Night fishing on the Missouri River mid-May, Daniel Mayer of Agency, Mo. caught an enormous 121.1-pound, 59.75-inch blue catfish. He used a carp for bait and hooked the fish just as he was about finished angling for the night.
Mayer didn’t know how big the blue brute was until he tried lifting it into his boat. But when he felt her weight and saw her girth and length, he was shocked.
Fishing alone, he had difficulty getting the catfish into his boat with his landing net. For a time, he thought the net was fouled on his boat. But it was just the tremendous weight of the fish that made it tough to get in. When he muscled the catfish over the boat gunnel, the blue cat covered half his boat bottom.
That’s when he realized it could be a state record catfish. He began checking where he could get the fish weighed on certified scales, and to learn which state he was in for record purposes.
The Missouri River is the border between Kansas and Missouri. Mayer determined he was in Kansas when he caught his big blue and started the record process for that state.
He had the fish weighed on certified scales in Kansas City and submitted his catch to the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks (KDWP) in May. The state has just verified and certified his 121.1-pound catfish as the new Kansas state record blue.
Mayer’s fish tops the old Kansas blue catfish record of 102.8-pounds and 56.75 inches in length caught in 2012 also from the Missouri River.
Mayer is a tournament catfish angler who believes dedication to fishing brings results. He says his new state record is the “catch of a lifetime,” and he will have a mount of the fish made by a taxidermist.
Mayer tried to keep the fish alive to release it. However, the fish fought until it was exhausted and eventually died. State officials estimate the blue cat was over 20 years old.
