Largest North American catfish to be brought back to Pennsylvania rivers

With blue catfish — the largest catfish species in North America — beginning to show up in the Ohio River in southwestern Pennsylvania after an absence of about a century, the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission this week launches restoration efforts for the fish in rivers in the state.

The commission this fall will stock three- to five-inch juvenile blue catfish into the Allegheny, Ohio and Monongahela rivers, which are collectively known as the Three Rivers.

Native to the major rivers of the Ohio River basin, the blue catfish was found throughout the Ohio and Monongahela rivers in Pennsylvania, as well as the lower portions of the Allegheny River, until the early 1900s.

According to the commission, pollution and habitat change eliminated the species from Pennsylvania.

Re-introduction efforts by the West Virginia Department of Natural Resources have led to the re-establishment of blue catfish populations in portions of the Ohio River bordering Ohio and West Virginia, providing popular recreational fisheries.

The commission believes recent angler catches in the Pennsylvania portion of the Ohio River are likely the result of migration of fish stocked by West Virginia and provide evidence that the species could be successfully restored in Pennsylvania.

Popular with anglers, blue catfish can weigh more than 100 pounds. The species has a habit of feeding during cooler months, which holds potential for the fish to provide year-round trophy catfish angling in the Ohio River and its major tributaries in Western Pennsylvania.

Blue catfish stocking in the Ohio River will begin this week with three- to five-inch fingerlings to be followed in 2023 and subsequent years with eight- to 10-inch yearlings.

Following the blue catfish restoration stockings, the commission will monitor and assess the efforts in the Ohio River every three years beginning in 2025.

The goal of the Three Rivers Blue Catfish Restoration Plan is to establish a self-sustaining, naturally reproducing population of the species in the Ohio River, Monongahela River and lower Allegheny River.

The commission stresses that the restoration effort is aimed at the Three Rivers only.

Blue catfish are a large, river species not considered native to the numerous lakes in the Ohio River basin.

Stocking will not be considered for those other bodies of water.

In addition, the species is not native to the Atlantic Slope basins in Pennsylvania, including the Delaware River, Potomac River, Susquehanna River and Lake Erie, and is considered highly invasive in those waters and elsewhere outside its native range.

Adverse impacts have affected fisheries where non-native blue catfish have been introduced, including predation on threatened or endangered native species and commercially or recreationally valuable species.

It is illegal for individuals to stock blue catfish into any water in Pennsylvania, where the species is not included on the commission’s Species by Watershed Approved for Open System (Flow Through) Propagation and Introductions list.

Also, Pennsylvania law prohibits the transfer of fish from waters in the state into another drainage where the species being transferred is not always present.