Lake Record Size Goat Rock Blue Catfish Caught On Video… And Released!

Austin Miller (left) and his brother Tommy, of Senoia, showing off their successful fishing trip on Goat Rock Lake with Captain Ken Athon.

As the sun came up on Feb. 1, Capt. Ken Athon took two brothers out for a casual fishing trip on Goat Rock Lake. The air was cool and a dense fog was set over the water. Despite the conditions, the group was eager to get started, knowing the fish were going to be active. What started as a laid-back morning quickly turned into an unforgettable day when their second catch came within two pounds of breaking the lake record.

The current Goat Rock Lake blue catfish record is 63-lbs., caught by Gene Fleming on Feb. 23, 2020.

Goat Rock Lake is located along the Georgia-Alabama border on the Chattahoochee River just south of Bartletts Ferry.

“I went down to Goat Rock the Sunday before and the fish were active. I had no success on West Point where I usually fish, so I told those guys we were going to fish at Goat Rock,” said Capt. Ken Athon. His good friend Wynn Lovvorn, an avid West Point catfish angler, gave him the tip to fish at Goat Rock.

Austin and Tommy Miller, of Senoia, met Capt. Ken at the ramp Saturday morning at 7 a.m.

“I marked a ton of fish on my graph, and I told those guys we’re not going any further. We had baits out at about 7:15 a.m. and almost immediately got a skunk buster, an 8-lb. blue cat.”

Capt. Ken had gizzard shad from two days before at West Point, so they were ready to go from the start.

“Then the rod went down in the back right. You knew the way it was fighting that it was gonna be a big fish, no clue it would be over 61 pounds. I was trying not to coach Austin too much and he did really well; he did it exactly right.

Austin’s trophy catch weighed 61.25-lbs. on a KastKing scale, which is just under the lake record for blue catfish.

“It rolled up at the top of the water and he and I saw the sheer size of the fish. I gasped and thought, ‘This is serious business, we gotta get this fish on the boat.’”

After roughly five years of trophy fishing, the biggest fish Captain Ken has boated was 45 pounds up until this trip.

Austin was the lucky angler who reeled in the 61.25-lb. blue catfish that morning. The fish was weighed on Capt. Ken’s KastKing scale, an uncertified scale. Interestingly, Captain Ken went home to weigh 60-lb. gym weights to test his scale, and it came out to 58.5 pounds. Austin’s catfish very well could have beaten the Goat Rock Lake record! The group was happy to release the giant catfish to hopefully be caught again by a lucky angler.

This monster blue cat is the biggest fish Captain Ken Athon has had on his boat to date.

The group ended the day with 20 to 25 more fish on the boat between 7 a.m. and noon, but not one of those fish compared to the monster from earlier that morning.

“I think that fish could’ve beaten the record had I called someone with a certified scale, but at least that fish gets to live to swim another day and maybe we’ll have a chance at him again one day.”