Smokey started a good thread a few days ago with some great information but some still don't seem to understand the point were trying to make so il try to explain it in a little different terms.

Per TPWD website, the average lifespan of a largemouth bass is 16 years. Im assuming since not many folks take home bass to eat, the majority of these fish die of natural causes. Now flip over to the catfish side of things. TPWD dosen't even give an average lifespan of blue catfish. I wonder why? Maybe because the average blue meets a filet knife long before he reaches his full age and has a chance to die of natural causes. Theres not enough old catfish out there for TPWD to study the full lifespan of a blue catfish.

Largemouth bass grow 4 to 6 inches during their first year, 8 to 12 inches in two years, 16 inches in three years. It takes a LMB approximately 3 years to reach "keeper" size whereas they become sexually mature and start reproducing at only 10". In just 2 years they start reproducing. Now for catfish. Most blue catfish are not sexually mature until they reach about 24 inches in length. Id say those fish are usually in the 8-10 lb range. Per the information in Smokey's post those fish are anywhere from 9-15 years old before they can even reproduce!

The longest known lifespan of a wild largemouth was 23 years. One would obviously assume that your trophy class bass reach there full potential way before that. For catfish, studies show it takes a catfish 15-25 years to reach the 40-60 lb range. I believe that's a pretty good range for what a lot of us call a trophy fish.

After 23 years a bass is long dead so il stick with catfish now. The blue catfish is the largest freshwater sportfish in Texas. Where mature populations exist, 50-pounders are not unusual. Some have been landed in excess of 115 pounds. The Texas rod-and-reel record is 121.5 pounds. Blue catfish commonly attain weights of 20 to 40 pounds, and may reach weights well in excess of 100 pounds. It is reported that fish exceeding 350 pounds were landed from the Mississippi River during the late 1800's.

Seems to me we are just scratching the surface of what the real potential is of these fish. Maybe those 40-60 lb fish haven't even reached half there potential and half of there lifespan yet.

I think there are some holes in that logic.

Some people will be 7 foot tall and some wont break 4.5.

If I remember correctly Splash, the texas state record was only estimated to be in the low 20's years old at 121+ lbs, while some catfish that are the same age and likely older will top out at 30 lbs. Splash had the genes food and time to grow, most fish given the food and time will never amount to that.

What is the oldest documented blue catfish?

South Carolina Department of Natural Resources estimates the average life span of blue catfish at 34 years.

Good point. With tawakoni already producing the fish it does, I think its obvious the genes and food are there. These fish cant get the time they need to grow if they are harvested before they meet there potential.

I know it is counter productive to letting them go, but I would like to see a few more of the 100 lb fish aged, from what I know they can only accurately age them dead. It would be a shame to kill them just for that, but it would be helpful to learn. Are the BIG cats really any older? or do they just have what it takes to get that big in the same amount of time their peers only grew 30 lbs?

I couldn't find any information from Texas or Oklahoma stating the oldest documented blue catfish. If we go with your average number of 34, id say those fish that are 15-25 years and 40-60 lbs still have another 10-20 years to grow.

Good question! Id also like to know the answer to that. Unfortunately there is not enough 100 lb cats swimming around for TPWD to do there research on them. From what I understand they are still studying age and size to better determine growth rates.

Totally agree and that's why it's even more vital to let the big ones go so they can pass the gene pool down to their offspring.

So are the 20 year old 60 pounders still growing? or have they hit their limit? Do fish have a limit? or do they keep growing in perpetuity till they die? These are questions that need to be answered in my opinion with a controlled environment, not slot limits and further regulation.

We cant accurately answer those questions yet based on the number and size of fish we currently have. What we can do, is protect the 20 year old 60 pound fish we do have, see if the continue to grow, and how much they grow, while we continue to study them. 10 years from now, if we see good or bad results from our studies, we can adjust regulations as needed.

it's been scientifically proven that trophy catfish get big and get big fast, basically they have a gene that allows for astronomical growth compared to others whom seem to have the other end of the genetic traits in that they may be 40yrs old and still only 10-20lbs all while living in the same environment or lake

As stated earlier through all the research splash the state record was believed to be in the 20-25 year range when he was caught however the later rings were hard to distinguish due to being in captivity and growing seasons as they age blue catfish by cutting open the head and pulling out the olioth or ear bones and counting the rings the same way you age a tree, TPWD aged several fish from Texoma around the same time they aged splash and one blue in particular if memory serves me right was just under 10lbs but the fish was approximately 30 years old

That's all good points Brandon, some of which is new information to me. Thank you for sharing it! That's the kind of factual information I like to hear on this forum, rather than the typical argument of which method is better.

Keep in mind, if we had an upper size limit such as fish over 30" or 35" must be released but anything under can be kept, that would allow for that 30 year old, 10 lb fish to be taken home so it can no longer spread its bad genetic traits.

Ideally IMHO the best outcome would be limit at 20 with no more than 1-2 over 30 inches per day per person because granted we need the best genetic traits to bleed through to improve the trophy fisheries, however if we only keep the little ones the largest fish will eventually die of old age and on old trotlines ect and by not keeping any larger fish on occasion you could end up stunting the growth of the fish due to a lack of food supply as the larger the fish the more food it needs ect, we need to find a good happy medium where size is relative to the lakes ability to sustain appropriate food and other fish species while keeping all populouses healthy and thriving

Brandon, id be happy with that.

I don't know how many big catfish, say 50 lbs plus, are caught and kept, but I would assume if you put a sign at the cleaning table/boat ramp offering $20 for the opportunity to age a fish over "X" lbs and a corresponding telephone number you would get some hits. I personally caught and kept an 82 pound fish a number of years ago. It was cleaned and eaten and tasted like any other blue cat ive ever eaten. I would not keep one like it again, and have released many since. I do wish I had a way of knowing how old it was.

I also like the liberty with the one fish over so many inches per person as apposed to a slot limit because I feel like people should be able to keep their once in a lifetime fish if they so choose.