WYOMING – Christian Crosby reeled in what he thought was a carp last Saturday while fishing Anvil Draw on Flaming Gorge Reservoir.
“Holy cow it’s a catfish!” Cosby blurted when he got a better look. “I thought maybe it was a carp. I pulled it as close as I could get it to the shore in the shallow water. Then I jumped in the water, stuck my hand in his mouth and pulled it onto the shore. I was afraid he was going to jump off the line.”
And what a catfish it was. A monster. At 28.52 pounds, measuring 39 inches long, with a girth of 23.25 inches, it was the biggest channel catfish ever caught in the state of Wyoming, and Cosby reeled him in on a six-pound test line.
Cosby said he was especially surprised to see such a big fish in shallow water.
“He was in only 18 inches of water; maybe up eating carp eggs, or chillin’ in the warm water because it was nice, warm water in that shallow cove. It was right in the middle of the day; about one o’clock. I have fished a lot in Alabama where I lived and I’ve fished the Gorge for big lake trout and kokanee salmon, but never for catfish. I feel like I must be the luckiest person.”
Fish don’t get as big as the one Cosby caught without living some. Wyoming Game and Fish Department Green River Fisheries supervisor Robb Keith said there is no doubt Cosby’s fish is a very old fish. “A quick Internet search suggests the oldest catfish on record was 40 years old,” Keith said. “We last stocked channel catfish in Flaming Gorge Reservoir in 2008. Channel catfish stocking in the Gorge was stopped because we were having a hard time finding a source of catfish free of aquatic invasive species.”
The previous state record for channel catfish was set on April 27, 2005 by another Rock Springs angler, Don Ackerman, also in Flaming Gorge Reservoir. The catfish weighed 27.99 pounds, was 38 inches long, and had a girth of 26 inches.
Cosby took the fish to a nearby retail store where he figured he could get it on a proper scale.
“We took the fish to Staples to get weighed-in and we got a lot of funny looks,” Cosby said. “They made us take the fish outside after about five minutes. They said it was making the store smell. We felt like real hillbillies. Afterwards, I took the catfish home because I plan to eat it.”
