Commercial fishers and professional anglers want Manitoba to clear up muddy rules governing the capture and sale of channel catfish.

Up until Dec. 1, when the province introduced new fish-marketing regulations, commercial fishers in Manitoba were allowed to keep any channel cats — among the largest fish in the province's rivers and lakes — that wound up in their nets and could sell the creatures, in whole or in part, directly to consumers.

The federal Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation did not purchase channel cats because the species is not kosher. The federal Crown corporation's Winnipeg processing plant is a kosher facility.

But the end of Freshwater Fish's monopoly on export sales late in 2017 created the potential for commercial channel catfish sales. To close that theoretical loophole, the province added channel catfish to the list of species that could not be sold commercially.

But commercial fishers complain this new rule prevents them from smoking and selling the odd channel cat that winds up in their nets.

They're now urging the province to allow them to resume the sale of channel catfish, arguing the bycatch is now going without being eaten or generating any revenue.

"That was a knee-jerk reaction. It could have been dealt with in a better way," said Ken Campbell, a Gimli, Man., commercial fisher who used to work as a biologist.

The channel catfish population would not be threatened by the occasional commercial catch and sale, he said.

Fishers never sought out the species, Campbell said, noting most commercially caught channel cats wound up getting smoked and then sold locally.

"They're a miserable fish to fish," said Campbell of the river monsters that can easily grow as heavy as 14 kilograms. "They make nasty work of nets."

Small fry compared to walleye

Commercial fishers catch an average of 1,532 kilograms of channel catfish a year, according to reports published by Manitoba Sustainable Development.

To place that catch in context, Manitoba commercial fishers catch an average of 5.2 million kilograms of walleye, also known as pickerel, every year.

People come to Manitoba to fish for these channel cats, and if they're overharvested, it could be devastating to us. - Todd Longley, City Cats Guiding Service

Complaints from commercial fishers have led the province to reconsider its recent ban on commercial channel catfish sales.

"The province is currently looking at ways to allow for some local marketing of catfish, without threatening the recreational fishery on the Red River," Sustainable Development spokesperson Glen Cassie said in a statement.

But this has led to concerns from the sportfishing industry, which relies on strong channel catfish numbers to sustain catch-and-release tourism business.​

"There's a lot of people that rely on the channel catfishing industry to pay our bills. It's part of what we do," said Todd Longley, owner of City Cats Guiding Service.

"People come to Manitoba to fish for these channel cats, and if they're overharvested, it could be devastating to us."

Longley said he's opposed to a targeted channel cat fishery, but would tolerate the sale of bycatch in limited numbers.

"If it's responsibly done, I don't have a problem with that. But you're always thinking, what's going to happen if they overharvest like they did with the walleye. It's kind of scary," he said, adding people come from all over the world to catch and release channel cats in the Red River.

"They're the biggest, baddest fish we have in Manitoba. When they hit, they bend the rod right over, so it's kissing the water. You're fighting this fish for, like, 15 minutes and it's giving you a battle you've never had. Your arms are burning."

A meeting between provincial fisheries officials and sportfishers is slated for Thursday evening in Lockport.