Huge blue cat for Suffolk

[Kevin M]

I did not catch the fish, but I did get to see it. One of the guys fishing the Suffolk bass tourney today caught a 51" blue cat. I did not fish the tournament, but did get to see the monster. Nothing approaching the record book, but I've never seen anything close out of Suffolk. He was taking it to get it weighed. I would estimate the weight at 70+ lbs. I've seen tons of cats from Suffolk in the high teens and 20's, but his thing dwarfed them all. Beautiful fish.

[Barnacle Bill]

That is a monster for any one of those lakes.

[Kevin M]

I got the report last night, the blue cat weighed in at 87 lbs. on a certified scale. A monster for sure.

[undertheradar]

For some reason, I think I remember the Biologist from Chuckatuck saying there were NOT any BLues in the lakes... just mud and channel cats. 87 lbs is a whopper!

[Percidae_Papermouth]

Congrats to the man who fought em on a bass rod, which lake?

[Clear Solution]

Tell y'all what, WB has become a catfish hole. We kept 2 on Sunday, 26 and 31 pounds. I bet we caught 20 thru the course of the day, from pewees to the big boys. We were shell cracker fishing and never did find the target species, but the whisker fish kept us busy.

[Kevin M]

Congrats to the man who fought em on a bass rod, which lake?

It came from Burnt Mills. I've never even seen a bullhead in that lake, let alone a bruiser blue. I've not caught large ones (only 10-15 lbs.) in the Branch, but I did see one cruising last year when I was there fishing for shellcrackers. They look bigger in the water, but I would have sworn that thing was 40+. I tossed a 1/32 oz. jig at it, but it ignored the peanut and kept on its way. That fish would have been fun on 4 lb. line.

[Barnacle Bill]

If it was 87 lbs it had to be a blue. State record for a channel cat is about 31 lbs and for a flathead 66 labs.

[redear]

I have heard of blues being turned loose in there after weighing them, they were sizable and this was 10+ years ago.

[speKzilla]

1.Yes WB has become a great catfish lake (channel and white)
2.Never saw a blue CF in the Suffolk lakes. But a CF that big is surely a Blue.
3.I have caught Blue CF in the Nottoway up to 28lb from the trouble landing them I cannot imagine boating one that big.
4.Now the question is, is there a reproducing population, this could prove troublesome for other species.