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Yesterday seemed like one of the last chances we'd have to do some openwater fishing before the freeze comes, but looking outside right now shows otherwise, its 60 degrees and sunny? Kenny and me trailered his boat 2.5 hours down to the Potomac in attempt to catch Blue Cats yesterday, we stopped along the way to try and snag gizzard shad for bait, which worked perfectly. We didn't get out on the River until about 11am or a little after, we didn't really know where these big Blue Catfish would be holding, but we moved around and had a good time enjoying the amazing January weather. It wasn't cold, 50 degrees or so, zero wind, flat calm, overcast and at times so foggy we couldn't see shore in any direction. We used smallish chunks of fresh Gizzard Shad and caught close to 10 Blues although none of them were very big. Average size would turn out to be around 10lbs, with our biggest going 25lbs. Thats a decent sized freshwater fish, but for a Blue Cat its not nearly enough to raise any eyebrows, as these fish grow to 100lbs+, and 50lbers aren't all that uncommon.

It was the first time Either of us had fished the Potomac. Kenny had never caught a Blue. I have targeted them at Santee Cooper Reservoir in SC many years ago and I can only remember ever catching one, from the Rediversion Canal there at Santee in July. Long story short, we both caught PB's and did a bit of exploring on new waters. We tried fishing anywhere from 35'-70'+ of water and seemed like we had out best bite in around 50'.

For some reason I was pretty sure we were going to go down there and catch at least a 30lber, now I realize that was a little ambitious. Next time, however, I fully expect to catch one at least 30, however I do not know when I will be back. I should have done more research on Blue's because once we got down there we realized we didn't really know where to go. We had taken advice from Tan Bui, a local philly hater, who had fished the Potomac in 2008 or 2009 with Romo on a guides boat down there. They had caught some 50+lbers that day in November, apparently in 20' of water, I have heard about that day many times since then and know the approximate location, however we didn't find any 50lbers.

The Fisheries Departments there on the Potomac classify the Blue's as an invasive species and encourage anglers to kill what they catch. Sound familiar? We didn't kill any. We don't kill Snakeheads or Flatheads either, mainly because we enjoy catching these species.

For now, here's a couple pics of stiff-arm Kenny with his 15lb PB and my 25lber-