130 Lb Record catfish may be certified as the “biggest catfish ever caught”.
Greg Bernal of Florissant, Missouri has landed what is now a new Missouri state record blue catfish and what could potentially be certified as the new world record catfish, breaking Tim Pruitt’s previous record of the biggest catfish ever caught weighing in at 124 Lbs. Prior to Pruitt’s record catch the previous world record blue catfish was caught at Lake Texoma.
Greg Bernal’s fish has been officially certified as the Missouri state record blue catfish, breaking the previous Missouri state record of 103 lbs. Certification by IFGA as the new world record blue catfish is still pending.
This amazing catch was a whopping 57 inches long with a girth of 45 inches.
Bernal was fishing with pieces of cut silver asian carp and fourty pound test fishing line while fishing from his boat on the Missouri River in the Columbia Bottom Conservation Area, west of the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers in Missouri. The big fish took the bait around 12:45 a.m..
Bernal brought the monster catfish to the side of the bite within fifteen minutes, claiming it came right to the boat. Getting the fish into the boat however proved to be a different story taking an additional thirty minutes to actually get it into the boat and requiring two dip nets to do so. The fish was finally landed in the boat around 1:30 a.m.
Because it was caught in the middle of the night the fish could not be weighed until Tuesday morning and it unfortunately died.
There is some interesting video of the fish here. Seeing the size of the fish on video really brings it into perspective.
The fish still needs to be certified by the IGFA to become the new world record but is already certified as the new MO state record blue catfish.
