New pending World Record pulled out of the San Joaquin River in Northern California. While most large catfish in California come from lakes, the entire Sacramento River system is full of good sized white and channel cats because very few people fish for them and, if they do, they don't use the right tactics necessary for big fish. Former record was 58 lbs from Santee Cooper. I used to catch a lot of 10lb to 20 lb channel cats in the Sacramento area 40 years when I lived there but never got into a big one although I would see an occasional 30 lb fish.

Not exactly a monster compared to a big blue or flathead, but nice fish in any case.

Good Gawd Whata TOAD.

Congrats on an awesome fish!

Looks like a blue but gotta count fins. Never caught a channel over 8 so don’t know. Nice fish!

Never trust a guy in board shorts catfishing. Shouldn’t he be surfing 🏄.

I assume they are testing it to see if it is in fact a Channel Cat?

The last one that was thought to be a WR was not a CC.

Holy cow! If that is indeed a channel that would shatter the old record. Think that old record has been around since the 50s?

I could google it but... dang thats a heck of a fish either way!

Boardshorts , Bikinis, and beer are standard issue for summertime catfishing on my boat. Without them you clearly aren’t that serious about pleasure drifting!

Wow thats a nice one! WTG!

Here is a link to an article where they describe the process and samples taken to confirm the exact species which at the time of the article was not yet determined. The 61 lbs mentioned was the weight taken at the House of Beef but it was discovered that the scale had not been certified in more than one year so it was also taken later to another scale that was certified where it came out at 67 lbs.

https://fishbio.com/field-notes/fish-biology-behavoir/world-record-weigh-monstrous-mystery-fish

Generally, the only catfish species in the California Sacramento/San Joaquin River system are the bullhead, yellow cat, channel cat and white cat. There are no river blues or flatheads in this part of Northern California other than a couple of put/take private lakes which have blues. But, there is always a chance of a fish escaping or being transplanted, so the dna testing is important when a record is at stake.

Great catch, not only a nice fish, but a world record to boot.
Way to go and congrats.