Blue cats: age - length - weight

[EricM]

I have been looking into this subject for a long time and this is the best info I have found.

In a study on Kentucky Lake and Ft. Loudoun, they found that the waters where the catfish grew had a huge impact on their size. On average, a 10 year old fish in Ft. Loudoun was 17.4 inches while the same age fish was 27.7 inches in Kentucky lake. The oldest fish in the study from Ft. Loudoun was 33 and was 34.4 inches, while the oldest fish from Kentucky Lake was only 11 and was 29.1 inches.

The second, and most amazing information comes from the Virginia Department of Game & Inland Fisheries and involves fish from the James River. The blue catfish grows in length at an almost constant rate over the 15 year plot. Their weight, however, increases very slowly until they are about 8 years old at which point they average 5 pounds, and become reproductively active (about 17 inches). From that point, mainly because of diet shift, they put on weight at an amazing rate. At age 10, they average 10 pounds, at 12 they average 20 pounds, and at 13 they average 30 pounds. Some fish had reached 50 pounds by age 11, although age 13-14 is more typical. The mortality rate for these rapidly-growing fish is extremely high once they reach the 9-14 age group. The oldest fish recorded in Virginia was 25.

I imagine that the growth is somewhat different in southeast Tennessee, but this was a real eye-opener for me.

 

[Guest]

In other words, it would be hard to tell a catfish's age. About the only way to really tell is to put a tag on the ones that are stocked, then if you catch one the same size as the tagged ones, you could pretty well tell their age or get close to it. There would have to be some sort of record keeping on each body of water because each body of water would have different growing conditions.

 

[hoggerhead]

Thats pretty interesting. I figured catfish wouldnt be able to live that long.

 

[WLG]

Good thread Eric!!! Ive read up on this subject myself...it seems alot of people think that the very large catfish are very very old...and some are. But alot of them are only 6 to 8 years old. Its all in the genetics and the environment in which they live. Thats why I agree with the 34 inch limit. I wish they would make the law so NO blues over 34 could be harvested....keep those genes in the pool...figuratively speaking.