Giant Catfish Setting Records

By Gordon McHenry

I got a call from an angler who wanted to know if you can catch catfish during the winter months here in Southern California. Not only can you catch ‘em, you have to be careful you don’t wind up with busted tackle and sore arms when you get hooked up with a giant, record-size fish this time of the year.

In the past week, two lake catfish records have been broken here in Southern California. A 32.8 pounder was caught at Diamond Valley Lake near Hemet and a 92.1 pounder at Lower Otay Lake in the San Diego area.

The 101-pound California state record blue catfish was caught by Roger Rohrbouck of Alliance, Calif., during the winter months—March 12, 2004, to be exact—at San Vicente Reservoir in San Diego. From what I recall about Roger’s catch, he was fishing a jig for bass on 10-pound Vanish line when the monster hit. Being able to catch such a huge fish on such a light line is a real testament to his fishing skill and the strength of Berkley’s Vanish line.

Over the past 10 years, more than 10 giant blue cats weighing over 100 pounds have been caught, all of them

holding various state and world records during that time.

The current world record blue catfish weighed 121-1/2 pounds, measured five—yes, five feet long—and was pulled out of Lake Texoma on January 16, 2004, by 27-year-old Cody Mullennix. The fish set several world and Texas state records.

Earlier in the day Cody had caught a 56-pound blue catfish but released it. Luckily for the 121-pounder, Mullennix is a catch-and-release fan. He kept the hardy fish alive and donated it to the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center in Athens, Texas, where it became a star attraction, swimming around in a huge aquarium before it later died.

As far as how big catfish can really get, try thinking about fish that are big enough to eat people! That’s right, anglers in Taiwan caught a true monster that was nine feet long and weighed an astounding 646 pounds!

Here on the mountain, all of our lakes—and even Deep Creek—hold cats. From one- to two-pound bullheads to 20- to 30-pound (and maybe, just maybe, even bigger than that) channel cats. Yes, I’ve hooked—just hooked—one and I‘ve even seen one bigger!! You can catch these good eating fish year round. Good fishing.

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