Fishermen wrestle catfish from Texas lake with bare hands. See the ‘monster’ catch

Mitchell Willetts
·2 min read
61

A pair of fishermen recently pulled a “monster” catfish out of a Texas lake using the cheapest bait available — themselves.

Justin White and Drew Moore were noodling at Lake Tawakoni, roughly 90 miles east of Fort Worth, when something massive bit down and put up a powerful fight, White said in a June 25 Facebook post.

Drew Moore poses with the nearly 100-pound catfish.
Drew Moore poses with the nearly 100-pound catfish.

For those not familiar with noodling, it’s a method of fishing in which an angler dangles a hand or foot ever so temptingly until a fish — hopefully toothless — clamps around the limb. The angler then grabs the fish with their bare hands and pulls it ashore.

Typically, noodlers are trying to catch catfish and will put their hand close to or inside of a catfish hole.

White shared photos of the huge fish, which weighed in at 98.7 pounds.

The catfish was weighed using a scale at Duck Cove Marina at Lake Tawakoni.
The catfish was weighed using a scale at Duck Cove Marina at Lake Tawakoni.

The post doesn’t specify what kind of catfish it is, but commenters seem to agree it’s a flathead.

“(We) swam in this hole side by side at 14 feet deep and got beat up by her,” White said. “She WAS NOT HAPPY that we were there but we got her controlled and got her back to the boat.”

After snapping a few photos and documenting the fish’s weight, “she was released lively as could be,” White said.

“Never thought we would run into such an animal but so blessed to have the opportunity to do so,” he said. “Still waiting on the paper work to go through, but looking at the biggest catfish ever noodled and weighed on certified scales, she was released to fight another day.”

A Texas game warden was also there to witness the weigh-in, White said in a comment.

McClatchy News has reached out to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department to confirm if the catch is being considered as a new potential record.

Many were impressed not only with the size of the fish but also the method of catch, and gave the anglers kudos for letting the catfish go.

“That is a monster J! Wow!” a comment said.

“So the rumor is true, there are catfish the size of mopeds,” a commenter said in another post by Duck Cove Marina.

“It looks like this fish may have eaten the last noodler who went down there alone,” said another.