Changes proposed for Lake Gaston blue catfish

CRC

Old Mossy Horns
Usually VA and NC are in sync on regs affecting gaston and kerr. not sure why cats are different, absent some commercial lobbying it should be an easy sell to the ncwrc.

I sent in comments to the WRC pointing out their proposed changes do no match the VA regulations on the books.
 
I agree with regulations on folks netting for pay lakes but how does putting size limits on the guy using rod and reel and fishing for dinner do anything?

It just helps the trophies out is all. That man can still catch all the eaters he wants just one over 32 i n all he can keep as big fish. It's sole purpose is to protect our trophy fishery.
 
Buggs isn't big compared to the Ohio River so not sure what you are getting at there,,,,,,,

catfish,,,,it's what's for supper,,,,,

Yes Ohio river is way bigger, I ment Gaston over Kerr on the size thing. It will take longer to for them to clean kerr because its almost twice the size of Gaston. As far as Ohio river, they have been doing that for decades, it wont take that long on our lakes for the commercial guys to clean it out.
 

CRC

Old Mossy Horns
It just helps the trophies out is all. That man can still catch all the eaters he wants just one over 32 i n all he can keep as big fish. It's sole purpose is to protect our trophy fishery.

So how do you reconcile the fact that even with the proposed changes the regulations on the VA and NC sides of Buggs will still be different?

I get where you are coming from now.
 
Buggs isn't big compared to the Ohio River so not sure what you are getting at there,,,,,,,

catfish,,,,it's what's for supper,,,,,

There is nothing wrong with a man keeping fish for his family or anybody else he wants to keep fish for, just needs to be a size limit so a man can't take ten 40 lbers out of the lake. There's plenty of eaters for the taking, not near as many trophy fish. Guys who fish for cats already know this and that's why CPR is becoming more and more popular for the trophy fisherman. Most people throw the big ones back, but for the ones who don't it's not a problem if they take one big one every now and then. Just my opinion on the situation. #CPR
 
So how do you reconcile the fact that even with the proposed changes the regulations on the VA and NC sides of Buggs will still be different?

I get where you are coming from now.

It probably won't be much different except those who get caught get cited. Most the guys exploiting our fishery do not care about laws so you right on about that for sure.
 

CRC

Old Mossy Horns
The problem is VA has a 20 fish limit on both lakes and NC will still have no limits on fish under 32.

Seems to me a lakewide 20 fish limit would even out pressure?

Are you seeing a difference in fishing pressure now between VA and NC due to different limits?
 
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Mr.Gadget

Old Mossy Horns
Wonder why we kill all the big trophy deer and let the little ones walk....

Maybe the same rules should apply to deer and let all the big ones go and kill all the scrub deer?
Big deer have the good genes to reproduce. ..
 

catfishrus

Twelve Pointer
so i have a friend who is a wonderful liar.

he allows as to how he has seen big cats schooling with LMB being the prey on buggs island.

any of you cat guys seen this on any lake? Do the big ones exist in numbers big enough to school on top? Would they waste their time running bass on the surface?

or is this another wonderful lie of his? :)

darkthirty i expect you to call BS on this for me so i can do the same with my lying buddy. LOL

BS....I have seen schools of big blues on top..I'm talking about acres of them on Badin. Key times I see this is when the lake is turning over but I haven't been able to get those schooling fish to feed. I'm talking about fish up to 50-60 lbs. rolling on top with in 10-50 ft from the boat. My conclusion to these schooling fish is that badin has a old dam below the upper dam....old dam is under the water at the RR bridge. My theory is the old dam prevents the current from flowing through the water table and causes low oxygen in the water at times and the blues have adapted to come to the top to get oxygen. Badin is well known for its thermocline in the summer. I fished a tourney once on badin. While at full throttle I seen blues schooling on top and anchor right in the middle of them. We never caught a fish out of that school but the tourney was won just down river from us in 65 ft of water fishing on the bottom. Those schooling fish wouldn't feed on top or the bottom around us that morning. This tourney was in sept....usually the lakes turns over in sept. Just my tick of information on schooling blues on top. I'm not a biologist just a sorry catfisherman.
 

catfishrus

Twelve Pointer
Buggs isn't big compared to the Ohio River so not sure what you are getting at there,,,,,,,

catfish,,,,it's what's for supper,,,,,

I agree but some folks cant stop at supper. I see nothing wrong with eating them but I know a fellow who brags about pulling roll call on a small lake here on the Yadkin chain with jugs. I see no use in taking a 500-1000 lbs in a single night out of a lake for supper. Those fish landed in a ditch on the way home...it was all about bragging rights.
 

nccatfisher

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
I personally never have seen them school on top. I was sent a pic. from a river in the upper Midwest of flatheads in huge groups. Big fish, that were not on top but schooled. The water was clear enough you could see them easily. That goes against everything I know about them. But may explain why I fail at times with them. I wish I hadn't lost it.
 

darkthirty

Old Mossy Horns
For what it’s worth, I assisted a grad student from TN tech doing a comparison of blues and channels between commercially fished vs no commercial fishing on lakes in TN. I can’t remember how big his sample size was exactly, but it was hundreds from each lake. Keep in mind that he wasn’t necessarily looking for trophy fish because of sampling methods (hoop nets). Lengths, weights and otolith removal for aging.

Growth rates were actually better on the lakes that were commercially fished.....................
 

