Does this look like 72.5lbs??

http://www.powerpro.com/trophy/trophy_details.asp?PP_TROPHY_ID=102

If you look in the trophy room at PP’s site, you see a lot of big dead cats. I guess I’m assuming they are dieing since they are on shore holding them.

Every search i did for the Oklahoma State Record flathead brought up the same guy and the same picture….

May be the dudes 8′ tall and thats his wife standing next to him. If not, no way is the fish in that photo 72.5lbs.

I would guess 35ish, but no way it that over 50 let alone a 72# fish

CA

Look at the fish.. I agree that it doesnt look like its 72#.. but it is a huge fish even though the pictures are poor to show the fish size… bigger than many are saying here.

Look at the lips on that fish in the picture where he is holding it verticaly.. that fish hit the size where they start to stick out even more.. I guess I cant find the right phrase, but only really big flatheads do that.. I have seen 4 like that. One was a dead one that floated up and noober and blacksportsman drug up on shore earlier this year.. they didnt weight it but it was about a 48″ fish(close to 50#?), another was a 50″ flathead caught a few years back by a friend of mine on the Minnesota river.. it was never weight but we *called* it a 50# fish.. today, I realize that may have been way heavier(50#-60#), and the other 2 fish I seen with the overdeveloped lip/jaw were my largest flats at 53″ & 55″.. The 53″ weighed more than 60#. The 55″ had way less bulk.

the point being… all of these fish were 50#+ that had the *super lips* .. kind of like huge channels that start getting *eye brows* around 20#.

What is throwing me off is the child in that picture.. unless that is a really tall child, I dont see where that is a 70# class fish.. The guy holding it does look like he has the build of a very tall man… maybe the kid is tall too.. My cousin has a 2 year old that is as tall as my 4 year old.. and my 4 year old is as tall as they get for his age.. it does happen.

I know that fish he has is more than 50#.. it doesnt look like a 70# fish.. but I guess it could be.

I would be upset if I caught a 70# and the pictures turned out like that.

I guess the DNR feels it was 72 lbs!

From the OK DNR website:

Catfish, Flathead 72-8 51 1/4 35 El Reno Lake 5-20-04 Ronald Cantrell

1. Fish MUST be caught on rod and line and MUST be hooked and played by only one person. (Except for unrestricted division).
2. Fish MUST be caught in accordance with Oklahoma Fishing Regulations.
3. No fish caught from any hatchery or commercial put-and-take lake is eligible.
4. Accredited or certified weight scales MUST be used to weigh the fish. Accredited steel measuring tapes MUST be used to measure the fish. The fish should be measured over the side from tip of nose to tip of tail (tail lobes pressed together) giving length of fish in inches. Measure the girth of the fish in inches around its widest point. Three witnesses, one of which must be an employee of the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife, must witness the weighing and measuring of the fish and sign the affidavit.
5. The fish MUST be preserved in a live-weight condition until approved by an Oklahoma Wildlife Fisheries biologist or technician, and an official letter of verification from the Director of the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation has been received by the angler.
6. A clear photograph showing a close-up side view of the fish MUST accompany the completed fish affidavit form. All photographs become the property of the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation.
7. The Department reserves the right to collect fish scale, tissue or spine samples to check fish identification and to refuse any questionable fish affidavit submitted. The affidavit must be submitted within 30 days of the date the fish is caught.

In addition to rod and line records, an Unrestricted Division includes the heaviest of those species taken by other legal means (bow and arrow, gig, spear, trotline, jugline, bankline, etc.) TYING or EXCEEDING the weight of existing rod and line records.

Everytime I read about a 70 plus catfish, I dig this picture out from 2003. This is what a really big catfish looks like

I’m glad you posted that again Scott!

Best pic I’ve ever seen with a walleye guy in it!!

That guy is either 10 feet tall or he fed his catfish no rolls until he couldn’t stuff any more into its belly.

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I’m glad you posted that again Scott!

Best pic I’ve ever seen with a walleye guy in it!!

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Hey! That hurts!

Here’s the Wisconsin state record (frozen – 74.5 pounds):

The fish in the picture above (to begin the thread) is easily in the upper 50s by the look of it, could be 72.

That is truly a monster,Scott. Did you ever get any measurements?

OK, now i can belive that that one is 74.5 but the first picture did not look like 72 pounds! Although it could eat that little girl for lunch…..

Maybe he was using his other kid as bait and that was in it’s gut adding to the weight. Or maybe he was real creative and forced a car battery down it’s throat before weighing it?

That last picture from Wisconsin is a big one, that is a really long fish.

I did not get measurements of my fish, I caught it during a walleye tournament on Pool 4, we were really close to the launch so we ran it to have it weighed quick. The scale only went to 55 though, we knew it was bigger because our hand held went to 60 and it bottomed that one out. It was a huge fish, we had to set in on the front deck of my Ranger because it would not fit in the livewell opening.

Brian–I think I will stick with walleye, if you can land a fish like that with 6 ft rod and 6 lb Flourocarbon, they don’t fight hard enough for their size