Scott: Proposed rules are best hope for blue catfish

Twenty years ago, catfish anglers who plied the waters of the Osage basin from Bagnell Dam west to the Kansas state line acted as if the supply of trophy blue catfish was infinite.

And why shouldn’t they have? Blue cats weighing more than 20 pounds were common, and impressive numbers of fish weighing two or even three times that amount were wrestled from the Lake of the Ozarks, Truman Lake and the upper Osage River every year.

Nowadays, actual 50-pound blue cats are a rarity. More frustrating, a dedicated catfish angler could spend an entire year everywhere west of Bagnell Dam without catching a single blue catfish in the 20-pound class.

Multiple factors are involved when a world class fishery collapses, but in the case of blue catfish in the Osage basin, overharvest completely overshadows all others.

This was dramatically proven by a tagging study conducted by the Missouri Department of Conservation, in which 85 percent of the tagged blue cats over 24 inches in length were taken by anglers within five years of being tagged. That rate of return is two to three times higher than in similar studies conducted in other states.

I can’t think of a fish species that could withstand an 85 percent harvest rate, but such gross overharvest is particularly devastating when the species in question grows slowly over a long lifetime.

An Osage basin blue cat normally takes between 20 and 25 years to approach trophy size and 35 years or more to reach its full potential. The damage we anglers have already done will take decades to repair.

Fortunately, the MDC fisheries biologists responsible for the Osage basin’s blue cat fishery don’t worry too much about how much time it might take to see results when they set out to design a rescue plan.

They are concerned about the real and perceived impacts management changes will have on people. The agency has been holding by-invitation meetings with people who have a stake in the area’s blue cat fishery.

The speakers at the meeting I attended outlined two possible scenarios for new blue catfish regulations.

If either of these proposals is adopted, the regulations will apply only to the Osage basin west of Bagnell Dam.

There are no plans to tinker with statewide catfish angling regulations.

The first proposal would have a five-fish daily limit on blue catfish with a 24- to 34-inch protected slot. Whether anglers will be allowed to keep one or two blue cats over 34 inches is yet to be determined.

A large majority of the people who attended the same meeting I did favored this option. Opinions as to whether to allow the daily harvest of one or two trophy fish were split almost evenly.

The second proposal would have a 10-fish daily limit with a 24- to 34-inch protected slot. No decision has been made regarding recommending the legal daily harvest of one or two trophy fish.

I favored the second option, because I believe allowing anglers to reduce the number of small blue cats would improve growth rates.

One of the biologists agreed with me and noted that Truman Lake, in particular, does not have a spawning problem; it has a growth problem.

A study of 2,610 blue catfish from Truman Lake revealed that a blue cat needed to be 15 inches long before it would weigh a pound.

A 24-incher averages five pounds. By the time a blue cat reaches 34 inches the fish would be approximately 25 years old and would weigh about 16 pounds.

The 24- to 34-inch protected slot allows fish that have reached the upper end  an opportunity to survive until they’ve nearly reached traditional 20-pound trophy status.

The rest of the story is what is most exciting. As they grow in length beyond 34 inches, blue cats really begin to pack on the pounds per inch. A 40-inch Truman Lake blue cat should weigh about 28 pounds, and a 50-incher would pull the scales down beyond the 58-pound mark.

If you dare to dream about a complete return to the good old days, a 60-inch blue cat might weigh nearly 110 pounds!