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Catfish gives fisherman a record story to tell

Tommy Couch of Howe holds the 76-pound flathead catfish he caught below Wister Dam Saturday. The catfish is a new state record for rod and reel. COURTESY/ Tommy Couch
 
By KELLY BOSTIAN World Outdoors Writer
Published: 6/18/2009  2:29 AM
Last Modified: 6/18/2009  3:43 AM
Related story: Odd items abound from cleanup.


Tommy Couch finally caught the catfish of his dreams, but now he can't sleep for thinking about the new state record flathead catfish that he caught Saturday afternoon.

"I'm still surprised I got him in," Couch said. "It's still hard to go to sleep at night without thinking of him"

Couch's flathead, which officially weighed 76 pounds, was 51 1/2 inches long and had a girth of 58 1/4 inches, is a new state record flathead to be caught on a rod and reel. It easily eclipses the 72-pound, 8-ounce record fish caught in El Reno Lake in 2004 by angler Ron Cantrell.

With the catch, Wister Lake becomes Oklahoma's home to giant catfish. Couch caught his monster below the Wister Dam in the old Poteau River channel, so the record also will stand as a lake record for Wister Lake. The state record flathead catfish in the "unrestricted" category, caught on a trot line in 1977 by C. Clubb, weighed 106 pounds.

Couch, a paint-and-body man for Caughern Construction Co., lives in Howe "about five miles from the catfish hole," he said. He has fished the area since he was young and now has the big catfish bug. "I know some holes my grandpa took me to when I was younger, and he said there were big ones in there. Now I know they're in there I may have to go try them one day."

Couch's big-fish day started out small and slow. He caught a little blue catfish "maybe 9 or 10 inches," he said. As is his tradition, he always keeps the first one he catches, often putting it back in when a bigger one comes along.

"I spanked his butt and put him in the bucket and told him to cry for his grandpa. We all got a laugh out of that," he said. "He got his grandpa alright. We turned that little boy loose. It was real exciting, I tell you."

Using a 3-ounce bell sinker tied off his main 20-pound-test line with lighter-weight line to hold his bait in the strong flow below the dam, Couch was able to work his bait into a deep hole he'd been shooting for all day that was only about five or six feet away from the bank. Just a few minutes passed before that big cat picked up the red worm and 2-ought hook, taking off "like a rocket" and breaking off the sinker. "I thought it was a big ol' buffalo carp, really, until I got it to the bank," he said. "Other people saw the tail out there, though, so other people knew."

He guessed he had "about a hundred" witnesses, including a local game warden. Many pulled their own lines out of the water to watch his 45-minute fight with the brute. "I thought it was just about a half-hour, but people said it was more like 45 minutes," he said.

The fish ripped line off his Abu Garcia Ambassador 5000 reel out into the main current and pulled steadily until the end. "Then he shot way out there, pulling the line out real bad, and all the sudden he just stopped and I got him turned and went to work on him. I guess he wore himself out. Did me too; my arms were achin'. Boy, I felt like I'd been lifting 100-pound weights for an hour or so."

The ordeal was far from over as he sought an official weight, which must be done when the fish is alive and on certified scales. The owner of Weaver's Meat Market in Poteau agreed to open his shop, but it took four hours to find a container big enough to transport the live fish.

"We finally put him head-first into a 55-gallon drum, was all we could find that was barely big enough," he said. "His tail stuck out the top. He was a wavin' to people as we went down the road. People were lookin' at us, and some turned around to follow."

With the long wait and multiple riverside showings of the fish, some estimated the big cat may have lost four or five pounds between the time it was caught and finally weighed, "but I just couldn't believe it when I saw that 76 pounds. I'm happy with that," Couch said.

Kelly Bostian, 581-8357
kelly.bostian@tulsaworld.com
By KELLY BOSTIAN World Outdoors Writer

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Arbythree, Tulsa (6/18/2009 2:00:25 PM)
Fun story. Congratulations on your record Mr. Couch.
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Lance-a-lot, Tulsa (6/18/2009 2:36:42 PM)
Nice, that will make for some good dinners for a whole year.
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Arbythree, Tulsa (6/18/2009 2:37:53 PM)
That is a lot of fish sticks too.
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industrialsplicing, Hackett (6/18/2009 3:14:39 PM)
Just had Tommy stop in at our shop, Industrial Splicing & Sling in Fort Smith. He shared his story with us and some nice pictures of this grand adventure.

We're proud of ya Tommy. What a great job to land that big ole cat.
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Ric, Broken Arrow (6/18/2009 4:23:23 PM)
I had a catfish bite the heck out of my finger one time, couldn't get him off. Finally shook him really hard, he left teeth marks staight down my finger, the varmint.

That's a big honkin' fish! Congratulations.
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2curious, Tulsa, OK 74104 (6/19/2009 7:35:42 AM)
Great catch!

Wonder just how old such a fish might be... 30? 40?
 

 
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