Public invited to comment on catfish management plan

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Missouri may never again produce a catfish like the one taken from the Missouri River near Portland in 1866. It weighed 315 pounds. Two years later, two anglers landed one near Hermann that tipped the scales at 242 pounds.

"Those days are long past," said Steve Eder, fisheries field operations chief for the Missouri Department of Conservation. "Chances are good that we won't ever see catfish that large again, but the new catfish management plan we have drafted may increase your chances to land a big catfish -- a really big catfish."

The Conservation Department is unveiling the draft plan at six public meetings this fall. Locally, a meeting will be from 7 to 9 p.m. Sept. 24 at the Southeast Regional Office in Cape Girardeau.

One of the proposed regulations would restrict the harvest of blue catfish statewide, while continuing to allow a liberal harvest of channel catfish. Survey results indicated that trophy anglers prefer flatheads and blues, whereas non-trophy anglers prefer channel catfish.

This would allow blues more time to grow while permitting a continued liberal harvest of channel cats.

Another proposed regulation change would establish a special management area on the Missouri River with a minimum length limit on flathead catfish.