Size doesn't always indicate age in flathead catfish. IDNR biologist Greg Gelwicks says forage availability or genetics may have as much to do with size as age does. Photo by Ron Sinfelt.

Indeed, some catfish stories are akin to an evening spent fishing from a sandbar. Sit back, relax and watch the river -- or the story -- unfold in a leisurely, linear fashion.

Others -- the following notwithstanding -- are more comparable to "hole-hopping," where an angler moves from hole to hole in a river, probing for active catfish fish for no more than 15, maybe 20 minutes before moving to the next cutbank, logjam or rockpile. Perhaps it's true that no two holes are alike, but each has its own value to the angler.

Herein, we'll stick with the hole-hopping strategy for a compendium of Iowa whiskerfish wisdom, focusing on tips, tricks and tales from Iowa's fisheries biologists and some of the state's best catfishermen. We'll encounter state-record blue and flathead catfish, cutting-edge scientific research and unusual baiting strategies only catfishermen would consider.

So, in no particular order, here are 20 educational or entertaining items related to catfishing in Iowa:

1. The state-record blue catfish -- a 101-pound, 53-inch behemoth -- was caught in 2004 from the Missouri River south of Council Bluffs by Mike Rush of Bellevue, Neb. He is confident there are larger fish in that river. "I've seen 9/0 hooks straightened out like they were made of baling wire," he said. "After landing that 100-pounder, I'm convinced there are 120-pounders out there. The trick is going to be figuring out tackle that will handle and land one that big."

2. There are no blue catfish in Iowa's interior rivers. "There are blue cats in the Missouri and Mississippi rivers on our borders and maybe for a few miles up the mouths of tributaries, but there has never been a verified sighting of a blue cat very far inland in one of our interior rivers," said Marion Conover, the recently retired chief of fisheries for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. "Guys catch a catfish that's so black that it has an almost bluish tint to it, and think they've caught a blue catfish. What they've got is a male channel cat in spawning colors. Our IDNR employees have sampled thousands and thousands of catfish from rivers all across the state and never seen a blue cat from an interior river."

3. The state record for flathead catfish has been unofficially broken several times. An 81-pound, 52-inch flathead caught from Lake Ellis near Chariton by Joe Baze back in 1958 still stands as the official state record, though several anglers have unofficially topped that standard. In the late 1990s, an angler in Des Moines reportedly hauled into a local bait shop a flathead that tipped the scales at more than 90 pounds before he raced to release it back into the river. He never gave the surprised bait shop owner his name, didn't want any recognition and would only say he caught the fish from the Des Moines River, "above the 6th Avenue bridge."