Jesse Lance launched his 17-foot AlumaCraft boat into the Missouri River near Kansas City the afternoon of Oct. 25. He first caught some silver carp for use as bait, then he headed to a favorite spot to try for big catfish.
“The first place I tried didn’t produce after about 30 minutes,” Lance told Wired2fish. “I called a fishing pal and he recommended I try another place located between a couple wing dams that was nearby.”
Lance went to a shallow sand-bottom area that had brush and fallen trees on the bottom between the wing dams. He dropped his electric motor and noted on his sonar unit that a huge fish was holding in very shallow water near his boat.
“I eased around the fish at about 3 p.m. and got up current of it so my carp bait scent would flow downriver to it,” said the 30-year-old construction worker. “I used my spot-lock electric motor to hold my boat upcurrent of the fish and cast out three rods. Each had a small, silver-dollar size piece of carp fillet for bait. It’s getting cold now, and I figured small baits would be best.”
The water was shallow, only 4 to 6 feet deep. Lance used a 3-way swivel bait set up, with 80-pound main line braid, a 1.5-foot length of 150-pound monofilament leader, and a sinker to hold the rig on bottom. A 10/0 circle hook held his bait.
“I didn’t fish but about 15 minutes, when the shallowest rod twitched a bit,” Lance said. “I thought it was a gar, until it slammed down, drag started screaming and line ripped off my Shimano Calcutta reel.”
The fish raced off toward the middle of the river. But in only about 10 minutes Lance was able to slow the fish down with his heavy tackle and stout Mad Katz fishing rod. He worked the catfish to his boat, and tried to net it. But he couldn’t get the enormous fish into his big net.
“I had one hand on my fishing rod, the other holding the net, and I needed both hands to get the fish because it wouldn’t fit inside the net,” Lance said. “I put on a glove, set my fishing rod down and used both hands to grab the catfish by its mouth.”
The strong and heavy fish flopped at boatside, and fell back into the river with Lance holding on.
“I finally got a good grip again on its mouth, lifted it as high as I could, and rolled back into the boat holding onto the fish.”
Once in Lance’s boat, the blue catfish looked nearly as big as the 5-foot-9, 230-pound angler.
“I have a good scale in my boat, but I couldn’t lift the fish high enough to get all its weight off my boat deck using my scale,” Lance explained. “With the fish still partly on the boat deck it weighed 126 pounds. I think it was at least 130 pounds, maybe a lot more.”
Lance didn’t measure the fish, and he was determined to release the giant blue cat. So no official certified weight was made of it.
Photos and video of the fish clearly show the enormity of his catch. The catfish is so huge its head is as big as Lance’s chest, and the angler’s head easily would have fit inside its mouth.
Lance believes his blue cat would have topped Missouri’s current state record blue cat weighing 130 pounds caught in 2010 by angler Greg Bernal from the Missouri River.
The world record 143-pound blue cat was caught in 2011 at Kerr Lake, Virginia. Whether Lance’s catfish was heavy enough to rival the Virginia world record we’ll never be known because his fish was released without having it weighed on certified scales.
“Catching a record is great, but it mattered most to me to release that fish alive,” Lance said. “Big cats are old, smart fish, and there’s just no good reason to kill them.
“I may have a replica mount made of that fish, but I believe there are even bigger blue cats prowling the Missouri River. Maybe even fish weighing to 160 pounds.”
