Mega Massive Catfish Hooked!!

A Mississippi man named Eugene Cronley reeled in a 131-pound blue catfish shattering a previous state record that stood for 25 years by almost 36 pounds.

The catch was certified by the Mississippi Department of Wildlife as a new state record blue catfish on April 7, 2022, near Natchez, Mississippi.

“it is truly a fish of a lifetime.” Mr. Cronely caught the fish with a rod and reel using skipjack herring as bait he stated it took him 40 min to get the monster cat out of the water.

“He hit the rod and started pulling drag. We had to untie the boat and float down the river,”

“I couldn’t move him. I’d pull on him and take in a foot of line, and he’d pull and take 10 feet. I just sat there like I was hung up.”

“We didn’t know until we pulled him up. We knew then we had a monster,” he said, adding, “We could hardly get him in the boat. I was wore out.”

The world-record catch for blue catfish was broken in 2011 when a 143-pound (64.9-kilogram) behemoth was reeled in from a Virginia lake, according to the International Game Fish Association.

Cronley said his fish was 56.6 inches (1.4 meters) long with a girth of 41 inches (1.04 meters).

“He is a monster,” Cronley said.

Sources: whio, karls