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Why more anglers every year are getting the blues
Outdoors Columnists Tim Pruitt wanted to catch just one fish before leaving the water ahead of a thunderstorm approaching the Mississippi River near Alton. He got that fish and it was a monster.
Pruitt caught a 124-pound blue catfish, a new world record. The previous record was 121 pounds, 8 ounces, caught in Lake Texoma, Texas, in 2004.
A factory worker from Fostersburg, Ill., Pruitt, 33, fought the fish while his wife, Carla, and friend, Tony Pfeifer, raised the anchors and let the fish tow them until it tired. It took 45 minutes to land the behemoth.
Pruitt began fishing as a kid with his grandfather and father. They pursued crappies, bass and channel catfish. After a stint in the U.S. Marine Corps, Pruitt started hunting the big blue catfish that haunt the Mississippi River and its tributaries, usually fishing from the Alton dam downstream to the St. Louis Arch.
"I worked my way to the big boys," Pruitt said. "I like all kinds of fishing. But big blues live in my backyard so that's why I target them."
Preparation is a must for fish like these in a river as big as the Mississippi. Pruitt uses saltwater rods, 40-pound line on open-face spinning reels, a braided leader of 50 to 100 pound strength and a sharp 10/0 hook.
Weights vary according to the speed of the current. Most night it's a bell sinker of 6 ounces to a half pound. The night he caught big blue Pruitt used a 10-ounce weight.
Pruitt's 19-foot jon boat has been modified to meet the task and includes headlights, a huge livewell and a 85-gallon container to hold the herring, shad and carp he uses as bait.
"It's a catfishing machine," Pruitt said.
Best catfish spots are current breaks related to deep holes, channel breaks or rocky areas. Missouri guide Jeff Williams says blues are the best of all the catfish species.
"You get the size of flatheads and the numbers of channel catfish. How good is that?," he asks.
For lake fishing, Williams uses 30-pound braided line. He adds a 3-ounce egg sinker, a small piece of rubber vacuum tubing to protect the knot from the sinker, a strong barrel swivel and a 7/0 hook. He finds steep breaks that drop from mud flats to the deep river channel where the big blues live.
Why have so many anglers got the blues?
Williams said he recently guided two writers from In-Fisherman magazine to three blue catfish weighing 40 pounds, 20 pounds and 10 pounds on Lake of the Ozarks. And then there's Pruitt's fish, which hit 20 minutes before he planned to leave. Pruitt said he knew he had something special as soon as he set the hook.
"I didn't turn him whatsoever," he said.
The record blue wasn't Pruitt's first big fish. He's caught several in the 70-pound range. Two years ago he boated, weighed and released a 95-pound fish that was big enough to be an Illinois state record. But Pruitt released the fish because it was too big for his livewell and he didn't want to kill it.
"I gave back to the river and the river gave back to me," Pruitt said.
Pruitt had planned to have Cabela's display his record blue at one of its stores on condition that it would be released back into the river if it couldn't adjust to captivity. Unfortunately, the stressed fish died in transit. The Illinois DNR will receive its spine so scientists can determine its age within a year or two. Pruitt will receive the actual mount and one of several graphite replicas the retail chain plans to make.
Meanwhile, Pruitt's producing a DVD on the catch. See www.timpruitt.net. A portion of the proceeds will go to the DNR's fisheries division. The Web site has other pictures and catfishing information, as well.
Ted Takasaki, professional angler, can be reached at ted@lindylittlejoe.com or 829-1714. Scott Richardson can be reached at walleyeangler@a5.com or (309) 275-7120.
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