Blue catfish are the largest of the three main species of catfish. They are generally regarded as big-water fish. In large rivers and reservoirs, blue cats may grow to enormous sizes and some will even top the 100-pound mark. However, the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources (KDFWR) has been experimenting with stocking blue cats in some of our state's smaller impoundments. The results have been mixed so far, but they are definitely providing anglers with some real thrills on these smaller waters.

Many people are becoming somewhat familiar with the blue cat stocking program because of Taylorsville Lake. Blue cats have been stocked there since 2002 and they have done quite well with anglers now catching some very large fish. With word of Taylorsville's success getting out, many people believe 2002 is when the whole program was started. However, the stocking program in the smaller impoundments actually began several years earlier.

In the 1990s, several of Kentucky's smaller lakes were exhibiting stunted populations of bluegills and other panfish. Some of the lakes were simply overpopulated with sunfish. Others were overpopulated with shad, which leads to predatory fish preying more on the shad and thus the sunfish become even more stunted as a result.

The KDFWR, looking for a way to curtail some of this overpopulation, decided to begin stocking blue catfish as an experiment to see if they would reduce the number of smaller fish and ultimately help bluegills to thin out in number and grow to a more quality size. Biologists had looked at literature that suggested the blue catfish had a preference for small sunfish. Therefore, they picked four lakes and began a research-stocking program.

Two of the lakes had shad present, and the other two didn't. All contained stunted bluegills. The two lakes picked with shad were Bullock Pen and A.J. Jolly. The two lakes that did not have shad (but lots of stunted bluegills/sunfish) were Boltz and Reformatory.

Jeff Crosby, a fisheries biologist with the KDFWR, said the initial assessment is inconclusive, but it doesn't appear that stocking the blue cats has worked as well as was hoped. They haven't seen major changes in bluegill populations as what they wanted, so he said he is not sure the project is meeting objectives.

In fact, the stocking of blue cats was suspended at A.J. Jolly and they were replaced with flathead catfish. Crosby said some of the blue cats were just not growing. After three years, some of the fish were still in the 10-inch range. Others, though, were much larger. "It seems like some of the fish struggle to get over the hump. Once they do get over the hump, they grow well. There are some fish in there that are 15 pounds or more."

A second phase of the blue cat stocking program is now underway. Chris Hickey, a warmwater biologist, is experimenting with stocking different sizes of catfish to see if one size does better than another. "We've seen some fish at age 6 that are 15 inches long and others that are over 30 inches. They were stocked at the same time, but some just never seem to grow."

Hickey said they are now stocking some fish that are less than 10 inches and others that are over 12 inches. The fish are marked differently so they can be evaluated at a later date. He said they've only been stocking and marking the fish for the past couple years, so it's too early to see if there are better results than before. This stocking phase will continue another three years at Bullock Pen, Boltz and Reformatory lakes.