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Oklahoma: This is no fish story – Official State Record Notification
 (Tishomingo)
– A Madill man caught a 98-pound blue catfish Nov. 11 on Lake Texoma,
breaking the previous state record by more than 10 pounds.
BJ Nabors, who was only on his second catfishing trip with his
father-in-law and two other anglers, caught the record fish around 8 p.m.
while fishing from the bank with whole shad.
“I enjoy fishing for bass and crappie, but hadn’t gone catfishing much,”
said Nabors. “I guess you could say I was just along for the ride. I’m
sure I’ll go back. I’m hooked now.”
Nabors was using a 12-foot Eagle Claw fishing pole and a Shakespeare
spinning reel spooled with 20-pound test Stren. The angler wrestled with
the fish for several minutes before beaching it.
“I was holdin’ on pretty good,” he said. “We actually had two fish on at
once. I held on for what seemed like forever, but it was probably only 10
or 15 minutes.”
The 54 and 1/2-inch long fish had a 39 and 1/2-inch girth and came from an
area of Lake Texoma locally known
as “Murray 23,” which is in the
Tishomingo arm of the lake. The fishing hole is a noted blue catfish
hotspot, with the winter months being the primary time of year when
serious anglers pursue the large blue cats.
Oklahoma’s previous blue catfish record was set only last year, also in
Lake Texoma. That fish weighed in at a little over 87 pounds and was
caught in March. Nabors said that at first he wasn’t aware the fish was a
potential state record.
“We had absolutely no clue it was a state record,” he said. “We had some
100-pound scales and when it bottomed those out, we started looking for
some certified scales.”
Fisheries personnel with the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation
brought portable certified scales to the lake and after verifying it as a
state record, transported the fish to a local fish hatchery. It has since
been transported to the Oklahoma Aquarium in Jenks where it will be
displayed following a brief quarantine.
-ODW
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