Lake Record Catfish - Entry Thread

wayne gustaveson

wayne gustaveson

Moderator
Staff member
The old Lake Record Catfish (24 pounds) was caught in the Colorado River - Not Lake Powell. If you have captured a large catfish (5 pounds or better) please enter a picture and the weight from a certified scale in this thread. I will update the lake record information as the posts come in. If you catch a big catfish in the future near Wahweap, I have a certified scale at my office near Stateline Ramp and the Boat Service Center. Call Wayne at 928 645 2392.

*The new record weighs 18.45 pounds, caught in Padre Bay. Caught by Bruce Fenton March 19, 2020. 33 inches long.
The fish was weighed on the certified scale at my office.

unnamed.jpg
 
Last edited:
Ron said:
How do you certify a scale?
Click to expand...
You can buy a certified scale and have it re-certified each year but it costs a lot of money. A regular fish scale in your tackle box is not certified. It is best to take the fish to a certified scale like the one at a post office or a super market. I have a certified scale which can be used if you bring a fish downlake to Wahweap.
 
For the record, the photo I posted was a nice fish, I believe the weight I listed is wildly optimistic. We did use a cheap Rapala scale, but I put no faith in 18 pounds. Nice fish, not great.
 
Ryan said:
For the record, the photo I posted was a nice fish, I believe the weight I listed is wildly optimistic. We did use a cheap Rapala scale, but I put no faith in 18 pounds. Nice fish, not great.
Click to expand...

Great fish and great recreational experience. To qualify as a record, the fish has to be weighed on certified scales or 2-3 separate scales that show the same weight for a fish, accompanied by witnesses. I know - declaring a lake record is not easy. It is doable. With the shad explosion this year there should be a lot of weight put on many different species. There are some big catfish caught in the past that will show up, and there are some growing now that will get bigger. My guess is that the actual "Lake" record will be around 10 pounds.
 
Great timing on this Wayne. My wife and I have been going to the lake for 25 years, pretty steady for the last 15 or so. We do not target catfish much, but usually hit them on the last night of the trip off of the back of the house boat. After cleaning 50 or so fish a night and tossing the small stuff off of the back, after 4 or 5 days of feeding them its pretty easy to catch them. It's kind of like hunting over a baited field. I don't throw the main carcass's off the back of the house boat, I haul them off. I have found that the carcass's adversely effects fishing for anything else besides the catfish. On our last trip just a week ago I caught my personal best cat. Soon as I can get the wife to load the pictures off of her phone and figure out how to tie them to this I will send them. I think you will be impressed. I have noticed that the catfish have been getting bigger every year for the last 3 or 4 years. It was hard to catch a 2 pounder years ago, and they are very common now. Last three years it is common to catch them 4 and 5 pounds. Last year we got an 8 pounder. They are fun to catch but I do not care much for eating them, so we normally let them all go. I'll do my best to get some pictures loaded, but I may need help.
One thing I might add, two summers ago we were camped in good hope bay on the east side across from Ticaboo. One day while the kids were out playing around, I had spent two or three hours scrapping mussels off of the bottom of the boat. The grand kids came in from tubing the next day and wanted to catch some catfish, We caught several and they all really fat, and they wanted to keep a few to take home for dinner. Upon cleaning them they were all full of mussels? I as guessing they cleaned up on the thousands that I had scraped off. I had watched the blue gill eating the smaller ones while I was cleaning them off but did not know that the catfish would eat them.IMG_0420 (1).jpgIMG_0421 (1).jpgIMG_0424.JPG
 
Last edited:
Having a difficult time with this. My wife is trying to help. Some how she put the pictures on the old post above. So much for computer difficulties. The fish was 29" long best I could tell, it would not hold still to get a good look. It's head was almost a handspan wide, right at 8". Caught it on a slip bobber rig / 8 pound mono, using a large striper liver for bait, in about 25' of water off of the back of the houseboat. I weighed it on two different scales, both giving the same weight. Thought it would be fun to let people guess the weight and I will post a picture of the weight in a day or two. This fish was released, which I have a picture of as well. I have been seeing big catfish for the past three or so years while cleaning fish at night. I have 2 large flood lights on the back of the boat and with decent water clarity I have seen them come up and grab scraps of the fish I was cleaning as they fall. I have actually seen them several times fight over and race for the scraps. I had guessed some of them to be between 10 to 15 pounds. IMG_0422 (1).jpg
 
Flipper said:
Having a difficult time with this. My wife is trying to help. Some how she put the pictures on the old post above. So much for computer difficulties. The fish was 29" long best I could tell, it would not hold still to get a good look. It's head was almost a handspan wide, right at 8". Caught it on a slip bobber rig / 8 pound mono, using a large striper liver for bait, in about 25' of water off of the back of the houseboat. I weighed it on two different scales, both giving the same weight. Thought it would be fun to let people guess the weight and I will post a picture of the weight in a day or two. This fish was released, which I have a picture of as well. I have been seeing big catfish for the past three or so years while cleaning fish at night. I have 2 large flood lights on the back of the boat and with decent water clarity I have seen them come up and grab scraps of the fish I was cleaning as they fall. I have actually seen them several times fight over and race for the scraps. I had guessed some of them to be between 10 to 15 pounds. View attachment 6535
Click to expand...
Wow that catfish is huge!!!!!!!!
 
Hey red neck, do you remember what those all weighed? Those come out of Green river or Kentucky lake. They look similar to the ones you caught with my dad that time. That picture is still hanging in his fishing room. I'll take a shot at those you had. 1st picture left to right 23# - 27# - 54# - 21# - 18# 2nd picture 37# 3rd picture 40 each. Wish we had a place to catch these out here. Wonder how they would do in Powell. Bet they would get 60 to 70 with all those gizzard shad.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top