Are there really 40lb Catfish in the Ottawa River ?

[Anton88]

Where am I likely to catch a fish anywhere close to that size ?

[Wallyboss]

Nowhere around here!!!!!!!But what is your biggest catfish so far. You might want to downsize your catfish and try for a 5lber first then go to something bigger.

[slop]

I wish there were cats of that size.....I'd be fishin for them for sure!!!

[joco]

I was thinking mabe ....you could see some in the 16pound...in the biggest...they would be very rare.


good luck on that 40 pounder...




joco

[glenn]

When I was managing Lapointe Fish in Bell's Corners, I had a guy call up to see if he could weigh a fish in on our scales. In he came with a big cooler. Inside was a huge catfish, it weighed in on our digital scale at 33 pounds and I don't remember the ounces. That was in 98 or 99. He caught it around Fitzroy. Glenn

[joco]

glenn say..

it weighed in on our digital scale at 33 pounds





this is extremely big for the ottawa river.

i gues there some natures freak..size fish.


i did a bit off serch,,,find on brian cod site....(((( fish to 40 lbs are reported from below the hydro dam at Fitzroy Harbour on the Ottawa River )))).... ..

is it true or not....?

but there some say about it.

i would not catching one...that must be a huge fight.


joco.

[Peppino]

Yes, I think it would be possible, why not? People have caught 60'' muskies in the St-Lawrence.

20 + years ago, we use to fish around the Islands in Fitzroy during the day and fish for cats at night. We use to make a fire and talk into the wee hours of the night.

I'll never forget this one time, it was during a full moon and it had been a scorcher of a day, we hadn't caught anything all day. We decided to hit our favorite island for an evening fish. We were catching cats about 4 - 5 lbs. At around 11 pm, I put on a bigger frog, my reel was a Mitchell 300 spooled with 10 lbs Maxima Chameleon line. The bite seemed to have stopped. Then suddendly my rod tip started to dance. As soon as I set the hook, my rod doubled over! I thought for sure I hooked on to a monster muskie!

This thing had stripped about 150yds of line and was about to spool me! We hopped in my buddies boat and went after it. When it finally surfaced, it turned out to be the biggest catfish I'd ever seen. It must've weighed at least 20-25 lbs. Of course we didn't have a camera I so wanted to bring it home, after all who would've believed us. We winded up releasing it

I will say this, that Maxima line is one tough line! If I was targeting bigger cats today, I would definately use bigger baits like a 10 to 12'' freshly killed sucker weighted to the bottom. You might have to wait all night, but your chances at a trophy cat or even a sturgeon are greater.

Joe

[whtwolf]

The biggest cat fish in the ottawa river was caught at Petrie Island a few years ago and it weighd in at a little over 50lbs. I myself have only caught a 10lb catfish at Petrie Island.

[Billy Bones]

I got about 80lbs of catfish yesterday of Dick Bell Park, about 30 fish though.

Billy Bones

[Troller]

Hi guys, I grew up in the west end of Ottawa around the river. We use to swim out from around Westboro beach to the log booms in the middle of the river. The logs and platforms were from the pulp and paper industry when they use to use the river to move logs about 40ish years ago. Thinking about it now, I don't know how we never lost anyone in our group of kids:shock:
I know everything seems bigger when you are a kid, but I remember walking along the booms and watching the catfish nibble at the bark on these logs. Man some of these fish were huge, and they were catfish and carp. since the rest of my friends were a few years older than me I remember being the one scared to swim back to the beach because of the size of these fish. that made for a fast trip back! lol
I would not surprise me if there are 50 plus pound catfish in that river.
Please don't tell my mother I did this. lol
Troller

[Badger Shark]

I have heard several times about there being cats of 40lbs give or take just below the dam at Fitzroy, but I am sure they are rare and hard to catch.

[slushpuppy]

The Ontario record for channel cats is 29 pounds, so if you catch a 40 pounder, for heaven's sake don't eat it!