This past weekend I pulled in a Blue Catfish that weighed 74.5 lbs on official scales...here are a few pictures to admire. Everything seems to be in order so far. Just have to mail the application in to Austin which will be done tomorrow.

thats a stinkin PIG!!!

off tha chain...and Pines doesn't hardly have any in it!

Tehran I know it is rare to see a monster come out of that lake. Was it realesed

Congrats on a great catch! The girth on that thing is unbelievable.

That thing looks like it swallowed a 9 year old! Impressive catch!

wowza , that is all I can say

The last pics look like it's about 2 minutes from a fillet knife and skinnin' pliers.

How Deep did she come from?

That's a hoss! R&R or trotline?

Great fish, congrats!

Monster cat! Congrats on the new record.

Monster congrats! Fish of a lifetime!

Ok I'll try to answer all the questions here. I saw a mention of Lake O The Pines not having hardly any catfish in it...brother you're dead wrong...it is by FAR the best little gem of east texas in my opinion. Its just different fishing. But you don't pull out a 74.5, 53, 56 and 31 lbs fish out of the same spot in less than 30 hours unless it is stacked with big catfish. Is it Tawakoni...no...is it Eagle Mountain...no Its Lake O The Pines and I will encourage you all to go and enjoy the many species of fish it has to offer. That being said.

Unfortunately...no the fish did not survive to be released...and it broke my heart. This was a beautiful animal despite what my coworkers say...and she was FULL of eggs. For those of you who aren't aware. Some biologists estimate that mature catfish can lay up to 1000 eggs per pound of body weight. so that means 74,500 eggs that will not grow up to be feeder catfish the next year. I did all I could to keep this fish alive to be released...I baby sat this thing at the dock trying to revive it...but it just wouldn't come around...and rather than have the meat spoil...I put her on ice. As I already had plenty of meat...we found someone who didn't have any...and donated the fish.

I caught her on an open water trotline of my grandfather's design. Somewhere here on the board has a similar design called the "planter." I loved her term for it...I used chicken gizzard as bait.

Again...Lake O The Pines is home to some monsters a park ranger claimed commercial divers working on the dam have photographed fish that could be world records. There are alot of snags and its thick with timber...if you visit this lake DO NOT run wide open...but I have fun and catch alot of fish everytime I go there. I've fished out of Johnson Creek and Alley Creek. If you catch a record...take it to Ron Plumlee at Top's Market on FM 729...they have certified scales there. That to me is why this fish died. I took me 12 hours to locate a place with certified scales.

Now that's a hog, congrats on one heck of a record.... But I have to say twok does indeed produce monsters stacked up that could be caught in less than 30 hours, on R&R at that.