Trophy channel catfish over the size of 10lbs are considered rare and quite a catch. Amazingly some the most impressive monsters have come from the red river of the north in the Manitoba Canada basin. If your thinking logically you would think the largest giants of the channel catfish species would come from the southern region of the channel cat's habitat, but that is not so. Habitat location doesn't seem to make a difference when we talk about these trophy catfish specimens. It absolutely amazing that a 58lb channel catfish holds the world record. The monster of a channel catfish was caught in 1964 by W.B. Whaley. His catch was well documented and never has been discredited. Now this fish did come from a reservoir called Lake Marion in South Carolina, but no large monsters even close to this size have been caught since.
If you are wondering why this fish grew so big we can speculate that three factors drove it's growth, but this only pure speculation. During the late 1950's and into the 1960's there was serious flooding of river delta system in this area. This generated a very unusual growth and population of forage fish such as shad and skip jack herring that migrated into Lake Marion. This fish had an over abundance of food to eat for many years.. Also there was no competition from flat head catfish or blue catfish at that time. Since then both have been introduced to the area, and no monster channel catfish of even close to this size have been caught since. That is factor number two, competition for the food source from other game fish.
Normally channel catfish have a internal growth mechanism built into their metabolism that determines how large they will grow. Prime natural habitat for channel catfish would be in small to medium rivers that have a overabundance of bait fish and where they had very little competition from other predators such as blue catfish and flathead catfish, and other large game fish. Normally in theory ,if these habitat conditions are present no mater where the location is within the channel catfish's habitat range there's a good chance that very large channel catfish will be caught.
For example I live by a very large shallow lake in ohio that has had an over abundance of gizzard shad for years. The lake is exceptional for channel catfish and catches over 4lbs are a very common occurrence. Although they are uncommon there are catches of trophy size channel catfish over 10lbs every year. I personally have caught five 10lb plus catfish using various catfish baits and catfish live bait rigs. from this lake. My biggest be 12lbs + caught just this year in august. This lake is 10 miles long and 2 miles wide and there is an amazing amount of cover. It is fed by two creeks. There are no blue catfish in this lake and a very small population of flathead catfish. So there is little competition for the shad. They did however introduce walleye into the lake about 8 years ago so the verdict is out on what it will do to the growth of very large channel catfish. But I know in my gut there is a channel cat out there in the 20 to 30lb range. One of these days I will catch one of these monsters using my special catfish baits.
I have had a great time writing this article we hope you enjoyed our information about catfish rig. Have a great day and the the best of luck to you on your next fishing trip
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