Sinclair Catfish Sets Lake Record

Another Georgia lake record has been broken. Henry Younker, of Oxford, landed a record blue catfish Friday, June 12 on Lake Sinclair.

Henry and his two sons put their boat in the water at Little River around 7 a.m. After having much success throughout the day, the boys decided to stay as long as they could.

Just after lunch, the group began getting bites left and right. His sons reeled in several cats that were of good size, then after casting out live shad, Henry caught his massive fish. After a 10-minute battle, Henry was able to pull the catfish in the boat.

A friend fishing with them alerted Henry that he should have the catfish weighed on a certified scale. The fish was 39 inches long and weighed in at 35-lbs., 12-ozs., setting a new lake record for a blue cat caught on rod and reel. The previous record was a 33-lb., 7-oz. blue catfish caught by Tim Ryan last June 9, 2014.

It was the Younker family’s first time fishing Lake Sinclair.

"It was a lot of fun, one of my sons caught three others that totaled right at 80 pounds together," he said.

Henry actually has a fish allergy that prohibits him from consuming any of the fish they caught, but his two sons, "have eaten it every day since."

"Every one in the boat caught at least 30 pounds of fish," said Henry. "I don’t get to fish often but we will definitely be making another trip back."