Blue or something else?

I was thinking blue initially because of the big ol’ head; but the body was skinny as a rail & really black. Weighed 14lb 9oz. Has a bullhead look to it, but I don’t think they get that big. What do you guys think?

From this angle it looks like a semi stunted channel- body doesnt match the head but 14 lbs is nice no matter.

Channel, TOAD at that.

Plus #1.

Thank you fellas!

Little bit different angle.

The picture is a little blurry. A channel catfish has 24 to 29 soft rays in the anal fin while a blue cat has 30 or more. If you can zoom in on the original picture you should be able to count the rays.

Big ole channel!

Yes sir, after the comments here, I googled it. I counted 26 fins when I zoomed in, wish I would have known that before. I had no clue channels could get big, I thought they were always tiny.

You might have a lake record Channel cat. The males have that large head.

Yes sir, after these guys told me that it was a channel, I looked up the record at Choke. It was only 8lbs, my wife was like WTF, why didn’t I know what kind of fish it was....Lesson learned, now I know.

Like most anglers, you have probably caught a lot of records you never knew you had. You may want to get my book, The Art of Fishing for Records. It may help you from missing some of those records in the future.

https://www.amazon.com/kindle-dbs/e...;langFilter=default#formatSelectorHeader

Sounds like my wife. Lol! Women are good at throwing salt in the wound! Be glad it was your lost record instead of hers!

Don't you just love that slime on your boat carpet?