What’s Up With Piebald Catfish in the Tennessee River?

Capt. Richard Simms, his guide partners and friends have been catching a surprising number of piebald blue catfish from the Tennessee River, near Chattanooga. (Photo compilation courtesy of Capt. Richard Simms)

Rare "piebald catfish" are showing up in ever increasing numbers in the Tennessee River near Chattanooga. Piebald coloration — also referred to as leucistic — is a rare color phase in which an animal or fish's skin lacks all color pigmentation (appearing as white). The white areas can appear as splotches or in some cases, cover the entire fish.

It is different from an albino, which is always characterized by a complete lack of melanin, resulting in white or pale coloration with pinkish or reddish eyes and fins.

I have been targeting catfish almost exclusively in the Tennessee River in East Tennessee for at least 30 years. My clients and I have boated tens of thousands of catfish over the years and for 25 of those years, I never caught, nor had any of my catfishing friends caught, a piebald catfish. The first one I knew of personally was caught by fellow fishing guide, Capt. Sam Simons in 2019.

More and more rare piebald blue catfish have been showing up in Chattanooga-area waters in recent years. This one was caught June 30, 2025, by Brittany Sapp - just one of at least a half-dozen similar catfish caught by Scenic City Fishing Charters clients just this year. (Photo by Capt. Richard Simms)

But every year since then, my guide partners and I have caught increasing numbers of piebald cats, and seemingly more and more of them each year, as have many other area catfishermen. In fact, during the last three years, Scenic City Fishing Charters clients, along with other hardcore catfishermen I know, have caught more than 15 piebald cats.

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Our area is not the only one where this occurs. Milford Lake in Kansas has become well known for its high numbers of leucistic and piebald catfish. According to this recent story from KSNT.com, biologists in Kansas conducted electrofishing surveys on the lake and found that more than 13 percent of the blue catfish in the lake were piebald or leucistic.

Professional guide, Capt. Aaron Massey, usually watches his clients reel in catfish, piebald or otherwise. But he was excited when he had the opportunity to reel in this piebald earlier this year. (Photo courtesy of Capt. Aaron Massey)

Based on known local catches, the percentage in Chattanooga-area waters are not anywhere close to that number. They are still exceedingly rare and considered sort of the "Holy Grail" among serious catfish anglers. But the numbers in this portion of the Tennessee River are clearly increasing.

Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) fisheries biologist Mike Jolley said, “We don’t have any specific data that includes or represents piebald / leucistic catfish within our waterbodies in Tennessee because they are rare.”

Capt. Joe Jellison caught this piebald in 2022. (Photo courtesy of Capt. Joe Jellison)

Even creel clerks who spend every working day on the water surveying fishermen don’t see them. Jolley said, “We have an active year-long roving creel survey (this region). I spoke with our regional creel clerk to see if he had encountered any piebald / leucistic catfish (on Nickajack Reservoir) this year and he has not. We conducted the same type of creel survey on Chickamauga Reservoir in 2024, and no records or recollections of those type catfish were observed there either.”

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So why might this phenomenon be becoming more prevalent among hardcore catfishermen in recent years?

Jolley said, “My research shows that from a genetic standpoint, the piebald gene can be hereditary. This may be magnified more in a population with increased interactions. On the other hand, leucism is basically classified as a defect in the skin, from contributing physical factors, which could be from environmental influences.”

Fishing with Capt. Joe Jellison, Keith Tarnecki caught this piebald blue catfish in 2022. (Photo by Capt. Joe Jellison)

Regardless of the reasons why, catfishermen agree seeing a piebald cat is special when it happens.

Professional catfishing guide, Capt. Aaron Massey, said, "When your client is reeling in what you might think is just a 15-pound catfish — routine in our area — then it comes close and you realize it's a piebald, a routine catch suddenly becomes a lot more exciting."

The unique fish always create a huge stir on the Internet. Three years ago, the story and photo of Edwards Tarumianz went viral and was carried by media outlets around the globe, appearing in Field & Stream, Newsweek, USA Today and multiple other news outlets around the world.

Edwards Tarumianz, 15, received world-wide attention for catching this unique catfish three years ago. (Photo by Capt. Richard Simms)

Every such catfish I know of was released, as Tarumianz did.

Upon releasing the rare catch, the 15-year-old Tarumianz displayed great maturity as he exclaimed, “There he goes, back to the depths so another person can catch him.”

In my opinion, the release of those fish back into the gene pool has a great deal to do with the increasing numbers showing up. There is little doubt in my mind that the genes resulting in the mutation are being passed down from generation to generation.

Capt. Massey said, "The increasing numbers of leucistic blue cats in our area is proof that catch and release works to keep favorable genes in our waters. That can result in more trophy fish that grow bigger, faster as well as these rare piebald blue catfish."

Avid catfisherman Bob Britt caught this unusual piebald on the Tennessee River near Chattanooga earlier this year. (Photo courtesy of Bob Britt)

Besides the rare recessive genetic factor, white catfish obviously face other obstacles. The white coloring makes the fish more visible to predators, especially when they are young. Still, don’t ever bank on going out and catching one. The odds of winning big on a scratch-off lottery ticket are probably higher.

OTHER PIEBALD/LEUCISTIC CREATURES

-- Piebald Alligator

-- Leucistic Cardinal

-- Piebald Buck

From Chattanooga, Tenn., Capt. Richard Simms is owner of Scenic City Fishing Charters, Inc. He began his outdoor career as a Tennessee game warden later choosing journalism (and guiding) as his chosen profession. Check out his book, "An Outdoor State of Mind." You can contact him at [email protected].