how to catch blue catfish in the chesapeake bay

While both fish are long-lived and fast-growing, it’s the blue catfish that is the major problem. Meanwhile, have a bite. Perhaps we ought to take the fight to the fish? Four pairs of light, whisker-like barbels appear around its mouth. They are harvested mainly with baited hoop nets and a very low to no by-catch. Join the citizen science effort coordinated by researchers at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center to help track the current distribution and the spread of the non-native blue catfish into the upper Chesapeake Bay and into Delaware Bay and the Delaware River. nice day out. We arrived in Chesapeake Country just in time for Maryland’s species-reviving five-year moratorium on catching rockfish. Show us your blue catfish catch! Credit: Ian Vorster/VA Sea Grant. This fact sheet aims to enhance public awareness of this invasive species as a new commercial fishery resource. The good news is that blue catfish are delicious, and are now easy to find in restaurants and grocery stores in and around the Chesapeake Bay area. A reconstituted Invasive Catfish Workgroup holds its first meeting August 27. Many people fish on the bottom when targeting blue catfish. Larry Hogan pronounced blue catfish as served at his annual Buy Local Cookoff last month. I like the taste of catfish. His report this week on our new Chesapeake species is the result. The wild caught fishery for blue catfish has grown steadily in recent years, providing revenue for fishermen and the businesses that support them. Blue catfish, which were first introduced by Virginia officials to the James River for sport fishing, might number more than 100 million in the Chesapeake Bay now, researchers say. I had Catfish on the lines all day. Most Chesapeake Blue Catfish are brought on-board live which results in a very high-quality and fresh catch. But no one knows how many blue catfish would need to be caught to reduce potential conflicts with other species — or whether a market exists for that large a catch. Lucky or species-targeting anglers now and again got flounder or red or black drum or some oddity like the record Florida pompano just caught in our waters. So Bill spent his early Chesapeake fishing career catching bluefish — if he was lucky. The commercial and recreational fisheries are helping to control the population. While both fish are long-lived and fast-growing, it’s the blue catfish that is the major problem. But there might be more of them than there are of us. And they can be massive—the largest one on record in Maryland was 84 pounds, while the largest in Virginia was 102 pounds. Getting rid of a species has proved difficult, our history with carp, snakeheads and zebra muscles tells us. Originally intended to establish a new recreational fishery in Virginia, these fish have been so successful that, in recent surveys of the tidal James and Rappahannock rivers, they made up 75 percent of the total fish biomass. Or can we outmaneuver them? If you catch a catfish in Chesapeake Bay, there's a good chance it's an invader from the Mississippi River drainage—probably a blue catfish, though it could be a less common flathead catfish. The Chesapeake Bay has many different types of fish, so one is bound to fit your personal tastes. In the Chesapeake Bay, blue catfish are a popular recreational fishery. In one hour of electrofishing, researchers caught more than 6,000 invasive catfish! Despite its lower reputation as an oily fish, we got fond of that toothy species. Lots of Catfish. Finding and catching blue catfish is as simple as locating the masses of shad. Tim Shugrue is vice president of Congressional Seafood in Jessup, MD, which is the largest processor of blue catfish around the Bay. I live for catching big fish. Originally from the Mid-West, native to the Mississippi, Missouri, and Ohio Rivers, the blue catfish was brought to Virginia in the 1970s and 80s as … The blue catfish is a major predator of the blue crab population in the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. on October 20, 2020, Stay informed of all the latest regional news around NOAA Fisheries, Juvenile Fish Communities Are in Transition on a Long Island Sound Reef. And, telemetry work by researchers at Smithsonian Environmental Research Center and Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries demonstrated that blue catfish can be highly mobile and may move seasonally. Rockfish, known as striped bass in most of their range but Maryland, is the most celebrated species of the northeast seaboard. If you catch a catfish in Chesapeake Bay, there’s a good chance it’s an invader from the Mississippi River drainage–probably a blue catfish, though it could be a less common flathead catfish. While adult blue catfish have few natural predators in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, they are among the preferred prey of both osprey and bald eagles. Will the fish prevail? With the rockfish moratorium now a distant memory in another century, Bill has joined the rest of the Chesapeake fishing community in seeking (and sometimes catching) rockfish. Blue