Channel Catfish are Growing in Lake Norman

 We are all aware of the existence of Channel Catfish in Lake Norman. For years these small fish (less than 4 pounds) have been considered a nuisance to anglers because they bite at any live bait and often a lure, they are not big enough to be considered good to eat, they seem to be everywhere, even where the bass should be located. During these warm water periods, the small channels have always been a nuisance.

For some reason the size of the channels are getting much bigger. I have been catching channels regularly that are 5 pounds and bigger and they fight like mad, no longer considered a nuisance. There seems to be no known reason for this sudden growth. It is not unusual in other southern lakes to catch large channels, 5 pounds and up. Years ago I fished in the red river in North Dakota for channels and got one that was close to 50 pounds. But here in Norman they have always been small. 

I have discussed this situation with the Wildlife Commission personnel and they don't tend to agree with me and cannot provide a reason why it might occur. This might be because they don't regularly fish this lake and they really don't care about the catfish population or its conditions. If readers have noticed the same situation, please let me know because despite the Commission, the situation does exist.

This photo is a 30 inch channel cat, weighing more than 7 pounds. It was an exciting catch and fought as good as most stripers. There was actually enough meat on this fish for a couple good filets if that was my objective.

Delays in my blog information

 Sorry folks, I have been delinquent in maintaining my blog inputs but I think that you will understand if I explain. I started having medical difficulties in December. Not to elaborate on those issues, they caused me to loose the months of December and January, because i could do no fishing. I eventually resolved those problems, at least I thought I had. Once healed, I went out and got a Covid vaccination (both shots).About 6 weeks ago I permitted the ladder to fall out from under me when working on a roof. The fall was fine but the sudden stop really hurt. Hospital stay and scans eventually showed no breaks but serious muscle damage. At that point I was using a walker.  A couple weeks later I started passing blood (seriously). before I could get to a doctor I was tested positive for Covid. (remember I had the vaccination).

When visiting a doctor about the bleeding, I found that I had contacted the Shingles and I had a bleeding situation in a bleeding toe. Tests were run on the blood situation, and I am awaiting the results and a September doctor meeting will do some scanning on my kidney. Meanwhile I have cleared the Covid and will now deal with the toe. That's enough to make you understand my absence.

I did get out fishing yesterday just to break the cabin fever. It was hot and I wasn't ready for that activity but I did catch a couple of real nice sized channel catfish and a couple perch. No sign of bass but the water temp. is hot and everything is deep (below 25 feet).

Most encouraging was the presence of schools of shad. I did see several small shad schools which is important especially with the recent move to stock F1 bass. To grow to the larger sizes predicted, it will be necessary for them to have sufficient food and nutrition. The schools i saw were small but they were visible.

In the middle of all of the above, I did make another trip to Tennessee to fish for stripers. This trip was to introduce my brother-in-law and his son to striper fishing. The trip was a success as shown from some of the photos below.

As the Lake Norman water cools, I suspect that the bass and hybrid fishing will return to its pre-summer levels.