Why No Blues In Az?

Dameon,

From what I have understood, AZ Game and Fish transplanted some blue cats into a couple placed in the Tucson area years ago. I don't know if they got over fished or never restocked.

Ultimately, the last thing I heard was the only place that had blue cats was a small lake just outside of Tucson that had them. The area was developed and turned into a golf course. The lake was drained and no longer has fish in it. :confused2:

I would agree that it would be nice to stock some areas with blue cats. This would liven things up during the winter. Blue cats are great about being active year round and personally are the most beautiful of all the catfish out there.


Ryan

 

I was wondering that myself I fished hard their for three years and never caught one and I fished the Colorado alot. I know Arizona has them somewhere because they have a state record in their books but last I seen was that the state record blue was only about 36 pounds or around their.

 

about 12 yrs or so ago, my son and i caught a cat by imperial dam that i swear was a blue cat. about 9-10 lbs or so. even the guys at the dock at hidden shores, (which was called something else then) said it was one. it sure wasn't a channel or flatty i know.
gary

 

A long time ago about 20 years ago I used to catch them occasionally out of lake pleasant. Never very big, but definitely blue cats. Havent seen one since then.

 

Michael is right,i remember catching a smaller blue in the old lower lake pleasant,anybody remember that,a lower lake pleasnt!!!!!Dang showin my age!!:tounge_out:

 

I was going to say was it not out of the range of where Blues are from?
So if it were me, I would contact the Wildlife people and see where and what lakes they have stocked them in.
Good luck.
Pete

 

I caught a Blue cat at Bartlett last year. AND... it was under 5lbs. My buddy lives in Safford and he catches Blue Cat's out of the Gila River and San Carlos all the time. I've had people argue with me on the subject many times over.

 

According to this paper they were introduced to AZ.

http://www.fisheries.org/afs/publications/books/sympsample.pdf

 

Definetly an interesting article!!!!!!!

 

Ultimately I think that blue cats wouldnt do well here as they prefer larger cooler river systems. I have heard that they are a lot more sensitive to things like oxygen depletion, temperature fluxuation, and other things that flats and channels can survive. Maybe downstream from the dam on the salt, they would get big and fat on those stocker trout!:smile2:

 

Years ago they were stocked into San Carlos reservoir. However that lake goes dry periodicaly , so they sure are long gone. I believe at one time the Game and Fish dept had a state record for them there.

 

the state record came out of reid park in tucson

 

Well, based upon the article that Griz posted there may be a chance to actually catch a blue in Arizona.

One thing that I can tell all of you...a couple years ago I caught some big channels out of Roosevelt that I initially thought were blues. As with the catfish in my profile pic (which is a blue cat), the fish I caught out of Roosevelt were blue in color. However, this does not make them blue catfish. The two ways to tell a blue catfish from a channel is by its toothpad and also by its anal fin.

I unfortunately cannot find any pictures of the toothpad differences, but the anal fin difference is a real dead giveaway. I have attached the pictures.

Channel Catfish - rounded at the end, with 20 to 24 spines or sections

Blue Catfish - sharp, pointed at the end, 28-30 spines or sections

In response to the two channel catfish that I caught at Roosevelt, they were just as blue as the fish in my profile. I was shocked when I pulled them up. The big difference though was that when I saw the anal fin, they were rounded just like a channel cat.

 

The blue cats I used to catch were invariably under a pound and unlike adolescent channels had no spots and were bright silver with a blue back. The anal fin was different, and their jaw configuration was also a little different looking.
Havent seen one in years.

 

Like I said..."At one time". I know the record IS from Randolf Park in Tucson. There arent any blues left....think what you wish.

 

I remember about 4 years ago at Pleasant lake I caught a catfish with a very blue color to it and it looked almost identical to that blue catfish picture linked in one of the previous posts. At first I thought it was a blue but didnt think they existed in AZ. I figured the color was due to the water being so clean and clear compared to other lakes I usually fish.