75-Pound Blue Catfish Caught In Tennessee

photo credit: Richard Simms

Fishing For Big Blue Catfish

Matt Schulte from Colorado went down to the Chickamauga Lake in Tennessee to go fishing with his buddies, but what he didn’t realize is he was about to catch the biggest blue catfish he’s ever caught.

“This might be the biggest catfish I’ve ever caught” Matt Schulte said.

the potential to catch a big one

Chickamauga Lake is known for having gigantic catfish swimming around in it but most people never see these rare river monsters. When people catch them they usually catch 10 pounders so when Matt heard about the potential to catch a big one he got his gear together and got on the lake with his uncle, Larry Miller.

It was around 11am and both Larry and Matt had caught multiple 10-pound catfish. Though when Matt cast his line back in the water for another round something much bigger grabbed the line this time. Matt was using a bluegill head for bate, which is a catfish favorite, and this catfish had a whole mouth full of it.

45 Minute tug-of-war battle

Battling for over 45 minutes Matt was not giving up on this catch. The pole was completely bent in a ninety-degree angle for pretty much the entire time and when the catfish finally got to the surface the guys were in a bit of shock.

It’s a whopping 75 pounds, 53 inches long and a girth of 33.5 inches. They had to grab it by it’s lower jaw with two hands and it took another third hand from Larry to get it pulled onto the boat. It was a true beauty. The guys took pictures with it and released it back into the water.

Watch the video below to see it all on camera.