What's the biggest Catfish you have ever caught?
- Thread starter UncleWade
- Start date
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If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
jeverden
Well-known member
I would love to catch a catfish - did it put up a huge fight?
One day - I will take my boys catfishing - what are the best states for catfish.
Jay
One day - I will take my boys catfishing - what are the best states for catfish.
Jay
We actually had 2 on at the same time. They put up a huge fight too! My buddy that was fishing with me had the first hook up and his weighed 56 lbs, while he was fighting his, my rod doubled over and the fight was on. He had 114 lbs of catfish in the boat at the same time! The James River near Richmond Va has some huge catfish in it. Buggs Island or Kerr Dam has big ones too. Take a child fishing and they are hooked for life! some of my best memories growing up was fishing with friends and family.
jeverden
Well-known member
Sounds great!
Have fun!
Jay
Have fun!
Jay
Tom
Administrator
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- 51,912
Quite a fish. The ones we have around here aren't anything like that size.
Catfish are common in almost all warm water lakes and rivers in the US. Fish for them with commercial stink baits, chicken livers, and night crawlers. They are primarily nocturnal bottom feeders that hunt by smell, thus the stinky baits and popularity of fishing for them at night. We have caught lots of them in the middle of the day.
A typical channel cat weighs 1 1/2 pounds or so and is very tasty. You skin them rather than scale them. Skinning is a bit of an art, best done by nailing its head to a board cutting a slit through the skin all around the neck and down the length of the fish, then peeling it off with a pair of pliers. You will need a very sharp knife.
Dan T
A typical channel cat weighs 1 1/2 pounds or so and is very tasty. You skin them rather than scale them. Skinning is a bit of an art, best done by nailing its head to a board cutting a slit through the skin all around the neck and down the length of the fish, then peeling it off with a pair of pliers. You will need a very sharp knife.
Dan T
Rob-Barb
Member
Buggs Island Lake which goes to Kerr Damn is now where the Virginia State Record Catfish was caught. 109 lbs. and Bass Pro Shop in Richmond Va. bought it.
monde48
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- Oct 31, 2009
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That's a very nice fish in a big one where I live in Ontario Canada we don't have that many catfish at least not that size around 
gwcowgill
Well-known member
I seen a catfish that came out of the Ohio River and I believe the year was 1948 that was said to be over 140lbs. Perso0nally I caught quite a few catfish in South Carolina that went in the 40 # range on the Waccamaw river. Here in Florida we see a lot of catfish but they are only about a pound but really tasty. Supposedly some of the lakes have bigger catfish here in Florida.
Bob Maxwell
Moderator Emeritus
36# Yellow cat on a small tank on the Huckabee-Horne Ranch 4 miles SW of Colman TX in 1985. Spinning rod.
6.5# Chanel cat on the St Joe river above Bristol IN. Chest waders and liver streamer on fly-rod.
Both were great eating!
6.5# Chanel cat on the St Joe river above Bristol IN. Chest waders and liver streamer on fly-rod.
Both were great eating!
Seajay
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I caught a 25 pound flat head on four pound test line on an ultra lite outfit. It took one and one half hours to boat the monstor and we would have to follow him with the troaling motor when he would ''run''. I got my pix in the Denton News and Gazette Try Weekly news paper.
I have talked to the divers that go down to ''check the inlet gates'' in High Rock dam ...... They do this with big lights and safety lines when the power plant is turned off. One told me that he had seen cat fish down there that were large enough for a man to swim into his mouth. If it is a lie it is his lie but I understand that ''flat heads'' never stop growing till they die..... It is not uncommon to catch ''flatheads'' out of High Rock Lake that weigh over 100 pounds and they catch them in the deep water down near the dam, just outside the ''marker bouys''........
I have talked to the divers that go down to ''check the inlet gates'' in High Rock dam ...... They do this with big lights and safety lines when the power plant is turned off. One told me that he had seen cat fish down there that were large enough for a man to swim into his mouth. If it is a lie it is his lie but I understand that ''flat heads'' never stop growing till they die..... It is not uncommon to catch ''flatheads'' out of High Rock Lake that weigh over 100 pounds and they catch them in the deep water down near the dam, just outside the ''marker bouys''........
Larry and Rita
Well-known member
I was brought up catfishing in Missouri, over the 18 years I lived there we caught many over 50 lbs.
Any stream or river works great.
Best bait stinks, the stinker it is, the better, once my sister opened the homemade bait, in the car----nasty, nasty
I now live in Washington state and miss the catfish.
Any stream or river works great.
Best bait stinks, the stinker it is, the better, once my sister opened the homemade bait, in the car----nasty, nasty
I now live in Washington state and miss the catfish.
My largest catfish, 42lbs, was caught on Kerr Lake (Bugs Island Lake) NC. Actually I was about two miles inside the VA/NC State line at the time. so it was a Virginia fish. Bait was a small cheese cloth bag of frozen stripper roe on a 7/0 treble hook.
Mtwcman
New member
Catfish are good smoked, I smoke them the same way you would a trout or a salmon, cut them in half right down the back bone, skin side down. About twenty minutes before you take them out of the smoker, take a ice pick and poke holes in the skin to let the oil run out, They are better tasting without all that oil.
Luca1369
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I don't know how big they were, probably 50 pounds, maybe more, but a buddy and I caught 3 huge cats at Santee Cooper in South Carolina back in the 1980s. We laid these across the tailgate of the pickup and the head and tail of the fish were off the edges of the tailgate.
