Texas tops the BigCats list for the world!!!!!!

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[center][size 4] [red]Texas angler gets record blue ![/red][/size][/center] [center]
Game warden Dale Moses, left, and Cody Mullennix showing off a potential world-record blue catfish pulled from Lake Texoma. [/center] [center][size 4] Try a 121-pound, 8-ounce blue catfish being pulled from the chilly waters of the 89,000-acre reservoir that straddles the Oklahoma-Texas border! [/size][/center] [center][size 2][blue]A check of the records indicates the 121½-pound blue catfish caught by Cody Mullennix on Friday, Jan. 16, at Lake Texoma will smash four records, [/blue]if all the paperwork is approved.[/size][/center] [center][size 2][/size][/center] [center]Jason Holbrook, left, and Mullennix strain to display the hefty whiskerfish.[/center]

[size 2][/size] [center][blue][size 2]First, the big blue is poised to move past the benchmark in the International Game Fish Association's 20-pound line class. That fish, a 109¼-pounder, was caught by George A. Lijewski in March 1991 on South Carolina's Cooper River.[/size][/blue][/center]

[blue][size 2][/size][/blue] [center][blue][size 2]Second, the Texoma whiskerfish also is the heir apparent to the all-tackle record, eclipsing the 116¾-pound denizen that was taken from the Mississippi River in Arkansas in August 2001 by Charles Ashley Jr.[/size][/blue][/center]

[blue][size 2][/size][/blue] [center][blue][size 2]Third, the blue would rip up the Texas rod-and-reel record set in March 2000, when Reyes Martinez landed a 100-pound blue cat, which also came from 89,000-acre Lake Texoma.[/size][/blue][/center]

[blue][size 2][/size][/blue] [center][blue][size 2]Finally, the Mullennix catfish also should topple the Texas unrestricted state record for the species, besting the 116-pound blue catfish landed from a trotline in April 1985 by C.D. Martindale.[/size][/blue][/center]

[blue][size 2][/size][/blue] [center][blue][size 2]Where was that big trotline blue catfish taken? You guessed, it, Lake Texoma.[/size][/blue][blue][size 2] [/size][/blue][/center] [center]
It may be a face only a mother could love, but the blue's heft is the envy of catfishers. [/center] [center]Texans are known for telling Whapper storys and here is prof that they are true! YaHuuu!!!!!![/center]
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[Bassmaster-ND]

That is one huge catfish!!
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[tubeN2]

That is one monster of a Cat. I would have loved to have been pulled around in my float tube by one of them little kittys. LOL[cool]
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[lonehunter]

it looks like it's being kept by the local dnr , do they have any plans for it ? zoo aquariem or something like that ?
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[patches]

he is huge!!!!! they,ll keep him livin right?? no eatin him huh?? haha would a big one like him taste good anyways?? lotta meat! ahha i dont think i,d want ot be in that boat haha good goin guy though haha had fun i bet![]
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[aquaman]

i don't think thats a face a mother could even love i used to live in texas and years ago when boating in sam rayburn across some shallows i saw a catfish swim out of the way of the boat that made that one look like a kitten !
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[ssor]

patches,
It is nice to see you post on the Texas board again. To ganswer your question this big cat will be seen by many as it is not like most record fish that are C&R after a fue pics and mesurements.

After weighing the fish at a local tackle shop on Friday — at the urging of game warden Dale Moses — Mullennix donated the fish to the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center in Athens.

At last word on Monday, Moses said the giant catfish was doing "great" and was adjusting to its new home.

"This fish has really generated a big response," Moses said. "Randolph McGee, one of the other game wardens in Grayson County, got a phone call from a national radio program at 11 o'clock on Sunday night asking about it."

Obviously, this big blue catfish is making some, ahem, waves.

Other Warden comments wher:
"Not a lot of people get to see a state record, let alone a world-record fish," Moses said

"But those who visit our fisheries center in Athens will be able to say that they've done so."

Mullennix would seem to have great respect for the giant blues of Lake Texoma.

"We've talked about that if we had a chance to talk to the paper, set a record or something like that, we would tell these anglers out there who go after blue cats that they need to release these big blues," Mullennix said.

"We release 99 percent of them — anything over 20 pounds; we release them back into the lake."

It's not that Mullennix and his angling buddies don't like the taste of fried catfish, a staple in the Lone Star State.

It's just that they understand how difficult it is for a blue cat to reach such enormous dimensions.

"These are your big, genetic trophy producers, so turn them back," Mullennix said.

"If you want to brag, take a picture. If you want to eat one, keep a smaller one. These fish are 20, 25 or 30 years old and they deserve to go back into the water."

Except on the rare occasion when a game warden asks you not to!
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[ssor]

This little kitty just might have pulled you and your tube under the surfice.
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[ssor]

I posted the answers to your inquiry in this thred in a reply to patches post.
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[lonehunter]

thanks for the info dwight [cool]

i didn't get the reply to post message , i came by on my own to see how things are done in the lone star state [].

gotta love texas !
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[fyshrmn]

That's a nice fish MY mom lives about 100 miles from texoma looks like I might go for a visit this summer. I'd like to see the look on my boy's faces if we hooked something even half that size
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[lonehunter]

I CAN SEE HIS EYES POPPING OUT NOW ![cool]
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[shark_hunter]

that's the biggest cat I've ever seen.
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[daymere]

thats a big cat biggest one i have caught was around 78 or so pounds but have seen some taken on trot lines that hung out of the back of a pickup nut it was flat heads,2 foot across head and mighty mean looking. but love the pic and i am glad they are not mounting it as it is a old fish and a breader and that means bigger fish will come from it.
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