on using circle hooks the right way. I still use them some but i swoorp em now. It works for me. but then again all i ever catch are little channels.lol


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## Fishman (Apr 5, 2004)

I knew it was a blue as soon as it hit the bank, it's just my two friends second guessing me and then being really tired had me doubting myself that much more.

CatKing, I talked to a co-worker there today and he said he does catch them there, but VERY few of them. I don't think there is actually a population you could go out and target, just gotta count it as an added bonus.


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## mastercatman (Jan 30, 2005)

I am not convinced that is a blue cat. I think very much so that this is a large channel cat caught in an identity mix up. It is very hard to tell the difference. I just spent an hour looking back and forth at pictures of both species and many different specimens. I just think it looks more like a channel cat. If anyone wants to challenge this give me some facts and I don't want b/s. I am no expert but I've spent a large amount of time catching these big guys.


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## flathunter (Apr 5, 2004)

mastercatman, I think it's a blue cat because it looks like a bluecat..Thats no b/s....We do have alot of "experts" here, I am not one of them, but they all agree it's a bluecat.


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## mrfishohio (Apr 5, 2004)

The heads on a blue are smaller porpotionately than a channelcat. The color...which channels get too sometimes, but is common in bluecats. Also as Doctor pointed out some of the ways. The fin, etc. Bluecats tend to have a different body shape than a channel too, it's more triangular. I often refer to it as a "hump" Notice the hump on it's back in the second picture.


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## ShoreBoundOne (Apr 6, 2004)

I am gonna buck the system here as well fellas...but i am no expert. I blew the pic up and did my best to count the rays on the anal fin. i think i was pretty fair counting and came up with 26...give or take 2. I aggree with the hump theory but have seen channles with odd body shapes i think the fin is the best way to tell for sure. I thought it was a blue cat but have changed my mind...i think its a pale Channel. Check out the link and pic:

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/fish/infish/species/bluechannel.htm


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## flathunter (Apr 5, 2004)

I counted 31 rays I think


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## ShoreBoundOne (Apr 6, 2004)

The other thing i noticed comparing the pictures was:

Anal fin not as rounded= 1 point for the blue
deeper "V" in the tail= 1 point for the channel
distance between the back of the anal fin and the tail= 1 point for the Channel

Great discussion here...i still have a tough time counting more than 26 or 28 but my eyes not so good anymore  One things for sure...thats a heck of a nice Catfish!!

Mitch


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## atrkyhntr (May 31, 2004)

I count 27...


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## ShoreBoundOne (Apr 6, 2004)

Another shot...i tinkered with the picture:


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## catking (Apr 5, 2004)

I believe there are alot of guys who chimmed in that catch Blues on a regular basis. For some who catch one once in awhile , yes they can be confused, but for some who catch ALOT of blues and also large channels, it's really simple to tell the diffrence....I believe this is a blue cat, no doubt about it.............. THE CATKING !!!


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## Fishman (Apr 5, 2004)

I'de sure love to say it was a channel, but I whole heartedly believe its a blue. I have to get up early tomorrow, but I'll upload some more photos of the fish that I have tomorrow evening.


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## cwcarper (Apr 5, 2004)

Just noticed this post...thought I'd chime in on blues in East Fork. Growing up in the area, I know of several reports of blue cats caught out of East Fork and the East Fork Little Miami (both above and below the lake). Never saw one first hand, and I was skeptical at first, but too many reports came in for me to deny it. Largest I'd heard of was a 40 lb caught about 10 or 12 years ago from below the lake. For what it's worth, I say you caught a blue.


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