‘Monster’ the 120-Pound Gargantuan Blue Catfish Captured; Will This Be a New Record for Tennessee Fishery?

A gargantuan blue catfish named "Monster" was recently captured in Tennessee, particularly into the Cumberland River.

The 54-inch long fish, weighing almost 120 pounds, was released back into the river from which it was captured after its measurements were recorded, a Newsweek report said.

According to the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency that shared the images on Facebook, the catch was true "a big blue."

Micka Burkhart recently caught a monster blue cat on the Cumberland River in Stewart County on skipjack and a 30-pound test line.

A New Tennessee Record

The 118-pound, seven-ounce blue cat, will be a new Tennessee record pending verification and certification. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration describes the blue catfish as "the largest species of catfish" in the United States and is native to Ohio, Missouri, the Mississippi, and Rio Grande river basins.

The hugest specimen ever captured, reeled in at the Virginia-North Carolina border, this catch weighs 143 pounds. This species is a popular sports fish because of its size. It has also been introduced across the nation for recreational fishing.

Blue catfish are preying upon a variety of species, including clams, insects, worms, mussels, frogs, crustaceans, and smaller fish.

They have sensory tissues on their whisker-like barbels and skin that enables the catfish to detect prey by tasting the water near them.

Females can produce from 4,000 to 8,000 eggs a kilogram of body weight, with both males and females providing a certain degree of parental care following spawning.

Catfish Mortality Rate and Body Size

The Animal Diversity Web reported that the male catfish forces the female away from the nest after fertilizing the eggs, where he is organizing, protecting, and guarding the eggs.

Meanwhile, Blue catfish are preyed upon by various seabirds and their species members. They have specialized spinal barbs on some of their fins for self-protection from predators, which can inject poisons into their captors.

Moreover, this fish species is considered invasive in the Chesapeake Bay on the eastern Virginia and Maryland coast.

Because of their low mortality rate, large body size, high reproduction rate, and predation rate, the catfish have exploded, in terms of population in the area, resulting in effects on other native wildlife.

Current Blue Catfish Record Holder in Tennessee

The present Tennessee state record is a 112-pound fish also caught in the Cumberland River in 1998. This means that the new 118-pound monster catch will be the latest record-holder after being verified.

Burkhart posted pictures and videos of his catch on social media, showing himself trying to raise the fish into the boat with a net and another photo attempting and failing to lift it off the ground.

Related information about Tennessee blue catfish is shown on Top Knox Fishing's YouTube video below:

Check out more news and information on Fish in Science Times.