Pond fishing a 30+ old, healthy 2.5acre stock tank and was catching bass and perch on a spinning rig and white 2inch Curl tail grub. After about 4 hours of catching and releasing bass to 22inches and perch the size of my hand, I tried throwing out into deeper water. Threw out and thought I hung a freight train...LOL After a long battle, I got this catfish to the shoreline and unhooked it. I did not have anything long enough to measure it , but knew it was one of my biggest channel cats I have ever caught. Measured it off my spinning rod and returned it to the pond. With my girlfriend video taping with her cell phone the whole time. I checked my line and threw back out. Well,, BOOOM...another big cat but this one nearly spooled me as I was bank fishing. After several long runs and drag singing on my medium action rod and 14lb XL line, I got it to the shoreline. Measured it off my rod and it was nearly a foot longer.

Once I got home, I put the measuring stick to the lengths on the rod....
35" and 45"

Thinking at first those were Blue Cat, I contacted a TPWD biologist to see his opinion and he said definitely GIANT channel cats and old. May as old as the tank of 30 years. He said the oldest he knew of was 40 years old.

Anyways, I Caught, Photo and Released back as soon as possible, never realizing the big one was a state record.. Oh well, the memory was awesome and I know where they are are. I will try again one day...

I am 6 foot tall just to see how long the catfish below.

Awesome catch !

Bad A!

Monster channel cat! Congrats

Per a biologist at the TPWD, I caught and Release a would of been Texas record Channel Catfish. Current state record is 38inches/36lbs.. My biggest was 45inches long and I initially thought it was a blue cat. But after counting anal fins and finding out that channels can get this big, that it was a record, catch and release channel catfish. Oh well, I know where to go...LOL

Awesome fish. Good job.



Side Note: State Private Water Body Channel Cat is 47.22 Pounds and 45" in length. Caught in 2003.
Public water body record is 36.5 Lbs caught on the Perdernales River in 1965.

If not mistaken, that 36 pound record ChannelCat was caught in the Pedernales River eons ago.

I thought the state record was caught on Noels boat last year...

https://fishgame.com/2019/03/tx-state-record-channel-cat-caught/

Awesome fish!

That’s lots of hush puppies !

Was a Hybrid of Blue and Channel Cat

Awsome

So, those do actually exist? I caught one out of Benbrook that looked nearly exactly like a Blue, but had 28 rays on the anal fin, and only had one black dot on the belly, on each side. He was a nice fish, but not a record by any means. Weighed about 9 lbs. I always wondered if that fish could have been a hybrid. That fin ray count had me scratching my head.

Perch fed