catfish now support exceptional trophy fisheries in the Chesapeake Bay region, particularly in the James and Potomac rivers, where catfish over 50 lb are regularly caught by anglers. I tell people all the time, find the bait, you find the fish. Its smooth skin lacks scales. Much of that concern stems from incredible abundances reported by scientists and fishers, contributing to the belief that a … Newshound that Bill is, he went sniffing around. Virginia anglers can keep 20 blue catfish per day, but only 1 per day longer than 34 inches, and 20 flathead catfish per day with no size limit. This is the simplest way to go about finding and catching blue catfish. As our great estuary becomes more like midland rivers — burdened by silt and nitrogen and phosphorus runoff from farms and homes — it will feel ever more like home to blue catfish. They are primarily fished using hook and line. “Tastes good,” Gov. In this case study, we focus on Blue Catfish Ictalurus furcatus which were introduced in the Chesapeake Bay region and are now considered invasive. Regional and national tournaments are held annually on the James River, and the Potomac River is nearly a year-round hotspot for catfish angling. We’ll let you know what comes out of it. Adults usually grow to be less than two feet long, but can be as long as five feet and weigh more than 100 pounds. Blue catfish, introduced from the Mississippi River basin into the Chesapeake watershed in the 1970s, are now abundant in all major Chesapeake rivers, and pose a significant threat to Bay’s ecosystem due to their increasing populations and capacity to consume massive quantities of food. Blue Catfish Watch Chesapeake Bay. Shrewsbury River Dolphins Signal Cleaner Rivers, More Fish, Dolphins are important sentinels of the health of the marine environment. 1 on the Potomac River, an air-breathing, snaggletoothed invasive species that walked on land, dined on small reptiles and, in its way, plotted revolution on the Chesapeake Bay. Renee Mercaldo-Allen (far left) works with and helps Hollings Scholar Eileen Bates (center) and Volunteer Allie Grusky (right) quickly process fish traps during field work aboard the R/V Loosanoff in Long Island Sound. Don’t take my word for it. His report this week on our new Chesapeake species is the result. It’s our local fish in the St. Louis and central Illinois region where I spent much of my early life. Strong Support for Statewide Balloon Ban in Md. Blue catfish is a newcomer to Washington stores and restaurants, it’s sustainably caught in the Chesapeake Bay, and it’s probably tastier than any catfish you’ve ever had. Fishing and Seafood Industries Saw Broad Declines Last Summer Due to COVID-19, Agency Approach to Saltwater Recreational Fishing Has Changed, Progressed through Partnership, President Signs New Executive Order Promoting American Seafood Competitiveness and Economic Growth, Industry-Funded Monitoring in the Atlantic Herring Fishery, NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION, Report a Stranded or Injured Marine Animal, Tim Sughrue of Congressional Seafood Company, Chesapeake Bay Program’s Sustainable Fisheries Goal Implementation Team, Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office. Until now. Blue catfish are voracious eaters--they consume other fish, crustaceans, and even other catfish. Researchers from Virginia Institute of Marine Science found that blue catfish are highly tolerant to salinity, and that tolerance appears to increase with size. So far, the chief weapon we’ve arrayed against the fish is catch and eat. If you catch a catfish in Chesapeake Bay, there’s a good chance it’s an invader from the Mississippi River drainage–probably a blue catfish, though it could be a less common flathead catfish. That’s about when our new neighbor and avid fisher Jack Dowd started catching assorted catfish at our local bridge, a fishing locale Bill knows well. My first thought was that I was seeing small tree trunks or the remains of fence posts coming up from the bottom. But I’ll still order that in a central Illinois restaurant, like the Ozark House in Bloomington-Normal. Remove the fish from milk, 1 fillet at a time, letting the excess milk drip back into the dish. When we went for bass, I’d fish for catfish. Catch and release of these fish is discouraged, as they are invasive top predators and pose a serious long-term threat to our native species. Striped bass, bull reds, swordfish, largemouth and smallmouth bass, and numerous other species will be doing their best to fatten up for winter this month, giving anglers a number of possibilities to pick and choose from. NCBO also has been working with the Chesapeake Bay Program’s Sustainable Fisheries Goal Implementation Team—a group of representatives from federal agencies, state fisheries manager, and other stakeholders—to discuss how entities around the Bay can best to combat the problem. While the freshwater-loving fish also do well in brackish environments, record 2018 rainfalls in the Bay watershed created even more hospitable conditions. Smoked bluefish is — you know the word — tasty. According to the