DNR would like you to take blue catfish

[TheBert]

How do you fish for them? Best bait? etc.

Off of Ft. Belvior we used to use worms to catch perch or spot and then put them on a hook and through the line to a flat bottom location or into the channel with a lead weight of course. Good times!

 

[tosainu1]

Best bait is live eel freshly cut. Enough weight to hold bottom, High low rig with two big ol' sharp Kamatsu 9/0 circle hooks, stout Ugly Stik 7' medium heavy Tiger rod and a Penn 8500ss is how I'd go after them.

 

[Mr H]

Are cornbread balls still on the bait list??

 

[King Chicken]

You do you. This is like one of those warnings about treated lumber being bad for you. Yeah, if you happen to eat a whole deck! Eating catfish once a week won't hurt anyone.

......I dare you to eat a DC catfish once a week. I assume you care about your health and wouldn't.
"Eating catfish once a week won't hurt anyone" you don't know that.

 

[joppaj]

I wonder if they could be ground up into fertilizer or would the same issues be a hazard to the soil.

 

[gtodave]

I wonder if they could be ground up into fertilizer or would the same issues be a hazard to the soil.

It's not like they're 50% mercury. The amounts are so small It's barely a trace amount. It'd be perfectly fine

 

[pre64hunter]

Old wives tale,,, 20 years ago I drug home 3 skates,,, the wings have a brown textured "meat" ,, like the gills of a crab,, and tasted about the same.

We tried eating them, yuck. They were ok if you were really hungry and had nothing else.
The fish cleaner they called Santa Claus in Ocean City scarfed at us when someone suggested the scallop/skate theory. He said do you think fisherman would be cutting their lines and throwing them back if they were any good to eat let alone tasted like scallops?

 

[willtill]

How do you fish for them? Best bait? etc.

Bloodworms on a treble hook sprayed with WD40. That’s how we did ‘em in Texas.

 

[RFBfromDE]

I heard that the large "scallops" were shark meat.

I never heard the skate theory before...

 

[Doco Overboard]

We used to catch them on cut spot / perch and peelers depending on time of the year.
Bow fishing and gigging is a popular method now.

 

[outrider58]

Bloodworms on a treble hook sprayed with WD40. That’s how we did ‘em in Texas.

We used to spray WD40 on our crankbaits.

 

[willtill]

We used to spray WD40 on our crankbaits.

 

[Slowhand]

They also have Snakehead fillets quite a bit there.

I used to live on a creek off the Magothy, near the headwaters. Occasionally under the boat lift, in the shade, I'd see a dozen or more catfish, all probably a foot and a half long. Pick another day and it would be carp. Pickerel/muskie types were typically 1-3 fish at a time.

 

[Wsanner]

There are signs on the Potomac just south of the WW bridge that say " only 2 servings of fish above this line a month are recommended". Iive always laughed about that. But if you don't think there's a problem with the water, here's a few goldfish we've shot that may make you think twice. All of these were hard tumors around the stomach area...

 

[Tracker12]

I use cut bait or chicken breast on a simple bottom rig.

 

[Doco Overboard]

I use cut bait or chicken breast on a simple bottom rig.

Chicken is what you put wd and food coloring on.
Squid/chicken liver works too.

 

[cww]

Can you elaborate? I was going to hit the blue cats hard this year and vacu-bag and freeze.
Bad idea?

Same as below either straight in a bag for later in the week no more than two or in a block of ice in at Tupperware container. And it gets eaten in two weeks or so.

 

[Slackdaddy]

There are signs on the Potomac just south of the WW bridge that say " only 2 servings of fish above this line a month are recommended". Iive always laughed about that. But if you don't think there's a problem with the water, here's a few goldfish we've shot that may make you think twice. All of these were hard tumors around the stomach area...

Must be them "Lead Bullets" deer hunters use!!!

 

[Dantheman]

How do you fish for them? Best bait? etc.

No B.S. - I think the best bait for Catfish is RoFo chicken but I do hear that fresh eel works very well.

And Blue Catfish is worlds away from Chanel and Flathead Catfish as far as taste goes. It's not even close. Blue Catfish also grow at an incredible rate so a 5lb Blue should have less mercury and PCB's or whatever than a 5ln Chanel or Flathead. At least that's what I've been told!

 

[Slackdaddy]

No B.S. - I think the best bait for Catfish is RoFo chicken but I do hear that fresh eel works very well.

And Blue Catfish is worlds away from Chanel and Flathead Catfish as far as taste goes. It's not even close. Blue Catfish also grow at an incredible rate so a 5lb Blue should have less mercury and PCB's or whatever than a 5ln Chanel or Flathead. At least that's what I've been told!

Are Blues better or worse??