Photo by Ron Sinfelt.

Going fishing for catfish means many different things these days. It may mean sitting on the bank of a small pond and whiling away an afternoon or evening. For many folks, though, it means loading up the boat with an array of specialized gear and heading for big water and big catfish. Yes, catfishing has truly come of age.

One of the premier spots for catfish anglers in Indiana is the Ohio River. The river offers most anything one could want. From bank angling to boat angling and from fiddler-sized channel cats to monster blues and flatheads, the Ohio River has it all.

Although the river has all three major species of catfish, the Indiana Department of Natural Resources (DNR) does not have a tremendous amount of data on the fisheries there. Tom Stefanavage is the Ohio River fisheries biologist for the DNR. He said the DNR is going to try to do creel survey on the river during the summer of 2008, but working the river and getting usable data is much more difficult than it is for a reservoir.

Stefanavage said there has been cooperative effort between the states that border the Ohio River, and the data collected has helped some. Doug Henley, a fisheries biologist from Kentucky, said the states of Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Illinois and West Virginia have worked together to gather data from eight different tailwaters along the river. However, the results paint only a small picture of the overall fishery.

The fishing interests of anglers on the river vary by location. In the Markland Pool, for example, in the eastern end of Indiana, 16.8 percent of anglers target catfish. In the next pool downriver, the interest for catfish falls to 9.7 percent of the anglers. In the J.T. Myers Pool, interest for catfish goes up to a whopping 57.2 percent of the total anglers. Henley said catfish angling on the river usually ranks in the top three for species pursued by anglers.

The size distribution did not really show the river's real potential. Blue catfish were harvested from 6 inches to 39 inches with the majority being between 14 to 16 inches. Flathead harvest started at 14 inches and topped out at 33 inches. There were spikes in the harvest data at 18 to 20 inches and another group around 28 inches. Channel cats were harvested from 8 to 33 inches with most falling between 16 to 24 inches.

While these figures may show what anglers were catching on the days the survey was conducted, the data in no way shows the potential giants this river gives up. However, state records from both states do show the Ohio River to be a true gem for producing huge catfish.

Both Indiana and Kentucky state records fell in 1999 when Bruce Midkiff landed a 104-pound blue cat from the Cannelton Dam tailwaters. In Kentucky, the state-record channel catfish was caught in the Ohio River. It weighed a tremendous 32 pounds. Although neither state has a state-record flathead catfish from the river, monster flatheads are caught throughout the river system every year. Stefanavage said all three catfisheries in the river are outstanding.

Blue catfish are the really big boys of the river. While they can be found throughout the river system, the bulk of the population, especially the bigger fish, is concentrated down toward the lower end of the river. Blue cats are big-water fish and the river gets much wider and deeper toward where it joins with the Mississippi River. North of the mouth of the Ohio River, the world-record 124-pound blue cat was caught on the Illinois side of the Mississippi River.

Channel and flathead catfish are fairly well distributed throughout the river. Stefanavage said small channel cats in the 5-pound range are extremely abundant. Both Stefanavage and Henley agree that anglers can catch good numbers and good sizes of flatheads and channel cats all along Indiana's river border.

Some people get confused when pools and tailwaters are discussed. The terminology is really quite easy to understand, though. The Ohio River flows along Indiana's southern border from east to west where it joins the Mississippi River. The tailwaters are the areas of the river immediately downriver from the dam. A pool refers to the water "held" above the dam. The tailwaters from one dam flow into the pool created by the next dam downriver.

There are five separate pools on the Ohio River that border Indiana. Each pool has distinct characteristics and habitats. Here is a detailed look at catfishing in each of the pools accessible to Hoosier anglers.