The Oklahoma Division of Wildlife Conservation announced Tuesday that one of many greatest flathead catfish ever recorded within the state had been caught on a trotline. Within the accompanying photograph, resident angler Bradly Courtright stands in a truck mattress and holds up the huge catfish that he pulled from Pine Creek Reservoir on Could 13.
“I’ve caught some large catfish over 50 kilos,” Courtright tells Out of doors Life. “However this was the most important I’d ever seen.”
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Officers with ODWC say it’s the most important flathead ever taken from Pine Creek Reservoir, a 3,500-acre lake within the southeast nook of the state. If Courtright would have caught the fish on a rod-and-reel, it might’ve crushed the Oklahoma state record by practically 20 kilos. However it was simply 11 kilos shy of the standing state file within the “unrestricted” division, which incorporates fish caught with trotlines, in addition to by bowfishing and another authorized means. That title nonetheless belongs to a 106-pounder, which was additionally caught on a trotline and pulled from Wister Lake in 1977. Even so, it’s a exceptional fish.
Courtright, 57, says he’d gone out to the lake by himself late within the day on Could 12 to set his trotline. Utilizing 25 particular person 7/0 circle hooks, he ran the road in 14-16 toes of water and tied it off to a stump at every finish. He baited every hook with inexperienced sunfish, which he calls goggle eyes.
“I obtained again on the water alone the subsequent morning and began checking the strains. I’d caught a small catfish, then knew a a lot greater fish was on the subsequent bait up the road,” says Courtright, who fishes out of a 17-foot jon boat. “After I yanked on the road with the larger fish it about pulled me over the aspect of the boat. I mentioned, ‘Holy Moly!’ Then I noticed it swirl within the water, and I knew the fish was over 80 kilos.”
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Courtright hauled on the road and the large flathead pulled again. The tug-of-war lasted for a short time earlier than Courtright managed to muscle the fish up beside his boat. However he had no gaff, and his internet was too small for the enormous fish.
“His head got here up, and I grabbed him and wrangled him over the aspect and into my boat.”
Courtright didn’t have a stay nicely or another strategy to preserve the catfish alive. He put moist towels over it however the fish died in transit, he explains.
So, Courtright took the useless catfish to a rustic retailer in Ringo, the place it weighed 95 kilos on a scale. Then he known as ODWC fisheries biologist David Bogner, who instructed him that whereas the catfish wouldn’t qualify for a state file, it was nonetheless a formidable catch and a waterbody file.
Bogner says he estimates the 95-pound flathead to be at the very least 40 years outdated, however since he by no means noticed it in particular person, he can’t say for certain. The catfish is now filleted and in Courtright’s freezer. He says he’ll be internet hosting a giant barbeque within the close to future.
“That one heavy flathead is large enough to feed a complete lot of individuals.”
