Texas 12 Year Old Shatters Six Records With One Catfish
Chad Ferguson 02.01.12
Being a professional catfish guide is kind of like any other profession. The plumber’s pipes always leak, the mechanic’s car never runs and so on. I don’t get near as much time to “just fish” as I would like to have.
I am blessed with having a 12 year old son (Lane) that loves the outdoors. It doesn’t matter if it is fishing or hunting or anything outside, he is always game. He has had aspirations of catching a lake record catfish for quite some time so I committed to taking some time off during the 2011 holiday season to spend some time to get him a junior angler lake record.
We started our quest on Lake Worth, Texas. Partially because this is a lake I guide on and it holds good populations of big catfish but also because the junior angler lake record was a mere 26 lbs and I felt it would be pretty easy to beat this record.
On December 21st 2011 we launched the boat and as I was pulling off the boat ramp my phone rings. A friend tells me his son had just caught a junior angler lake record blue catfish of 40 lbs on Lake Worth. We met on the water looked at the fish and he headed in to get the fish certified through Texas Parks and Wildlife.
Lane and I went on to fish and landed several trophy class blue catfish that afternoon with the biggest fish being a 39.5 lb blue catfish that was released. This fish would have been a lake record had it been caught the previous day.
We headed home that evening and got a call learning that the “would be” junior angler record we thought was 40 lbs was only 37.5 lbs, and that we had just released a junior angler lake record fish. Needless to say we were pretty bummed.
On Friday December 23rd 2011 we headed back out on Lake Worth with the quest to beat the 37.5 lb record (again). I caught some fresh shad for catfish bait used my Humminbird 1198C side imaging unit to locate some trophy blue catfish holding on structure and we set anchors and began fishing. With no bites we moved several times and on the third move within about fifteen minutes of setting up we hooked a fish.
I knew it was a good fish when we hooked it, but wasn’t sure how good it was. My son began the fight with the fish while I pulled anchor and reeled the other rods in.
The wind was blowing at a pretty good clip and I was supervising my son giving him guidance and landing the fish and the nose went into the wind and the big blue catfish began pulling the boat across the water, and I realized we had hooked a really good catfish.
After about 10 minutes I was able to net the fish and get him into my boat and get it on the scales. The fish weighed in at 66.28 lbs. We headed to certified scales, weighed the fish and went back and immediately returned the fish in the water.
We completed paperwork the next week and submitted to Texas Parks and Wildlife.
Much to my surprise, a week later we received a total of seven certificates in the mail. Lane had broken a total of 6 records including the Texas state junior angler record and Texas state junior angler catch and release record.
Following are the total records Lane broke with his 66.28 lb blue catfish.
(1) Catch and Release Water Body Record
(2) Water Body Record
(3) Catch and Release Water Body Junior Angler
(4) Water Body Record Junior Angler
(5) Catch and Release State Record Junior Angler
(6) State Record Junior Angler
(7) Big Fish Award
Watching my son catch this fish was hands down the best Christmas present I could have received.
To get more information on fishing for catfish visit the Learn To Catch Catfish website. To fish with me visit the North Texas Catfish Guide Service website.
I am a Texas based professional catfish guide based in north central Texas.
I own and operate North Texas Catfish Guide Service and have over 10 years experience as a professional catfish guide fishing for blue catfish, trophy blue catfish, flathead catfish and channel catfish.
In addition to being a catfish guide I also run summer charters for white bass, hybrid striped bass, longnose and alligator gar on a number of lakes in North Texas.
I have been fishing for catfish as long as I can remember. Some of my earliest memories are fishing with my father and grandfather on Possum Kingdom Lake in Texas.
I own and operate a website called Learn To Catch Catfish where I share catfishing tips, tricks and information, produce online catfishing videos and produce a podcast called Catfishing Radio. Learn To Catch Catfish is recognized as the top destination for catfishing information online.
