Arlington native Owen Koch knows he can’t single-handedly rid the Potomac River of invasive blue catfish. But he’s doing his part to reduce the population.
A former lieutenant colonel who retired from the Army in August, Koch (pronounced cook) founded Capital Blues Fishing Charters that same month, in part to help reduce how much of the non-native species is swimming in local waters. So far, he’s taken about 20 fishing groups (of up to six passengers) on his 18-foot pontoon boat to try to catch the fish, which they can keep.
“Catfish bite year-round,” says Koch, who grew up in the Donaldson Run neighborhood. “The best times of year for catching big fish are in the spring and fall and winter. Summer is when they spawn, and so the bite tends to shut down, particularly for the bigger fish, but it’s a year-round activity.”
River stewardship is one of the three pillars on which the 42-year-old founded his business. “I was out at Fletcher’s Cove fishing by myself one day, and hooked into a monster blue catfish,” Koch says. “I’d never caught a catfish that big on the river, so I started doing some research into the history of the catfish population, and it turns out they are an invasive species.”
The Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources introduced blue catfish, native to the Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio and Rio Grande river basins, into the James and Rappahannock rivers in 1974 to stimulate recreational fishing. But it turns out that the fish is an apex predator that likes to munch on local native species such as striped bass and Maryland blue crabs.
As a result, fish and game departments throughout the DMV “have encouraged selective harvesting of smaller blue catfish, and they’ve subsidized the kickstarting of commercial fishing industries and processing plants in the area, trying to encourage people to eat these fish,” says Koch, who now lives in Springfield. But “these blue catfish, they’re not going away.”
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Fisheries department recommends that recreational anglers consume blue catfish measuring less than 24 inches. Bigger catches may not be safe to eat because they tend to have unhealthy levels of PCBs and mercury.
But the big ones do make for a great photo op. The largest one Koch has caught weighed in at 55 pounds, while the biggest ever found in the Potomac was a gargantuan 84 pounds.
“I can generally find 15- to 25-pounders on any given trip,” he says.
Tours leave from the Gravelly Point boat ramp and head out on four-, six- or eight-hour Potomac excursions, with prices starting at $345. During the ride, passengers—there’s no age limit—can expect to not only reel in dinner, but also learn some local history.
“I do that with digital slideshows of some of the historic surroundings of the river,” Koch says, noting that teaching and inspiring make up another pillar of his company. “For example, a lot of people don’t know that Washington-Hoover Airport is the precursor to [Ronald Reagan National Airport], and it sat where the Pentagon is sited today.”
The third pillar of Koch’s business is community support. He tackles that goal by filleting and donating edible fish to New Hope Housing, a local nonprofit dedicated to fighting homelessness. Since August, he’s dropped off about 115 pounds of blue catfish meat.
“I’ve also done some other outreach with a group called Operation Vets with Nets, in an attempt to provide some free trips to local veterans that are dealing with PTSD and get them out on the water,” Koch says, adding that he’s done a handful of those trips so far.
To sign up, veterans or active military members can go to the Vets with Nets website and request a trip. It’s completely free to the veteran,” he says.
When he’s not on the water, Koch, who attended Taylor Elementary School in Arlington before moving away from the area until adulthood, likes to check out the remnants of Civil War forts, such as Fort Ethan Allen in Arlington, and bike along the Washington and Old Dominion and Chesapeake and Ohio Canal trails.
But he’s never away from the river for long. “I’ve been fishing the Potomac River for pretty much four decades,” he says. “My first fishing trip was with my dad. He took me down to Lock 10 on the [C&O] canal, and that that’s where I caught the bug. I’m excited to share my passion with locals and hopefully [show] people some monster catfish while making a difference for organizations in the area.”