Angler breaks the Blue Catfish record in West Virginia by a mustache

Kimberly Feltner and her husband Shawn braved the wind and rain on September 28 to fish the Ohio River with their friend and local guide Chris Souders. It was the day after Hurricane Helene hit the region, and the river had swollen from all the heavy rain. This bump in the current got the fish moving, and the three fishermen found some blue cats near Point Pleasant, West Virginia, where the Kanawha River joins the Ohio.

“It was almost 9 a.m. and we had just caught our second small catfish when I heard something,” says Souders, who Slouching cat outdoorstells Outdoor living. “The drag on one of my Penn reels screamed and I turned around to see the rod it was on was folded in half at the stern of the boat.”

He says Feltner, who lives in Indiana, immediately jumped on the rod. She fought the catfish as it cleaned up their other lines.

“I had six other deep lines,” Souders says. “I was lucky to get them in before they got messed up.”

Souders kept his 20-foot aluminum boat anchored while Feltner worked on the fish. It went deep several times, and about ten minutes into the fight, Feltner was on the verge of giving up, according to Souders. But she stayed with it long enough to tire out the big blue cat and get him close to the boat, where Souders netted him and then rolled him over the cannon.

“I knew right away it was going to be a state record,” said Souders, who grew up fishing on the Ohio River and lives in Oak Hill. “I caught at least four blue cats that were near record length fish, and I knew Kim’s fish was longer.”

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After recording the catfish, Souders called his friend Ryan Bosserman, who works as a fisheries biologist for the West Virginia Department of Natural Resources. He informed Bosserman and asked him to meet them at the Robert C. Byrd Lock and Dam for an official survey.

“It was a boat that was out there for 30 minutes, and Ryan measured and weighed the fish right there.”

The blue cat’s official weight was 64.15 pounds, which is lower than the current state weight record – a 69.45-pound fish caught by Michael Drake in 2023. But measuring 60.82 inches from tip to tail was just long enough to get that same fish out of the way for a long time. the state height record. (Drake’s fish was about an inch shorter, at 50.51 inches long.) Bosserman estimated the blue cat’s age at about 20 years old.

Souders says Feltner’s catfish ate a cut mooneye bait fished near the bottom with an 8/0 hook. He says the fish was near an edge in the middle of the river, and he thinks heavy rain from the hurricane contributed to a bite by increasing the river’s current.

After getting the fish’s official measurements, the three fishermen returned to where it was caught and released it back into the Ohio River. They finished their day strong by catching and releasing a few more blue cats, including one that Souder believes weighed 40 pounds.

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“We released all our fish,” Souders said. “They are much more valuable in the river than in a cooler.”