BLUE CATFISH
Blue catfish are big-river fish, and Tennessee has an abundance of big-river habitat. The Tennessee, Cumberland and Mississippi rivers all have produced triple-digit-weight rod-and-reel fish in recent years, plus various giant fish caught on trotlines or handlines. Tennessee's current state-record blue came from the Cumberland River and weighed 112 pounds, and a former world-record cat, which weighed 116 pounds, 12 ounces, came from the Arkansas side of the Mississippi River, just across the river from Memphis.

Of the 35 blue cats that qualified for TARP recognition last year, 31 came from somewhere along the Tennessee, Cumberland or Mississippi rivers. Three of the other four came from Marrowbone Lake, one of TWRA's Family Fishing Lakes. One came from a private pond.

The upper Tennessee River stood out as the top spot for large blue catfish in the TARP awards. Nineteen recognized fish came from one of the pools of the Tennessee River and 14 of those fish came from either Fort Loudoun or Watts Bar, the first two impoundments along the big river.

The upper Tennessee River has long been known as a premier area for trophy catfish. A big blue caught on a summer night by Chris Vitetoe of Knoxville in the early 1990s stood for a few years as the state-record blue, and the Class B record, which recognizes fish landed on commercial gear, is a 130-pound blue catfish caught in 1976.

Loudoun and Watts Bar, along with offering a tremendous amount of high-quality habitat, grow blue cats to super sizes because virtually all cats are released. Extensive fish-consumption advisories on both reservoirs include most cats, so anglers put nearly all fish back in the river.

However, big Tennessee River blues are by no means limited to the first two pools. Anglers enjoy outstanding success on Chickamauga and Nickajack as well, according to Jolly. Last year, a commercial angler pulled a 100-pound-plus blue from the Chattanooga section of the river.

Jolly sees the most targeted effort for big blues during the summer, when anglers drift along bluff banks, bouncing cut herring and night crawlers along the bottom for blues and channel catfish. The fishing is best, by far, when the generators are running, he noted. "It's like flipping a switch with that catfish bite when they turn on the water."

Drifting is also one of the best ways to catch midsummer big blues from the Mississippi River, which offers outstanding fishing for big blues along Tennessee's entire western border. While sections of the Tennessee River may support higher densities of big fish, the Mississippi almost certainly supports the highest total biomass of catfish per mile in Tennessee, and quality blues make up a big portion of that.

During summer, the river tends to stabilize, and life gets good for catfish. That allows them to spread out more, making it less practical for an angler to set up in a spot. James Patterson, a veteran guide from Memphis, spends a lot of time drifting during the summer. He looks for areas where the river widens, which spreads out the current. He also looks for uneven bottoms, having found that the blues will cruise along ridges and feed on shad as the baitfish move over the ridges in the current.

Along the Cumberland River, most big blues come from Nashville west in Cheatham Lake and the upper half of Barkley. The general area around Clarksville is especially popular among big-cat specialists. Like on the Tennessee River, anglers generally concentrate on bluff holes. However, many fish the big holes by anchoring and laying out spreads of cut bait along the bottom, instead of drifting.