On April 7, Eugene Cronley, from Brandon, Mississippi, caught a gargantuan blue catfish on the lower Mississippi River. The catfish weighed 131 pounds, breaking a state record which was officially certified on April 11.
Cronley, an angler, spent close to 40 minutes to reel in, using a rod and reel and skipjack herring bait to get the fish.
“He hit the rod and started pulling drag. We had to untie the boat and float down the river. I couldn’t move him. I’d pull on him and take in a foot of line. He’d pull and take 10 feet. I just sat there like I was hung up,” Cronley said.
The previous record of the rod and reel catch was a 95-pound catfish in 2009.
Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks Fisheries Bureau states that other record setting catches have occurred in the same area. This is located in the same section of the Mississippi River close to Natchez.
“It is truly a fish of a lifetime,” Cronley expressed.
