West Point Blue Cat Record Broken

Jake Saunders, of Bowdon, broke the West Point blue catfish record by 9 pounds with his 29.57-lb. catch.

“I went out fishing intending to catch striped bass,” said Jake. “I caught some shad with my cast net in the afternoon, and I went out to the mouth of the river and anchored out. I had out four rods bottom fishing with both live and cut shad.”

Jake caught the record-breaking fish on an Ugly Stik catfish rod with an Abu Garcia C3 6500 spooled with 20-lb. mono. Jake had multiple hits throughout the evening, and as it got darker, he continued to get more.

“I caught a 10- or 12-lb. blue cat, a 14-lb. flathead and another small flathead, then hooked up with this bigger fish,” said Jake. “It took about 10 minutes to get it to the side of a boat where I could grab it and pull it in.”

“I was pretty certain when it came up beside the boat that it was a new lake record. I put it on my scales, and it weighed 28 something on my hand scale, and then when we took it to the official scales, it went up to 29.57 pounds. I was pretty excited to see it pushing close to 30 pounds.”

All potential record fish must be weighed on certified scales (tested by Ga. Dept. of Agriculture) for consideration, and for many species a verification by a fisheries biologist will be required. If you catch a fish you think might be a lake or river record, call GON at (800) 438-4663 or e-mail [email protected].