August 12, 2011
By Dr. Rob Neumann
It's an amazing statistic indeed that the world record for blue catfish has been broken 7 times since 1991. The latest, still being confirmed as a world record, is a 143-pounder caught from Kerr reservoir in Virginia. It hadn't been a year since the previous world record 130-pounder gulped up a chunk of Asian carp in the lower Missouri River near St. Louis. That fish surpassed a 124-pound brute caught on the Mississippi River near Alton, Illinois, in 2005. Prior to that, Lake Texoma was it, giving up the 121.5-pounder caught by Cody Mullennix.
Reports of remarkable fish have come in from rivers and reservoirs from Virginia to California, the big rivers in the Heartland producing perhaps the most consistent legacy of giant fish, although waters like Santee-Cooper, Texoma, the Tennessee River, James River, and Southern California reservoirs, among others, put up points on a fairly regular basis.
A big reason for the surge in catches of giant blue catfish has to be that anglers are better understanding the nature of blue catfish and are getting better at targeting big fish. More anglers are fishing for trophy catfish, too, and they're better equipped. Yet some waters still remain relatively untapped for giant blue catfish. When the topic of the next world record comes up, the lower Mississippi and Missouri rivers are always key players in the conversation. Catfish pros Phil King and John Jamison weigh in on this subject in the October-November issue of In-Fisherman magazine. What water would you pick for the best chance at a 150?