Newsome Road

Ten Pointer
Wonder why we kill all the big trophy deer and let the little ones walk....

Maybe the same rules should apply to deer and let all the big ones go and kill all the scrub deer?
Big deer have the good genes to reproduce. ..

First thing that pops in my mind is that the average lifespan for a deer is 3-5 years, opposed to 15-20 for a catfish. By the time a wild deer is old enough to know if he will be good breeding stock, statistics say he's already dead :D
 

catfishrus

Twelve Pointer
First thing that pops in my mind is that the average lifespan for a deer is 3-5 years, opposed to 15-20 for a catfish. By the time a wild deer is old enough to know if he will be good breeding stock, statistics say he's already dead :D

A blue cat is 7-8 years old before it becomes breeding stock. Once it reaches a certain size it grows quick. All this is according to the NCWRC when they done the studies on badin and norman. They also said that blues generally travel in groups according to size. They caught a 65 lb blue out of badin last I knew and it was ages at 16 years old. I haven't kept up with any other studies since...this information was released 6-7 years ago.
 

oldest school

Old Mossy Horns
BS....I have seen schools of big blues on top..I'm talking about acres of them on Badin. Key times I see this is when the lake is turning over but I haven't been able to get those schooling fish to feed. I'm talking about fish up to 50-60 lbs. rolling on top with in 10-50 ft from the boat. My conclusion to these schooling fish is that badin has a old dam below the upper dam....old dam is under the water at the RR bridge. My theory is the old dam prevents the current from flowing through the water table and causes low oxygen in the water at times and the blues have adapted to come to the top to get oxygen. Badin is well known for its thermocline in the summer. I fished a tourney once on badin. While at full throttle I seen blues schooling on top and anchor right in the middle of them. We never caught a fish out of that school but the tourney was won just down river from us in 65 ft of water fishing on the bottom. Those schooling fish wouldn't feed on top or the bottom around us that morning. This tourney was in sept....usually the lakes turns over in sept. Just my tick of information on schooling blues on top. I'm not a biologist just a sorry catfisherman.

that would be a sight to see. Thank you for the info.

my friend may not be such a story teller after all.:)

thanks also for the info on the age study.

that would seal the deal for me as far as killing the big ones.

eat the little ones and recycle the big ones.

they have to be more fun to catch than eat.
 
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LKGRenegade22

Four Pointer
BS....I have seen schools of big blues on top..I'm talking about acres of them on Badin. Key times I see this is when the lake is turning over but I haven't been able to get those schooling fish to feed. I'm talking about fish up to 50-60 lbs. rolling on top with in 10-50 ft from the boat. My conclusion to these schooling fish is that badin has a old dam below the upper dam....old dam is under the water at the RR bridge. My theory is the old dam prevents the current from flowing through the water table and causes low oxygen in the water at times and the blues have adapted to come to the top to get oxygen. Badin is well known for its thermocline in the summer. I fished a tourney once on badin. While at full throttle I seen blues schooling on top and anchor right in the middle of them. We never caught a fish out of that school but the tourney was won just down river from us in 65 ft of water fishing on the bottom. Those schooling fish wouldn't feed on top or the bottom around us that morning. This tourney was in sept....usually the lakes turns over in sept. Just my tick of information on schooling blues on top. I'm not a biologist just a sorry catfisherman.

This is exactly what I was about to say. I live near Lake Gaston and do a bunch of night fishing for Bass. The last 2 falls when the lake turned over the bass bite tanks and the catfish school on the top. I’ve seen so many catfish if you didn’t see it yourself you wouldn’t believe it. I never would have believed there were half the number of catfish in the whole lake that I saw on those nights. They were at the surface in 40-75 feet in huge schools and would come all around the boat. I even netted a few just to see if it was possible.


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oldest school

Old Mossy Horns
This is exactly what I was about to say. I live near Lake Gaston and do a bunch of night fishing for Bass. The last 2 falls when the lake turned over the bass bite tanks and the catfish school on the top. I’ve seen so many catfish if you didn’t see it yourself you wouldn’t believe it. I never would have believed there were half the number of catfish in the whole lake that I saw on those nights. They were at the surface in 40-75 feet in huge schools and would come all around the boat. I even netted a few just to see if it was possible.


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Did it look like this? :) This is some big fish schooling for sure.

GT's eating birds.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4pxLHG0Wzs

Would love to see a big school of big cats chasing.
 

LKGRenegade22

Four Pointer
Did it look like this? :) This is some big fish schooling for sure.

Would love to see a big school of big cats chasing.

Haha I never really saw them chasing anything. They were feeding off the top as there were nymphs everywhere but I never saw them chasing baitfish or anything. I should add when I’ve seen this happen the water has always looked nasty, like all the sediment from the bottom has came to the top.


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oldest school

Old Mossy Horns
My inquiry was related to them chasing, did not know if it was worth the effort or if they were able to chase in open water?

But just seeing what you describe chasing or not would be amazing.
 

catfishrus

Twelve Pointer
Haha I never really saw them chasing anything. They were feeding off the top as there were nymphs everywhere but I never saw them chasing baitfish or anything. I should add when I’ve seen this happen the water has always looked nasty, like all the sediment from the bottom has came to the top.


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Yep same for me...they aren't feeding when on top....its like they come up and roll with their backs sticking out of the water and go back down. I haven't netted one but my buddy netted one at badin that was fighting during the spawn...the one he got weighed 49 lbs. Scooped him up with a dip net.
 
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