Chesapeake Bay Program, blue catfish, native to the Mississippi, Ohio and Missouri River basins, were introduced into Virginia rivers in the 1970s as a sport fish and have few regional predators. And share your stories of catching, cooking and eating blue catfish: ­[email protected], Health and Wellness (Under the Circumstances), Chesapeake Beach Play Area Renamed for Senate President, VIDEO: Virtual Polar Plungers Get Creative (and Cold), Nation’s Largest Oyster Festival to Keep its Venue, Thanks to Open Space Grant, Pair of Va. Tree Planting Bills Move Forward. Blue Catfish is an invasive fish species in the Chesapeake Bay but increasing commercial harvest and consumption is one way to reduce their numbers. Blue catfish also support a growing commmercial fishery in the region, due to their excellent food quality. The VMRC has named the growing blue catfish population as one of the factors responsible for the low harvest numbers for crabs this year. This year catfish is the big catch. These fast-growing aquatic goats can multiply into a dominant species, “representing up to 75 percent of total fish biomass,” Bill learned. Blue catfish, which were introduced by Virginia officials to the James River for sport fishing, might number more than 100 million in the Chesapeake Bay now, researchers say. A natural-born cook and a restaurateur, she cooked catfish a little more delicately than the heavily breaded and deep-fried standard. That’s because unlike the farmed variety, which eat a diet of corn-and-soy feed, blue cats feed on medium-size fish like menhaden and white perch. As more people find out how tasty blue catfish is--similar to striped bass or rockfish because it eats similar things--the number of places that sell blue catfish may grow. Update: In September 2015, the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program awarded a green seafood recommendation, the highest rating possible, to Chesapeake Bay blue catfish.According to the Wide Net Project, it is the first invasive species to be assessed and rated by the program nationally. Together, these studies suggest that blue catfish are capable of expanding their range even further. So blue cats now show up in other places like the James River in Virginia and even the Chesapeake Bay. Closer to saltwater, peeler crab, soft crab, bloodworms, and squid are often preferred. While both fish are long-lived and fast-growing, it’s the blue catfish that is the major problem. In Maryland, it is illegal to transport live blue and flathead catfish into another body of water, anyone in violation of this can be fined up to $2,500. They’re the new fish du jour on the Chesapeke menu. I’ve always been obsessed with catching big fish. Happier still was husband Bill Lambrecht, who brings us this week’s special report, Blue Cat Invasion. The Chesapeake Bay watershed has become a home for several invasive fish species, the most prominent of which are blue and flathead catfish, and the northern snakehead. I was zig-zagging across some ledges in the Mid-Bay when I saw something on my fish finder that looked like a miniature underwater forest. It’s what my mother, an avid angler, grew up catching in Southern Illinois ponds, until fate dropped her in Key West for a few years. That’s about when our new neighbor and avid fisher Jack Dowd started catching assorted catfish at our local bridge, a fishing locale Bill knows well. Date Posted: 2017-06-14 Source: The Washington Post. It really is that simple and this is without a doubt the the simple way to find blue catfish. To help scientists and resource managers learn more about these fish, NCBO provided more than $1 million in funding for research projects to investigate blue catfish. I had a bad feeling the Bunker I bought was rotten and I was right. Like everybody else’s, his catch was filled out with perch, croaker, spot and, about this time of year, Spanish mackerel. Read his story. Still, I thought in moving to Chesapeake Country I’d made my escape from the culture and cuisine of sluggish feeders on the bottoms of Midwestern rivers and ponds locked by heavily farmed land. The best baits for catching catfish in the Chesapeake Bay region often depends on habitat. Many consider the James River to be the best river on earth to catch blue catfish over 50 lbs. In a second dish, mix the flour, cornmeal, old Bay or Cajun seasonings, cayenne and salt and pepper. While flathead catfish are not as abundant nor as well-studied as blue catfish in Chesapeake Bay, they are of primary concern in the fresher waters of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia. At the November 2017 Invasive Catfish Symposium held at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Rice Rivers Center, researchers from Virginia Tech, Maryland DNR, and Smithsonian Environmental Research Center presented information on blue catfish diet, finding that blue catfish feed heavily on plants, invertebrates, and small fish when they are younger, but eat mainly fish as they get older and larger. That, of course, is a problem with any fish in our Bay. How it succeeded! So, are these prolific, omnivorous natives of the