‘We Were Hunting for That Fish.’ Nebraska Guide Breaks 21-Year-Old Catfish Record

Nebraska fishing information George Thompson knew precisely the place he was headed Sunday, when he launched his boat on the Missouri River alongside along with his two sons. He says they’d hooked one thing enormous the week prior on the stretch north of Council Bluffs, the place the river varieties the border between Nebraska and Iowa.

“I knew it was a monster fish that was in all probability in that 100-pound vary,” says Thompson, who operates Missouri River Catfish Guides out of Omaha. “We had been trying to find that particular fish once we went down there [on Sunday].”

After discovering a deep gap on the Iowa aspect to anchor on, Thompson forged out a catfish rig baited with reduce skipjack.

“And you realize, I bought fortunate. As a result of that’s precisely the place he was.”

He says the take was pretty delicate. At first Thompson thought he’d hooked a smaller fish, and he nearly handed the rod off to his three-year-old son, George Jr.

“I stated, ‘G, prepare,’” Thompson tells Outside Life. “Then the fish turned south and also you couldn’t cease him. I used to be like, ‘Oh, okay. Maintain on, G. This one would possibly pull you in.’”  

With the monster catfish swimming in heavy present, Thompson had to usher in his anchor and chase after it. The fish pulled them over to the Nebraska aspect, then over to the Iowa aspect and again a couple of occasions. He battled the fish for round half-hour earlier than lastly netting it boatside.

Thompson had caught blue catfish across the 100-pound mark earlier than, and he knew when he held the fish that it was a document contender in Iowa. The previous state record had been on the books since 2004 — a 101-pound blue cat that was caught on a set line. 

So, Thompson known as up his buddy Joel, who works at Anchor Inn Bait-and-Tackle, to assist get a preliminary weight on the fish. After placing the catfish on Joel’s scale on the boat ramp, he contacted the Iowa Division of Pure Assets, and officers helped them discover a licensed scale at a close-by butcher store.

At this level, Thompson may have harvested the massive blue, however he was useless set on preserving it alive. He put the fish in his boat’s big livewell and turned on the aerators to oxygenate the water. Joel had additionally introduced a water truck so they may hold replenishing the livewell.

“We had the entire works, and we had been in a position to trailer the boat there with the fish nonetheless within the livewell,” Thompson says. “I couldn’t have achieved it with out Joel.”

Learn Subsequent: Giant Muskie Caught and Released in Green Bay Is a New Wisconsin Record

A DNR official met them on the licensed scale, the place he measured the fish at 60 inches lengthy. It weighed 105 kilos, which was greater than sufficient to interchange the 21-year-old Iowa document. Thompson’s state-record blue catfish has since been licensed by the state, and it’s now again within the Missouri River the place it belongs. 

“, my dad had been on me for some time about handing over a state document. It was form of his dream,” Thompson says. “He and I, we’d caught and launched a number of hundred pounders through the years. However this was the primary one which we’d truly determined we may hold him alive, get him licensed, and get him again within the water wholesome. That was an enormous deal.”