Arizona’s Fat Cat Challenge encourages catch-and-release of the biggest and oldest
individual fish in waters managed by the state Game & Fish Department.
Fat Cat Challenge
Source: Arizona Game and Fish Department
Ready to catch a little fame and glory?
The Arizona Game and Fish Department encourages anglers to participate in the Arizona Fat Cat Challenge, an incentive-based conservation program that promotes learning more about and pursuing big flathead and channel catfish. To participate, anglers must catch and release a flathead measuring 40 pounds or 45 inches, or a channel cat that’s 15 pounds or 36 inches.
How to Complete the Challenge
Participants must verify their catch by taking a picture of the fish being weighed or measured following posted rules and guidelines. Fish must be released immediately after weighing and measuring back into the lake or river where you caught it. Submit your picture via BFishing@azgfd.gov. Make sure you include a valid email address so you can be contacted. A department biologist will contact you to discuss the details of your catch and obtain information to send you an AZ Fat Cat Challenge fishing shirt and decal to celebrate your catch.
Goals for the Catfish Challenge
The Fat Cat Challenge has four primary goals:
- Conservation through catch-and-release of the biggest, oldest, most valuable individual fish in waters the department manages.
- Excite anglers about Arizona fishing, encouraging them to purchase licenses and fish more, resulting in benefits to anglers, fishing-related businesses, local communities and the fisheries by having more support and funding for conservation.
- Collect valid information through citizen-science about trophy-sized catfish to help the department better enhance, conserve and promote trophy catfishing.
- Share information about fishing opportunities and destinations to make fishing more enjoyable.
Rules for the Challenge
The Fat Cat Challenge is a citizen-science conservation rewards program for anglers that emphasizes immediate live release of prize-sized fish weighing or measuring at or above the designated levels per species. AZ Fat Cat Challenge fish will be accepted year-round and require photographic documentation for verification.
All fish entered must be caught legally, including a proper license or exemption, in an Arizona or border (Colorado River) water using an active hook-and-line method and documented following the guidelines below. Anglers without a license, fishing in a clinic or event not requiring a license, will not be eligible.
Submit a photo of the entire fish, including tagged fish (displaying head to tail, with no part of the fish cut out of the photo) on the scale with the weight showing. Hand scales must be held by the designated handle without interfering with or touching the chain, shaft or the fish while weighing. All scales, including pan scales, should be properly tared in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions. Supplemental photos holding or releasing the fish, close-ups of the scale with at least half of the fish visible, images of the entire fish on a bump board or tape measure and girth photos are encouraged to be submitted. However, the required photo is of the entire fish on the scale with the weight clearly visible.
Photos and documentation will be reviewed by a team of biologists. If the fish’s weight is not clearly visible in the photo, it does not show the entire fish or the submission is questionable in terms of the size of the fish or location/method of catch or live release, the Fat Cat Challenge team may verify or deny the entry based on their professional judgment.
Catfish Challenge Video
Anglers may upload a video snippet up to 50 MP in size in .mov or MP4 format instead of one or more of the five photos. Suggested documentation includes beginning with a wide angle showing the entire fish (head to tail) being properly held on the scale and then zooming in to ensure the weight can be read. Video is a great way to also document the live release of your catch.
Catch & Release
Since catch and release of trophy fish is a goal of the Fat Cat Challenge, anglers who catch an eligible fish while participating in a fishing tournament must release the fish immediately to participate in the challenge. Any sized fish that are retained as part of a legal bag limit to be weighed at a weigh-in will not be eligible for the Challenge. Anglers should become familiar with handling procedures to ensure fish are healthy upon release. Live release must be verifiable. Fish not certified live or kept by an angler will not be accepted.
Terms for Participation
To participate in Arizona’s Fat Cat Challenge, the anglers must have caught the submitted fish themselves, in accordance with the current year fishing regulations of the State of Arizona at the time of the catch. This includes, but is not limited to:
- The angler must be properly licensed or have an approved exemption. Fish caught during clinics or events that do not require a license will not qualify.
- The angler must use legal gear. Moreover, for angler recognition, the gear must be an active hook-and-line method, which does not include bush hooks, trotlines or bow.
- The fish must be caught in Arizona waters including the Colorado River where it borders Mexico, California and Nevada, and all of Lake Powell. Fish must be taken during the legal open season and by the legal method of take for the water where taken. Any illegal act associated with taking or handling of the fish will disqualify if from the Challenge.
The angler must abide by all size, bag, season and location-specific fishing regulations and must attest that they successfully live-released the fish in the water where it was caught (after documenting it) and that it was able to swim off. Fish submitted to the program cannot be harvested or kept in a livewell.
Your submission to this program, including photos and other data provided to any department program or challenge, constitutes a release for the Arizona Game and Fish Department to use them without compensation or further notice. Such use would typically include research, informational and other public purposes, such as being posted on AZGFD.gov, department social media or other third-party promotional use such as websites or publications, and in other related news releases, articles, brochures, advertisements or reports. Additional information is available here.
