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Learn more about the catfish, catfish farming, catfish cooking and just about everything related to catfish from the resources on Catfish Unlimited.com. Some common names for catfish - spotted catfish, river catfish, channel catfish.
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World Catfish Records
World Record Blue Catfish
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124 lb World Record Blue Catfish Caught by Tim Pruitt.
Pruitt, casting his line in the Mississippi River on Sunday, May 22, 2005, hauled up a 58-inch long, 44-inch around blue catfish that weighed a whopping 124-pounds.
To get a sense of just how big that is, the state record holder was a mere 85 pounds and the world record holder tipped the scales at 121 pounds, eight ounces.
"My adrenaline was really pumping, so it wasn't that bad," Pruitt said. "Later on, when I was lifting him out of the live well and into another tank I really felt the weight."
Now, Pruitt, whose fish has already been weighed in the presence of a conservation police officer and measured by a biologist for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, is expected to submit documentation to the International Game Fish Association so that it can be certified a world record holder.
Once that's done, the catch should be approved as the world's largest blue catfish, replacing the current champion that was caught Jan. 16, 2004, in Lake Texoma, Texas, said Becky Reynolds, a spokeswoman for the association.
The fish was meant to be kept alive and put on display in a tank at the Cabela's Outfitter store in Kansas City, Kansas, but died en route.
A biologist said that because the fish was "very old" and "very heavy," the travel stress "could have been too much."
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