Mississippi River system, which can grow to weights over 100 lbs., a blessing or a curse here in the Chesapeake? Blue catfish are often found in deep waters of rivers and reservoirs. NOAA Fisheries Chesapeake Bay Office works with partners to manage invasive catfish. NOAA Fisheries and our partners are supporting the development of these fisheries and working to identify further solutions to control the growth of this invasive population. Fishing for these blue cats helps the native fish and habitats, as well as the local economy—a win all the way around. I discovered it completely by accident a few years ago. Small, dark spots are scattered across its sides; these spots may disappear as the catfish gets older. They are apex predators just like sharks, but they reproduce like rabbits.”. Commercial blue catfish fishermen landed over 4.1 million pounds in 2016 up from just under 203,000 pounds in 2007. The NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office (NCBO) and other Chesapeake Bay organizations identified invasive catfish as a challenge facing the Chesapeake ecosystem several years ago. Bald Eagle Aerobatics Draw Photographers to Conowingo. Plus, eating them — at least as a regular diet — might be self-defeating because of the mercury and toxic chemicals they pick up in abundance while bottom-feeding. In fact, if I don’t have a legitimate shot at catching a 20- to 30-pound something every time I go out, I’d rather stay home. They out-compete the native species for both habitats and food. Virginia Sea Grant Graduate Research Fellow Joe Schmitt (pictured on the right) and his undergraduate assistant Hae Kim show off their catch of blue catfish landed for Joe’s study of their diets. Last updated by Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office Commercial and recreational fisherman have been catching blue catfish for decades, mostly in the James River. She was skilled at catching, skinning and cooking a catfish. Giant blue catfish swarm the tidal rivers off the Chesapeake Bay, and tempting anglers across the Mid-Atlantic region. (Little did I know how well that description suited our estuary.). Its tail fin is deeply forked. It is smooth-skinned, with a bluish- or greenish-gray body, a silvery white belly and olive fins. I may have found the best fishing spot in the Chesapeake Bay. Credit: Marine Mammal Stranding Center, U.S. Recreational Fishery . Chesapeake Bay Blue Catfish: Invasive, Dbuet licious and Nutritious! Says Tim Sughrue of Congressional Seafood Company, “These are not docile fish. They eat the same plants, insects, fish, and blue crabs that native fish depend on, and then eat the native fish, too! While my friends targeted trout on opening day, you’d find me in the tailwaters of the stream trying to catch carp. But for a couple of weeks early in the summer rockfish season, blue catfish and snakeheads were leading Doyle’s fishing report. To catch channel catfish, anglers usually fish with cut baits, including fish, crabs, squid, chicken livers, shrimp, crayfish, nightcrawlers, or bloodworms. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation's education workboats have been catching them off Annapolis during school field trips this spring. Bill, like my mother, just about lives to fish. For the best experience, please use a modern browser such as Chrome, Firefox, or Edge. But that’s an issue for another time. Fishing is part of the solution. If you catch a catfish in Chesapeake Bay, there's a good chance it's an invader from the Mississippi River drainage—probably a blue catfish, though it could be a less common flathead catfish. Tasty is the rating they usually get — especially when the taste and words are on the lips of people responsible for making lemonade out of these piscatorial lemons. As you’ll read in his story, blue catfish are an alien species, deposited in regional waters the way so many oddities arrive: released by humans, in this case to build a new fishery. Are they damaging the big Chesapeake rivers by eating too many blue crabs or indigenous fish? I can’t disagree. Strong Defense. There is no limit to the number of blue or flathead catfish an angler can catch and keep in Maryland. These highly adaptable species were introduced and have since spread all over the watershed, competing with native species and eating much of the available food. Advertisement Coat well with the cornmeal mixture. More than a decade ago, the northern snakehead was Public Enemy No. Blue Catfish were introduced to tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay in the 1970s and 1980s to establish new fisheries, but their presence has generated concern for native species. Soak the catfish fillets in milk to cover in a shallow dish for 1 hour. It is illegal to transport live blue and flathead catfish between water bodies in all Chesapeake Bay jurisdictions. Here are some of the most popular fish to target in the Chesapeake: • Striped Bass • Red Drum • Spotted Sea Trout • White Perch • Summer Flounder (Fluke) Illustration courtesy the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. 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