what is the largest catfish ever caught in the united states

[terryarnn]

what is the largest catfish ever caught in the united states

[Taylor3535]

CATFISH, Blue - 124 lbs. Length=58 in.
Caught by: Tim Pruitt of Illinois
Caught at: Mississippi River in Illinois

http://mrriver.com/records.html

[Beekeeper]

In the 1800's there were stories of 200 pound Blue cat caught in the Mississippi.

[buckhunter]

I was bass fishing in California out of a belly boat using a fly rod with a deer hair frog I was stripping just below the surface. A monster cat came up and took the fly. I fought that thing for over 1 hour and couldn't get him landed. The fish wedged himself up against a long in about 10 feet of water and I could not budge him. My buddy grabbed my line and swam down and kicked the fish but it would not leave that log. Ended up breaking him off. I had him with in 3 feet of my belly boat several times but couldn't grab the mouth. I have no clue how much it weighed but it was big.

[TheEasternShoreHunter]

wow cool expeiriece

[Jim in Mo]

beekeeper, you are absolutely correct about the fish taken in the early years of river barges on the Mississippi and don't forget the Missouri river. From my experience the Missouri has more large cats than the Miss. Perhaps it's because it isn't blocked off by damns every 30 miles. I have 2 old photos from Mo. conservation mag with photos of men with cats that are labeled 246 and 312lbs respectively. The cats are taller than the men. This can be verified searching archives from the Mo. conservationist magazine circa 1960s (the fish were caught much earlier).

[texastriedandtrue]

taylor3535 is correct in a sense of that is the largest documented and certified north american catfish however like jim said pre-record keeping status there are pictures and stories of much larger catfish being caught now if we ever see a catfish that large again that will be something special

[rudyglove27]

Agreed with Taylor3535 answer above and A + 1 for you sir!!!