Fished West newton Sunday

I finaly got out fishin, we fished from Half moon landing out to the chanel. Lots of small sunnies, and and Crappies were takeing leaf worms bunched up on the hook, they didn’t seem to want any thing else. Got a couple nice LG mouth Bass on minnows and a 12 Lbs. cat what appeared to be a blue. I didn’t think there were any left in that pool, it wasn’t a chanel cat or a flathead though. Any ways it was fun to land on #4 line with the ultralight. Might have to hit the Dike RD next WK end if the Wife allows. Not so easy to slip out with the new little one at home.
Good Fishin All!

Hey Willowcat,

Thanks for the report. I have been hearing that there are a few nice bluegills being caught in West Newton, but not much for nice crappies. That may very well change as the water cools.
Glad to hear you made it out!

Good Fishing,
Mike

willowcat

If you caught a blue cat it was a state record for MN. It would have been the first one EVER caught in MN to my knowledge. Not saying it wasn’t a blue… just that you might want to certify the next one ‘cuz a state record would be a pretty cool thing to hold. Thanks for the fishing report too.

While I’m thinking about it, here’s a link to all the state record fish in MN, their weights as well as length and girth measurements.

MN State Record Fish

Thanks for the report. Nice to hear of some action coming from West Newton. Like James said, if you catch another cat be sure and check that baby out closely as you may be on to something pretty rare there.
Thanks, Bill

I’m not sure if it was a true Blue. There was a tint of blue on its fins, the body was kind of a gray color, and the tail was more rounded not forked like a chanel cat, also didn’t have the spots on it. Perhaps it was some kind of cross breed, I wish that I had brought the camera.
Didn’t they used to catch Blues off the Alma float about 20 yrs. ago? I remember some big cats being cought out there, they wern’t flatheads, unless they were big channels.

I’m sure they were mongo channels. I know if you get down into southern IA you’ll start seeing the blues but to my understanding, we’re too far north for the blues to live. But there could be that one fish with a little wanderlust that just happens to run into a MN angler on the big river…

Just checked out a couple of web sights on the cats.
http://www.landbigfish.com has the rechords for different states.
Looks like the MN rechord Blue is 52lbs.8 oz. 48″ taken on the Minnesota River on 5-22-02. As far as what it was that I cought? Well it seems to be a cross between a channel and a flat head, at least that would be my best guess.

Actually that record was thrown out and the guy charged with fraud and of course his record removed from the books because of it. What happened was he saw the same lack of blue cat that we’re discussing here, caught a big cat in south dakota on the Missouri River if memory serves me but it was a state known to have blue cats, and then drove it to MN get his name in the books.

It didn’t take too long before his record fish got turned into a police record… lol

A quick google came back with the story.

Blue Cat Record Wiped from the Books