Photo By Tom Evans

December is not a popular fishing month in Virginia unless you like to troll for mammoth stripers off the coast -- or you know a little secret involving powerful, hungry fish prowling the depths of fresh waters across the state. While many people have by this time of year spent many weeks with a gun in search of fur or feathers, there are a few dedicated anglers shoving their boats into the icy waters of the James River and Buggs Island. What are they fishing for? Blue catfish!

Blue catfish have certainly put Virginia on the map, especially after an angler hauled a 92-pound, 4-ounce monster out of Buggs Island Lake. Given enough food, blue cats grow fast and furious. Considering their ferocity and appetite, they have plenty to eat in our two featured waters. Anything that a monster blue catfish sees moving is fair game. Our two picks shine for big blue catfish year 'round, but particularly in the winter months.

JAMES RIVER
The James suffers from pollution to the point that there is an advisory against eating catfish from its waters. The river is much cleaner now than it used to be, but the advisory remains in effect. The upside to the consumption advisory is that harvest of catfish on the James is pretty much nonexistent -- which allows catfish to grow to quite large sizes as long as the food supply holds out.

"The James River is now a nationally recognized blue catfish fishery," said Bob Greenlee, district fisheries biologist for VDGIF. "Anglers can go to the James River and expect to catch 30- to 40-pound blue catfish on a regular basis, and if they hit the right hole on the right day, they will be catching unbelievable numbers of these large blue catfish. Blue catfish in the 50- to 60-pound range are caught on a fairly regular basis and blue catfish up to 83 pounds have been caught in the James."

The blue catfish grow incredibly fast; Greenlee has documented cases of catfish growth on the James from 12 pounds at 10 years of age to 27 pounds by age 12. Once the fish begin to inhale whole shad, they grow exponentially. One amazing specimen that Greenlee came across was 51 pounds at 11 years of age! The abundance of gizzard shad is a real plus for the blue catfish. These mammoth fish love to eat shad.

Late fall to mid-spring is the best time to find and catch the largest specimens. Mike Ostrander runs the James River Fishing School and a guide service for catfish on the James River. Ostrander has a personal best day on the river with 19 fish weighing over 20 pounds. That is quite a feat to pull off in one day of fishing!

His favored bait is cut gizzard shad, which are available in the river year 'round and therefore a natural target for a blue catfish in the winter months when herring and hickory shad are not present. Some white perch are available, but the gizzard shad are the favored bait. Ostrander catches gizzard shad with a cast net after marking them on his fish-finder. During the spring, herring, white perch and hickory shad can be used.