Catfish World Record Smashed!

The invasive Asian carp (those alien fish that regularly jump into boats), may be so weird they belong in the X-files, but could there be a good use for them? Greg Bernal, of Florissant, MO, found one—evidently, they’re awesome catfish bait. When Greg set out to go fishing on the Missouri River in North County, Missouri, on June 20th, his goal was to catch a monster blue catfish. And he was going to use an Asian carp to tempt those big cats into biting. But, just how large did his catch have to be to count as a “monster” to Greg? Whatever his standards may be, one thing is for sure—the blue cat he landed met the mark. In fact, it crushed the International Game Fish Association (IGFA) blue catfish world record of 124 pounds even, caught five years ago by Timothy Pruitt in the Mississippi River near Alton, Ill. Bernal’s monster catfish, which tipped the scales at 130 pounds, took him 20 minutes to land.

Waterbikes may not be quite as annoying as those pesky Asian carp, but they’re of even less use to anglers, right? Not any more—another IGFA record-smashing fisherman found an unusual use for PWC’s, and naturally, it involves hooks and lines. Back in May, Craig Oliver of Pinetown, South Africa, decided to troll a Rapala X-Rap behind his Jet Ski and soon felt the awesome strike of a 39 pound, seven ounce Talang queenfish. That beat the current world record of 36 pounds, six ounces, as well as the 50 pound line-class record of 31 pounds, 15 ounces.

The X files keep getting thicker, when you also consider Miami angler Xavier Casal’s potential record catch, a 51 pound Broomtail grouper. Though Casal wasn’t fishing from a waterbike or hooking a fish bigger than some full grown adults, he did make a newsworthy catch by trolling with—yup, you guessed it—a Rapala X-Rap. They say that truth is stranger than fiction, and evidently, that goes for angling, too.