What is a Blue Catfish?

The Blue catfish looks very much like the channel catfish although it is larger, in fact it is one of the largest species of Catfish in North America and has blue colouring on its back.

Primarily the Blue catfish is found in the Mississippi river and its tributaries that span the states of Tennessee, Arkansas, Ohio and Missouri although the Blue catfish can be found further a field as they have been introduced in to many other rivers and lakes across the United States.

Blue catfish have the typical barbels found on all catfish that give them the name they have today but have a forked tail unlike some species of catfish. As mentioned previously the Blue catfish has back that is blue in colouring and it also has a white underside and has a forked tail that it shares with only one other type of catfish, the channel cat.

When fully grown the Blue Catfish can grow to between eighteen and twenty four inches (forty six to sixty one centimetres) and can weigh up to an impressive one hundred and ten pounds plus (fifty kilograms).

Due to their large size and the fact that Blue catfish are seen as some what of a delicacy due to their distinctive delicious taste, many fishermen see the Blue Catfish as one of their favourite catches.

If  you are unsure whether you have ever seen a Blue Catfish it could be that you already have but didn’t know it. The blue catfish carries many nicknames like blue channel, blue humpback, forktail cat, mississippi blue, madtom and Arkansas cat to name a few.

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