Billy Blakly admires a stringer of Louisiana cats caught around cypress trees. Photo by John Felsher.

Many people start out catching catfish because the whiskered critters rank among Louisiana’s biggest, easiest to catch and most widespread and plentiful freshwater species. However, most anglers graduate to other species that typically require more skill -- and involve more expenditure.

“We consider catfish an underutilized species,” said Bobby Reed, a Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries biologist in Lake Charles. “We wish people would fish more for them, but we can’t make people fish for catfish. In fresh water, most people prefer to fish for bass or crappie.”

Each Louisiana angler can keep up to 100 catfish per day in any combination of flatheads, blues and channel cats. Channel cats must measure at least 11 inches long, and blue catfish must measure at least 12 inches long; flatheads must top 14 inches. However, recreational anglers can possess 25 undersized catfish in any species combination per day except at Toledo Bend Reservoir, where anglers may keep up to 50 undersized cats per day.

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Channel cats and blues look almost alike, both sporting deeply forked tails, both predominantly silver to grayish-blue in color. Channel cats are marked with loose black or gray spots on their sides, and have thicker and fleshier barbels; by comparison, blues’ barbels are thin and light. Also, the anal fin of a channel cat is shorter and more rounded than that of a blue cat.

Channel cats can grow larger than 58 pounds but seldom exceed 15 pounds. Any fork-tailed cat weighing more than 15 pounds is likely a blue cat. However, Harold W. Clubb landed the state record channel catfish near Lake Theriot southwest of Houma in August 1977. The 30.31-pound whiskerfish grabbed a homemade spinnerbait.

Blues in the 30- to 60-pound range are commonly caught, but the freshwater behemoths can exceed 120 pounds. In May 2005, Tim Pruitt hauled a 124-pound blue cat from the Mississippi River near Alton, Ill., setting the official world record. One month earlier, Keith Day set the Louisiana standard with a 110.19-pound blue cat he pulled from the Mississippi River near St. Francisville.

With squared tails, mottled brown and yellow skin, large foreheads, cavernous mouths and prominent underbites, flatheads don’t resemble either blue or channel cats, but they too can weigh more than 100 pounds. Also known as “Opelousas cats,” “ops” and “spotted cats,” flatheads seldom fall to hook-and-line tackle. Voracious predators, they devour bream at night and hide in logjams or other thick cover during daylight.

“With their wide mouths, flatheads are eating machines,” said Mark McElroy, an LDWF biologist. “Flatheads do almost all their preying at night. Fishing for flatheads in the daytime is almost a waste of time. Flatheads do quite well in lakes and reservoirs, but also live in rivers. Channel cats do better in lakes than rivers. Blues prefer rivers.”

The Louisiana flathead record came from the Red River. Harley Rakes caught the 66-pounder near Shreveport in July 1998. Indeed, Louisiana’s major rivers typically offer the best catfish waters in the state. The three major systems -- the Mississippi, Red and Atchafalaya -- provide some of the best catfish action in North America. Each of these rivers can harbor many blue cats in the 40- to 80-pound range, with some exceeding 100 pounds.

The Mississippi River produced four of the top five blue cats, including the top three landed in Louisiana. The Red, Atchafalaya and West Pearl rivers each contributed one monster blue to the top 10. The Red River produced the top two flathead catfish.