To my knowledge, there aren't any Blue Catfish in Lake Erie either. Seems I have been through this before with a catfish caught in Lake Erie. I seem to remember it's possible some blues were stocked by someone way back (maybe a tributary). But Blues are not native to the Lake. Doesn't mean a few somehow didn't find their way into it.

Yes, it would be great to get verification on fish like this. It's possible it was some kind of exotic that someone released. Or even possibly a freak hybrid of some kind. But as far as I know, you shouldn't be catching anything that big that's not a channel cat. ODW fisheries would love to have seen some photos!

FYI - If I remember correctly, channel cat growth rates are slower in Lake Erie that the river tributaries. So a monster channel caught in Lake Erie is an old fish as channel cats go.