Fishing on Susquehanna and a Report of Dead Catfish

Type: Nontidal
Region: Central
Location: Susquehanna River

Over the last few weeks I've really noticed a lot of dead catfish floating down the Susquehanna River in Port Deposit. This seems very strange to me because these fish are very hearty. Why wouldn't I see other types of fish?! Has anyone else noticed this in the Susquehanna River or other parts? Can anyone explain?

But, as you can see from this picture, there is at least one catfish left. My friend Jason and his son Jacob and daughter Julia, came to visit me over the weekend. Saturday was pretty much a bust with the rain, but we were sure to get out early Sunday morning to a beautiful day. The fish were biting! As you can see from the pictures, Jacob landed this nice 18" catfish, but refused to hold it for the camera. Can you blame him? It's half his size. And you also can see Julia's excitement after landing this 6" smallmouth. Both were caught on a 2 1/2' Sponge Bob rod and real combo using a 1 1/2" crankbait. Yes, we were very careful teaching each of the children the importance of casting and knowing where your neighbor is standing. To be safe, while one kid was casting, the rest of us were at the opposite end of the boat.

Response from Chris Luckett, biologist with the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) -

Hello,
We've been looking at this and at catfish mortalities in the non tidal Potomac as well.

The Potomac event seemed to begin in mid June (June 13th?) and lasted 10 days to two weeks. Both MDE and the Fisheries Service have been working on this and samples have been taken for bacteriology, virology and histology. We suspect that it was due to bacterial infections secondary to post spawning stress and rapid warm up. That part of the river experienced about a seven degree C increase in temperature over about ten days. Despite what almost everyone thinks, catfish are pretty susceptible to bacterial infections and this scenario is not uncommon with Channel Catfish or Brown Bullheads. Typically these events last about two weeks.

The Susquehanna event was first reported on June 27th and it has continued for 10 days or so. I suspect that the cause is similar to that in the Potomac - stressful times for the species due to high temperatures, D.O. depression, some bacterial infection may be involved too. Commercial fishing (ie, stress of captivity) may also contribute. Gizzard shad are also involved in the Susquehanna (about 25% in some counts). They seem to be more sensitive to poorer water quality than the centrarchids and others and we've been seeing them frequently in the last two weeks in fish kills where the water is 31C and warmer and D.O. is low but not low enough to kill centrarchids. Surface D.O. was 4.7 at Port Deposit last week. That seem's low for the Susquehanna. Temp was 30.82.