Outlook For Record-Class Catches

The World Record Landslide

Less than a decade ago, we predicted that several age-old catfish records were about to fall. At the time, the rod-and-reel record for blue catfish had for 30 years stood at 97 pounds, while the flathead record had been 91 pounds for almost a decade.

The Blue Cat Barrage

The blue cat record onslaught began with fish of 103, 107, 109, and 111 pounds over a short period. Our early prediction was that soon enough the blue cat record would surpass 120 pounds. That prediction still makes good sense. It’s only a matter of time. Probably a short time.

In-Fisherman contributor Don Wirth covered the new Tennessee record, Robert Lewis’s 112-pounder.

Clarksville, Tennessee—What began as a pleasant bank-fishing outing on the Cumberland River turned into a wrestling match with a record-class blue catfish for 26-year-old Robert E. Lewis.

Lewis landed the 112-pound blue cat on June 7 after a 30-minute battle. He took up catfishing after moving to Tennessee five years ago. “Back home, I fished mainly for trout, but I’ve become an avid catfisherman since moving here,” he said. “My biggest blue prior to catching the record weighed about 40 pounds.”

Lewis arrived at Lock C on the Cumberland River at 2 p.m., accompanied by his six-year-old daughter Wendy. “I’m a single parent, and whenever Wendy and I have time together, she wants to go fishing,” he said. “She loves it as much as I do.”

The Cumberland was high, fast, and muddy that day. “It had been raining hard on and off for several days, and the river was up,” Lewis said. “Wendy and I fished from the bank with friends, but it was hot and the fish weren’t biting, so the other folks left about 5 o’clock. We decided to stick around.”

The bite picked up as soon as our friends departed. “We immediately caught a couple blues in the 15-inch range. Then I hung a big one that got off. I didn’t see this fish, but it felt like it might go 30 pounds.”

Lewis had set out two lines about 40 feet deep in the swift river channel. “I normally catch shad in a cast net for bait, but the high water made netting them impossible, so I bought some shiners from a local bait shop,” he said. “I was using a two-ounce egg sinker tied to the bottom of my line (25-pound Stren), and impaled the bait through the back with a 4/0 Eagle Claw hook, tied on a loop about 18 inches above the weight.”

Encouraged by the bites, Lewis and his daughter stayed put. “I made a little campfire to keep the bugs away, and Wendy kept busy tossing sticks into the fire while I fished.” Then at 6:30 p.m., the handle on Lewis’ Fin-Nor Ahab #16 spinning reel, which he’d paired with a 7-foot Shakespeare Sturdy Stik, began spinning wildly. “I grabbed the rod and let the fish run a little before I locked the handle and set the hook. I had the rod straight up in the air, but the fish pulled it all the way down to the water and peeled off 50 yards of line as it headed downstream.”

Lewis knew this was the biggest catfish he’d ever hooked. “I figured it was a 50- or 60-pounder. Then after its initial run, it cut to the surface and rolled. It was easily 70 yards away when I first saw it, and it still looked huge.”

The monster blue used the swift current to its advantage, working progressively farther downstream from Lewis’ position on the bank. “I had to maintain maximum pressure on the fish to land it in that current, so I hung on for about 20 minutes until it began to tire.” As Lewis worked the cat closer, he saw that flooded brush lay in the fish’s path. “I was fighting the fish from a little point of land, and when I saw that I was about to lose it in the brush, I stepped into the water so I could work the fish around the obstruction.”

“That’s when things got dicey,” Lewis recalled. “My first step put me in water over my waist. The river was so muddy, I had no idea it was that deep so close to shore. Then the fish made another run, I lost my footing, and was in water over my head.”

Lewis gripped the rod with one hand, backstroked frantically upriver with the other, and finally managed to dig his fingers into the bank and crawl back to land. “Wendy was screaming at this point, but I assured her I was okay. As soon as I was on the bank, the fish took off for the middle of the river again, stripping out about 40 yards of line.”

This time, the giant cat yielded more quickly. Lewis yelled for his daughter to reel in his other rod and run for the landing net. “It was all I could do to get the head of the fish into the net—I couldn’t believe how big this cat was,” he said. “I managed to force the net past its first set of fins, but then the cat started to thrash wildly, busting the net’s handle and metal hoop.”

Lewis jumped into the river on top of the cat and wrestled it ashore. “I managed to get its tailed wedged against the bank and pushed, shoved, and manhandled it onto land. Wendy was as excited as I was.”

Lewis was certain he’d shattered the Tennessee record for blue catfish (82 pounds 7 ounces), but had no idea his catch would qualify as a world record as well. “My first thought was getting the fish to some certified scales, so I loaded it into the trunk of my car and headed to a bait shop to weigh the fish. While we were driving down the road, every time the fish flopped, the car rocked back and forth.”

Lewis took the fish to B & J’s Bait Shop in Clarksville, where it weighed 112 pounds on certified propane scales. “I called Jim Barlow, the area Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency officer, and he verified the weight.” Officially, the catfish spanned 54 inches in length with a 41-inch girth.

West Memphis, Arkansas—Before Lewis’s fish was certified as the all-tackle world record, Charles Ashley, Jr. of Marion, Arkansas, caught a 116-pound 12-ounce blue cat from the lower Mississippi River. The huge fish was caught on August 3, 2001, near the Interstate 55 bridge in West Memphis.

Kirk Harris, a wildlife officer with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission says the new Arkansas record and pending world record measured 62 inches long and had a 38-inch girth. The fish shattered the old Arkansas record, which also was taken from the Mississippi River, by more than 20 pounds.