Catfish Study

Monster Catfish Being Studied In West Virginia Rivers August 17, 2011 Reporter: Patrick McMurtry Videographer: Brad Rice

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This is one of the many catfish swimming around in our rivers and lakes,and more and more of you are spending time looking for these delicious fish. The West Virginia Division of Natural Resources recognized the growing interest in these guys and began studying their behavior about four years ago.

Chris O'Barra, a biologist with the division, says fishing for catfish has become very popular recently.

"We've been doing this study since 2007. We initially were interested in catfish, catfish fishing has gotten more and more popular and is more and more important to us. People are out here fishing for catfish and they're actually fishing for trophy catfish."

We are on the Ohio River today, running a low-frequency electrical charge to see just how many catfish are here, and what the biologists can learn from this study.

"One of the interesting things about flat head catfish is they haven't moved a lot, we're below the Robert C. Byrd Lock and Dam today, and the fish that we caught here are actually fish that we tagged in this area, they don't move a lot." says O'Barra.

And that's just a little guy compared to some of the monsters you can find in our rivers, and in others across the country.

"Blue catfish are an extremely large fish. As they get older, there have been reports of blue catfish in the Mississippi River of 150 pounds, they do grow to a larger size. Channel cats are a smaller fish, don't grow much bigger than 5 to 10 pounds." says O'Barra.

That's still a trophy fish, and there are plenty of catfish swimming around that would be fun to catch and great to eat.

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