I just read an In-Fisherman article about Catfish Ponds (Here) and it got me thinking... why aren't Blue Catfish as popular (or more popular) than Channel Catfish?

According to the article, they state that, with a good forage base and a feeding plan, Blue Catfish can grow 4-7 pounds per year. Even on the lower end, 4 lbs per year seems incredible. Channel Catfish don't come close to those amazing growth rates. The only negative (?) is that Blues are more piscivorous (eat more fish) than Channel Cats, and at an earlier age. I guess if your goal is to grow trophy LMB, then Blues might compete with them for forage, but Blues will more readily eat pellets, so it might not be much of a concern.

The one thing from the article that stuck with me was the comment about the supply for Blue Cats hasn't caught up with the demand, but it's only a matter of time. This article is 3-years old and there's still very few fish hatcheries that are producing Blue Cats. I'm in North Carolina and I don't think we have any here. I know TX has some, but that'd be quite a drive for me.

Am I missing something? Are we stuck with CCs until BCs become more readily available?

I completely agree and have not found a local source in Indiana. My newest pond is calling for blue catfish as the apex predator.

I have not seen the Arkansas fish trucks offering Blue Catfish either. A neighbor has a few in his 1.4 acre pond, that were wild caught and put in at something under two pounds. That was several years ago, and some of them exceed 20 pounds now, on natural forage. He hasn't fed in several years.

Yes! That's going to be my plan as well. I'm contemplating a BC/HSB pond at the moment. I'm just not a huge fan of LMB anymore.


That's awesome. Sadly, I'm probably going to have to bucket stock some to get them started, create some spawning structure/cavities and hope they can reproduce. Do you know if the ones in your neighbor's pond have spawned?

There's the rub. There's a few of us who see LMB as a tool towards other purposes, but I think "Trophy LMB" is still a primary goal for most pond owners (who have a goal).

I have a 2 ac pond. How many pounds of predator can I support? One uncatchable, dog-eating, fifty pound blue cat and nothing else? No thanks!

True, I agree with that. On the stipulation that you don't care about producing trophy LMB, are there any downsides to BC?
Understandable. I guess you would somehow need a reliable way to harvest fish that are "too big" for your liking.

In my case, I have a LMB/BG pond that produced a 6.4 lb fish last Fall, and a 4.4 lb fish last week (same friend caught and kept both fish for eating). My neighbor also harvests 50-60 BG and about 10, <12" LMB each year for eating. I also have a YP/SMB pond with spawning populations. The SMB are also growing well but I have not had a "football" perch harvested yet. My 3rd pond will hopefully be a black-crappie/blue-catfish pond. I just started digging my 4th pond and am needing to dewater the ground without having the trench cave in. I have a plan, but its slow going with a backhoe and finish dozer. Once the drain pipe is in, its just dozer time. Not yet sure what I am gonna stock in this one...

I personally love to catch blues out at the lake and have a hatchery that sells them within an hours drive but I still would NEVER stock them. The problem I have with any catfish ( besides bullhead ) is that once they hit 15 pounds or so they will eat literally anything in your pond. Since my goal is a bass pond that is not what I am looking for. If I was managing a pond just for catfish however they could be a good addition.

If they eat anything, wouldn’t they be easy to catch? I do plan on having Blues in my pond at some point but I’d also have friends and family harvesting them often. The home we’re closing on next month is also 5 minutes from a large river so keeping them fed shouldn’t be a problem. It’s kinda funny how we usually want the biggest fish we can get and now we’re talking about how fish can get too big, lol.

Osage Catfisheries raises blue cats for sale.

http://www.osagecatfisheries.com/pond-stocking.asp

Yeah, but that’s a 13 hour drive for me. I’m in NC and Osage is in MO.

Maybe they'll ship them on UPS or FedEx. Can't hurt to call and ask.

I tried emailing them. I think someone else recommended them as well in another thread. Got no replies. When I tried calling, no one answered. I'll try again when I'm closer to being ready to put some in.