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The streak continues with a brand new heaviest blue cat caught from the Ohio River

Michael John Drake with the brand new state-record blue cat. {Photograph} courtesy West Virginia DNR

With lower than a month left in 2023, West Virginia angler Michael John Drake was in a position to maintain the annual record-breaking streak alive in his residence state. On Dec. 8, Drake caught a 69.45-pound blue catfish that broke the state file. His catch marks the fourth consecutive 12 months the file has been damaged, based on the West Virginia Division of Pure Assets.

Drake, who lives in St. Albans, caught the large blue on a bit of reduce shad. He was fishing from his boat on the Ohio River close to Gallipollis, in a spot referred to as the R.C. Boyd Pool. Different particulars behind the record-breaking catch are sparse, and Drake didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.

The WVDNR defined in a information launch that Drake launched the fish after it was verified and measured by the company’s hatchery supervisor, Ryan Bosserman. In contrast to another states, West Virginia’s fishing information e-book incorporates each length- and weight-based information for blue catfish. (Launched fish are eligible for both class so long as they’re weighed on a licensed scale and checked out by a DNR fisheries biologist beforehand.) And up till Drake’s catch earlier this month, each information belonged to Steven Value, who pulled a 50.7-inch, 67.22-pound blue catfish from the Kanawha River on Could 25, 2022.

In response to Bosserman’s measurements, Drake’s catfish measured 50.51 inches lengthy and weighed 69.45 kilos — which is greater than two kilos heavier than Value’s fish however only a hair shorter. So, whereas Drake’s fish units a brand new weight file, Value’s 50.7-inch Kanawha River fish will maintain its place because the longest blue cat within the state’s file e-book. As for the latest, four-year scorching streak, it’s not instantly clear why so many file blue cats have been caught since 2020. The fish are native to the Ohio River watershed, which incorporates the Kanawha.

Learn Subsequent: How you can Catch Catfish in Winter

Whereas a variety of anglers assume that the one information damaged throughout the wintertime are caught by way of the ice, the colder months is usually a nice time to chase large blue catfish on massive, open-water rivers. As OL’s Fishing Editor Joe Cermele identified in a latest column, colder water temps can really make trophy blues extra predictable as they gravitate to sure areas and proceed to feed closely by way of the winter. When you dial in these spots, the subsequent record-breaking catfish could possibly be only one forged away.