Depends on who you ask. Blue cats had no barriers and could go as far as Minneapolis until the dams were built. Early 1900’s records are bad for catfish. Many different common and scientific names that varied by region throughout the Mississippi basin. Descriptions of catfish over 100 pounds that were not being called flatheads exist in reports. However, no one has preserved specimens of blue catfish to definitively say they were native to Minnesota. There are some blues in the Iowa stretch of the Mississippi. Lock & Dam 19 is likely the major culprit impacting blue catfish migrations upstream, not to mention many other species.
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