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Oklahoma - 87 pound blue catfish breaks state record
 Some
would argue that catching a record fish is all skill and others would say
it is all luck, but maybe it has a whole lot more to do with just getting
out and going fishing.
“I never dreamed I would catch a record
fish,” said Rusty Keeton, the newest addition to Oklahoma’s fishing record
book. “I just wanted to enjoy a nice day outdoors and do a little fishing
on Texoma.”
Keeton, of Ardmore, got more than he bargained for when he hooked an
87-pound, 4-ounce blue catfish near Briar Creek on the southcentral
Oklahoma reservoir. His trip, on Sunday, March 16, quickly went from a
relaxing morning on the water to an adrenaline-charging, muscle-aching day
that he won’t soon forget.
“He hit it just like any other catfish, but when I hooked him he came
right to the surface. I couldn’t believe it. I had never seen a fish like
that before,” Keeton said.
The big blue hit on shad gizzards, but wasn’t going to come to the boat
easily. Unfortunately, Keeton was a bit under matched for the fight.
“I have some better rod and reels, but I hooked it on a little cheap rod
and reel combo. I had 25-pound test, which seems pretty strong until you
hook a fish like that,” he said.
He fought the fish for 30 minutes, but he said it felt more like three or
four hours.
“My arms still hurt. It was like trying to reel in a huge tree stump off
the bottom of the lake,” Keeton said.
Now the hard part, he had brought the brute to the side of the boat, but
without a net, he was in a quandary as to
how to get it into the boat. He
made several attempts and it finally came down to crunch time.
“I finally said to myself, ‘This is it, this fish is either coming out the
lake or I am going in’ I just grabbed what I could and somehow rolled him
into the boat,” he said.
His first instinct was to let the fish go. Keeton only keeps a few fish
each year to eat and releases all the largest fish.
“I was going to put him back in the water, but I thought I better find out
what the state record is,” Keeton said.
He called his wife who looked up the length of the previous blue catfish
record.
“When it measured longer than the state record, I knew I had better get it
weighed,” Keeton said.
He contacted Randel Currie, southcentral region fisheries technician for
the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation. The fish was weighed on
certified scales at the Department’s regional office in Caddo. The huge
fish weighed 87 pounds, 4 ounces and was 53 inches long. The girth was 35
1/4 inches.
One of the best parts of the story is that the magnificent fish is alive
and well at the Department’s Durant Fish Hatchery.
“I am so grateful to Randel Currie for saving that fish,” Keeton said. “It
wasn’t in the best shape, but Randel knew just what to do to keep it
alive. I am so glad it has made it.”
Department fisheries personnel are planning to transport the record blue
to the Oklahoma Aquarium in Jenks where it will be available for the
public to view.
The previous blue catfish record of 85 pounds, 4 ounces was set by Dale
Dennis who pulled the big blue catfish from Lake Ellsworth in December of
1999.
For a complete list of record fish and the procedures regarding certifying
state record fish, consult the “2003 Oklahoma Fishing Guide”. If you think
you may have hooked a record fish it is important that you weigh the fish
on an Oklahoma State Department of Agriculture certified scale and the
weight is verified by a Wildlife Department employee.
SUBMITTED BY: Oklahoma DNR
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