NC Angler Lands New World Record Blue Catfish

Pending IGFA approval, a North Carolina man will soon hold the IGFA all-tackle world record blue catfish after hauling in a massive 143lb. blue from a local lake. We’re working on getting you more information on this beast, so stay tuned.

From this story in the Richmond Times-Dispatch:
_Nick Anderson, a 29-year-old Greenville, N.C., resident, hauled in a 143-pound blue catfish from Kerr Reservoir, also known as Buggs Island Lake, the nearly 50,000-acre impoundment on the Virginia-North Carolina border on Saturday. Pending certification ˜ and Department of Game and Inland Fisheries biologists say everything about the entry seems legitimate ˜ the fish will shatter both state and world records for the species.
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_Anderson’s catch was 57 inches long, with a girth of 43.5 inches. According to DGIF fisheries biologist Bob Greenlee, a blue catfish that size was probably between 15 and 25 years old. It would be Virginia’s only all-tackle freshwater world record…Anderson hooked the fish shortly before 8 p.m. near Goat Island and brought it to the boat four times before he, his stepbrother Jeramie Mullis and his father, Rick Anderson, could lift it on deck. The fight lasted 45 minutes. “My brother and my dad were jumping up and down,” said Anderson, a high school football coach. “I just sat there kind of shocked. At the time we didn’t know how much he weighed. We knew he was big. We knew we were going to get him certified and measured. But we didn’t know he was going to be a world record.”

_And on what bait did Anderson catch this behemoth? He ‘aint tellin’… “It’s a little family secret,” he said, chuckling. “That’s all I’ll say.”

What’s your best guess?