RiverFisher5944

Regarding the question of blue cats versus channel catfish I have caught several cats over the years out of Stockton and never have pulled in a blue. Just large channels that are constantly thought to be blues. The white cats that are supposedly caught in the Osage river are actually blues. The image I posted clearly shows the drastic difference in the anal fin of channels and blues. Mitchell from looking at your picture provided I would call that a channel cat appears to have the rounded anal fin. The confusion comes when large channels lose the spots that are common on smaller channels. Hope this helps

Thanks for the tips and congrats on the fish. From the looks they look like mainly males, were they? Have you caught many females up the river yet? Just trying to figure out how far along the spawn is.

Lil sac Mitch which area of the river did you catch these on if you don't mind sharing. I fished Taylor and Orleans area Monday and Tuesday and didn't have the greatest luck, current was'nt helping anything either. We're you in those areas or further up river?

Fished Orleans last night and caught one, it has slowed down considerably there and reports were saying they were all above taylor yesterday. Maybe they were making a big run before this storm, not real sure. We'll see what happens after this rain.

The corps is not putting in an extra turbine they are replacing the old one and it will take a year to year and a half to complete. The water level will not be affected other than what is being affected by mother nature. The corps will only let water out if and when the lake goes into flood stage. The rumors about the corps keeping the lake low due to the construction are false. The turbine will be inoperable during this time meaning no generation but the flood gates will open if the lake goes into flood stage over elevation 867, and the fishing is usually great below the dam when the flood gates are opened.

Unlike what haulin bass said the corps is not purposely drawing down the lake. It is actually coming up now and will probably continue to do so. The corps will not start letting more water out until the lake is in flood stage, other good news is that they will not be able to generate for at least a year so any releases once at flood stage will go through the flood gates which usually makes fishing great below the dam. If we keep getting good spring rains the lake will probably be at normal level sooner than later, it's already came up three approaching four feet in the last three weeks.