How to go
What: Catfisherman's Paradise
Where: 10263 Hoel Road, Camden, OH 45311
Phone: (937) 452-3729
Hours: Open 24 hours a day/seven days a week
The Ohio records for catfish
Blue — 96 pounds. 54 1/2 inches. Ohio River. Chris Rolph, Williamsburg, on June 11, 2009.
Flathead — 76.5 pounds. 58 5/8 inches. Clendening Lake. Richard Affolter, New Philadelphia, July 28, 1979.
CAMDEN — James Reed sold his Marietta, Ohio, pay lake to open another in Preble County for a noteworthy reason.
“There are more pay-lake fishermen here than anywhere else,” Reed said. “Our other business we had, half of our clientele drove to (Marietta) every weekend to fish. Four hours. Every weekend.”
So Reed, 46, opened Catfisherman’s Paradise II four years ago. This year alone, he’s stocked approximately 31,600 pounds of blue and flathead catfish.
Here’s the thing: Reed stocks “big cats,” whereas most other pay lakes stock bluegill or other small fish. Of the three trophy lakes at Catfisherman’s Paradise (there are four lakes on the property), no fish weighs less than 10 pounds. The average weight of a catfish is about 3 pounds.
“There’s been 35 fish put in over 50 pounds,” he said.
Boyd Tatum, 41, lives within a quarter-mile of Reed’s establishment. A recent catch of his tipped the scale at 53 pounds.
“It’s a good fight,” he said of hauling in the monster.
Tatum, who has fished since he was young, is trying to pass the torch to his kids.
“My littlest one reeled one in — 50-something pounds — and got it right up to the bank and dropped the pole,” he said. “I grabbed the pole real quick, and he took off home to tell his mom.”
“This is the best pay lake around,” Tatum added. “A lot of people that fish here won’t fish in any of the rest of them.”
Reed says his 24-acre pay lake (about 14 acres of water) gets 200 visitors on a good night. There are plans to add a fifth lake.
A $15 ticket gives a customer 12 hours to work. Everyone needs to set up at least eight feet apart. With the exception of one lake, the three trophy lakes are catch-and-release only.
Catfisherman’s Paradise uses a portion of ticket sales to build jackpots. Weekly winnings go to fishermen who catch the two biggest fish. Additional cash goes to those who catch tagged fish, and if someone catches a fish in excess of 70 pounds, he or she will pocket more winnings.
Catfisherman’s Paradise also holds Big Bang tournaments in May, early July and September. Those are 10-hour tournaments with payouts granted each hour to the three biggest fish.
Reed, a commercial fisherman since 1980, catches all of the fish he stocks. His lake is open from March through November.
“When I was a kid growing up, we had a cabin on the Ohio River,” Reed said. “We used to spend our summers catching catfish on droplines and trotlines.”
“What you see here is 25 years of my life,” he added. “And we have a business that’s pretty well finished — and paid for.”
Contact this reporter at
(937) 225-9377 or asedlak
@DaytonDailyNews.com.
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