Blue Catfish
Blue Catfish (Ictalurus furcatus) is a freshwater and saltwater species. The first thing to check: a straight-edged anal fin with 30 to 36 rays — count them, this is the definitive mark against a channel cat. The look-alike to rule out is Channel Catfish: channel cats have a rounded anal fin with 24 to 29 rays, and young ones are spotted.
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| Scientific name | Ictalurus furcatus |
|---|---|
| Also called | blue cat, hump-back blue, chucklehead |
| Water | Freshwater and saltwater |
| Group | Catfish |
| Temperature | Tolerates cold better than other catfish, feeding well from the high 40s through the 80s °F. |
How to identify a Blue Catfish
- A straight-edged anal fin with 30 to 36 rays — count them, this is the definitive mark against a channel cat.
- Uniform slate blue to silver-grey with no spots at any age.
- A deeply forked tail and a distinctly humped back in front of the dorsal fin on large fish.
If you would rather not work through a key on a wet deck, photograph the fish and let the app name it — you get the common and the scientific name back, and the record is filed before you release.
Fish it is mistaken for
| Species | How to tell them apart |
|---|---|
| Channel Catfish | Channel cats have a rounded anal fin with 24 to 29 rays, and young ones are spotted. |
| Flathead Catfish | Flatheads have a squared tail, mottled yellow-brown colour and a jutting lower jaw. |
Side-by-side comparisons
Read the full entry for Channel Catfish and Flathead Catfish.
Where it lives
The Mississippi, Missouri and Ohio systems natively, now widespread in reservoirs and introduced into Atlantic coast rivers such as the James and Potomac, where they run into brackish water.
Temperature
Tolerates cold better than other catfish, feeding well from the high 40s through the 80s °F.
The conditions that matter
Blue cats are the cold-water catfish and the winter bite in tidal rivers is often the best of the year. In tidal systems they follow salinity and tide — moving water on a falling tide concentrates bait in the channel. Tide stage and water temperature per catch are the two readings that build a blue cat pattern.
Global Fishing League records 18 weather and water readings against every catch automatically — tide stage, barometric pressure, water temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll, swell, current, moon phase and more, taken at your GPS position at the moment you log the fish. Over a season that turns a hunch about blue catfish into a pattern you can read.
See every reading recorded with a catch, or the guides to what each reading means.
Size limits, bag limits and seasons
Size limits, bag limits, slot limits and seasons are set by your state wildlife agency — and for many offshore and migratory species by federal regulators — and on many waters they differ from the statewide rule. They also change between seasons. Check the current regulations for the exact water you are fishing before you keep a fish — we do not republish limits here, because a number that is a season out of date is worse than no number.
What the app does do is make your side of it accurate: every catch carries a length measured from the photograph, a GPS position and a timestamp, exportable if you ever need to show your work for a tournament or a record claim. It is also what a Global Fishing League entry is built from — a record that verifies itself, without publishing where you caught the fish.