# 20 lb channel in ohio?



## AkronCATS (Nov 5, 2008)

Anyone ever catch a 20 lb channel in ohio?


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## TeamClose (May 23, 2005)

caught a 17# a few yrs back


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## TeamClose (May 23, 2005)

misread your post, thought you asked in the ohio river. that was where mine was caught. probably only 14-15 # but it was in the fall and the belly on that thing was unreal! was really stocking up on shad for the winter i suppose


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## dinkbuster1 (Oct 28, 2005)

i caught a 17lb in the Great Miami a few years back, shocked me that there was one that big in that river system. i would think 20lb channels in any inland rivers or lakes are going to be few and far between.


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## Lewis (Apr 5, 2004)

The state record Channel Cat came from Ladue reservoir.
I think it was around 35lbs.


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## Steelwolve (Apr 18, 2006)

Nope, my biggest is 16#, I did see 2 at Hoover last year that I know would go 20+, but they just swam past the boat with no intrest in my bait


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## Mean Morone (Apr 12, 2004)

My biggest is a 16 lber caught out of the Ohio River. I did see one in a tank at Cowan Lake that was supposedly 20lb. Looked it too. 

17 lber out of the Great Miami is a very nice fish. Way to go.


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## dinkbuster1 (Oct 28, 2005)

Lewis said:


> The state record Channel Cat came from Ladue reservoir.
> I think it was around 35lbs.


isnt there a "controversy" sourounding that fish and it actually being a Blue Cat?
BTW, i have posted this video a couple times in the past, just cant seem to keep from showing it off. one of my proudest catches, the 17lb channel!
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4491076080018391328


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

My largest is 18.2 from the OH River. But I have seen 2 20lb+ channels from OH in my lifetime. The first was caught by a whitebass fisherman the last week in April in the DeerCreek Lake spillway (late 90's). It was an absolute MONSTER. The guy was fishing a 1/2 ounce jig with a pink/white mister twister - the cat bit and was not snagged. He battled the fish for only a few minutes (pretty cold water) with everybody watching. Me and a buddy reeled in and got out of his way as he had to move down the riprap. The fish was landed without the aide of a net!!! It was easily the largest channel we had ever seen and was weighed on a fellow fisherman's scale at 22.8 lbs. The guy released this fish without even taking a picture (I don't think he appreciated what he had caught). 

The second was caught the summer before last by a friend of mine in the Muskingum River south of Zanesville. Unfortunately, the fish was kept in his livewell to be released in his stone quarry lake and it died I drove out to his place just to see the fish before he cleaned it. The most amazing part was this fish was caught well after spawn and was not fat in the least.

Fishing the inland lakes, I rarely catch a channel over 10lbs. In my experience it takes a 30inch+ lake channel to hit the 10lb mark (give or take of course depending on time of year and how stuffed full of baitfish they are).
A 20lb channel would be the fish of a lifetime in OH regardless of where it was caught. I can't even imagine a 35lb channel!!

As a side note, me and both my buddies saw an equally large channel whirl in the Deercreek spillway. We had just walked up and to take a look at the flow when it happened. I turned to see if they saw him and we all exploded together! This was the year after I witnessed the catch of that 22.8 channel. Was it the same fish? I'll never know, but I am certain it was a channel of a lifetime.


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## fishdealer04 (Aug 27, 2006)

I have pulled my biggest channel out of Deer Creek Spillway as well. I think that it definitley has the potential to produce a 20 lb channel again. Mine was 13 pound, but I have seen bigger ones. I got one a little over 11 pounds last fall at East Fork, so there are probably some big ones in there too.


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## Fishinfreak (Oct 12, 2004)

Caught this one this spring at a buddys lake.It was 19.4lbs was caught while crappie fishing.


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## EE (Apr 13, 2004)

Ying6's dad pulled this one out of Alum Creek Reservoir a few years back. 
17 pounds and 35". A fantastic fish, but I'm guessing there are a few in there that run 20+ pounds (to answer the authors question).


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## bassattacker (Mar 14, 2007)

ill see if i can find the link, i think beginning of this year, they found a abandoned van in the GMR and if i remember the reporters story right they found a 30lb. channel floppin around in the van, ill see if i can find the story.

In the story the catfish they say was estimated at 25lbs. and it looks like a flathead so not really sure.

http://www.daytondailynews.com/n/content/oh/story/news/local/2008/10/02/ddn100208carweb.html?imw=Y


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## Snobal (Jul 26, 2005)

bassattacker said:


> In the story the catfish they say was estimated at 25lbs. and it looks like a flathead so not really sure.


Looks like a flathead to me!!


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## Joey209 (Oct 17, 2007)

Snobal said:


> Looks like a flathead to me!!


Yea .Thats def a flathead.Channels have a deep fork in there tail


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## Fisherman 3234 (Sep 8, 2008)

It's a channel catfish, if it were a flathead the lower jaw of the fish would stick out farther then the top jaw, plus the fish does have a fork in his tail.


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## nixmkt (Mar 4, 2008)

Fisherman 3234 said:


> It's a channel catfish, if it were a flathead the lower jaw of the fish would stick out farther then the top jaw, plus the fish does have a fork in his tail.


Are you looking at the Dayton Daily News photo?


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## Joey209 (Oct 17, 2007)

Fisherman 3234 said:


> It's a channel catfish, if it were a flathead the lower jaw of the fish would stick out farther then the top jaw, plus the fish does have a fork in his tail.


I'm talkin about this one
http://www.daytondailynews.com/n/con...web.html?imw=Y


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## Fisherman 3234 (Sep 8, 2008)

The fish that I mentioned in the previous post was the one that fishin freak put up of the big channel cat that he caught out of a buddy's lake. Sorry for any confusion, I wasn't talking about the news article. The one in the dayton daily news is definetly a flathead without a doubt. Flatheads have a lower protuding jaw and a square tail with no fork, channel cats are grayish brown to grayish blue with a rounded anal fin, sometimes the channel cat and the blue cat get confused, the blue cat has a more squarish anal fin that has more rays.


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## bigcatjoe (Sep 6, 2006)

The Ohio state record channel is 37lbs 8 ounces from ladue. Gus Granowski* has it. I've seen the mount at his place its pretty amazing. Interestingly enough, after just being in Indiana for big tens, I noticed that their state record channel is also 37lbs 8 ounces on the nose. Wierd. The fish from the van is very obviously a flatty. Long skinny anal fin, shallow tail, lower jaw. No doubt.


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## catking (Apr 5, 2004)

I'v caught one at 17 pounds a couple years ago at night on a carolina style rig with a bullet float on the bottom. Beautiful fish..... THE CATKING !!!


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## Fisherman 3234 (Sep 8, 2008)

I was fishing with my dad at my uncle's pond on his farm and no one fishes it. We were bass fishing texas rigged plastic worms when his line on his ultralight started going crazy, we thought it was a huge bass so I ran over with the net,(cause he has 6+lb bass in there) when it came up, it was a channel catfish, we weighed it and it weighed just a little bit over 18 lbs. Some of these big channels may be residing in private ponds. Also, there was one channel catfish caught during the walleye run in the maumee river that was a potential contender for the state record. The man took a picture of it and let it go. The fish was estimated at 35+ pounds, from the picture. The picture is still inside the maumee tackle store in downtown maumee. I didn't believe it until I saw the picture.


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## creekrock (Oct 28, 2008)

Caught my largest Channel Cat this spring 30" 11 lbs also while crappie fishing. As far as 20 pounders go, I have heard of trot liners catching them that size.


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## fishfrye (May 1, 2009)

i saw a buddy of mine catch an 17# channel at hoover. huge.


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