Johnny D. Anderson of Cleburne hooked the catfish of a lifetime when fishing in Lake Pat Cleburne on February 27.  According to the Cleburne TImes-Review Anderson landed a 4.5 foot blue catfish weighing in at 63.5 pounds.  The monstrous fish would have almost doubled the record for a blue cat taken at the lake.  Anderson did not want to keep the fish out of the water for the amount of time it would have taken to get it registered and released the fish after getting his wife to take some photos.

“I fought with that fish for a long time,” Anderson said. “It pulled the line to the end of the reel all the way out about two times. It was a lot of fun.” After a 45-minute struggle, he finally reeled the line all the way in and couldn’t believe what he caught.

Anderson, who normally catches 15- to 30-pound catfish, thought nobody would believe his fish tale so he called his wife to come take a look. “He called me and said, ‘You have to come see how big this fish is,’” Juanita Anderson said. “’Bring your camera with you.’”

According to the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department, the blue catfish is a large, smooth-skinned fish with a slate blue body and whisker-like barbels around its mouth. Adults usually grow to be less than two feet long. After weighing and taking photos of the fish, Johnny D. Anderson released it back into the lake.  “When they get over 10 or 12 pounds I release them,”  Anderson said. “I figure if they survive to get that big, in my opinion, they deserve to live.”