Wade Kaminski on Friday reeled from the Mississippi River “the fish of a lifetime,” a 5-foot-long blue catfish that weighed 112 pounds.
“This is the one I’ve been chasing my whole life,” Kaminski, who is from St. Charles, Mo., told NBC affiliate KSDK.
He joins a small number of anglers to have landed blue catfish topping 100 pounds. (The Missouri state record is 130 pounds; the world record is a 143-pound blue catfish caught in Virginia’s Kerr Lake in 2011.)
Kaminski told For The Win Outdoors that a longtime goal has been to surpass the 100-pound mark. “Prior to Friday my biggest blue cat was 90 pounds and I knew right away that this fish was much larger,” he said.
ALSO ON FTW OUTDOORS: Cyclists stopped in tracks by giant elk, and it’s awesome
The images, with the 630-foot St. Louis Gateway Arch in the background, certainly show a fish with substantial girth.
Kaminski and Jake Derhake were drift-fishing with skipjack herring as bait when the giant catfish struck at a depth of 30 feet. The battle, on 80-pound-test braided line, lasted about eight minutes.
Their scale topped out at 100 pounds so Kaminski and Derhake motored to a St. Louis guide who was fishing near the Arch and used his scale to obtain an official weight.
The catfish was kept in an aerated live well during transit and released after it was immortalized in photos.
“We want these fish to be around for the next generations or maybe in a couple years to catch this fish again and get the same enjoyment we got today,” Kaminski told KSDK.
–Images courtesy of Wade Kaminski