Blue Catfish

It’s summer, so quit wishin’…go fishin!

That’s exactly what some of the men of the Corps did in mid-November 1803 while the two Captains stopped long enough to take observations of the area where the Ohio joins the Mississippi River. When Lewis and Clark returned to the camp, they were shocked at the size of one of the catfish caught during their absence.

Lewis was so impressed he measured several aspects of the great fish, and estimated its weight at 128 pounds!

According to Gary E. Moulton, in “The Definitive Journals of Lewis & Clark,” it was likely a blue catfish (Ictalurus furcatus) which often grow to weigh 100 pounds or more.