From left: Michael Ramey and his friends Tyler McCoy and Mark Taylor
with Ramey’s West Virginia state-record blue cat. (courtesy of West Virginia DNR)
River Rumors: Record Cats Making Headlines
By Keith “Catfish” Sutton
Seems like catfish just keep getting bigger, with new state records making the news almost weekly.
Consider, for example, that anglers in three different states rewrote the catfish record books with impressive catches this May and June.
The streak started May 9 on West Virginia’s stretch of the Ohio River, where Michael Ramey of Poca boated a 71-pound blue catfish while competing in an Ohio Hills Catfish Club catch-and-release tournament in Jackson County. Fishing with cut-bait on 100-pound-test line, Ramey’s fish measured 50.23 inches long and eclipsed the previous West Virginia weight record of 69.45 pounds set in 2023.
Less than a month later, on June 1, Pennsylvania angler Scott Failor added his name to Delaware’s record book with a 36.2-pound flathead catfish from the Delaware River near Augustine Beach. Failor, who reportedly doesn’t eat fish himself, donated the record catch to another family after it was certified by Delaware fisheries officials. The 41-inch flathead topped the state’s previous record by more than two pounds.
Then came the catch that had catfish anglers across the country talking.
On June 10, Joseph Driggers of Florence, South Carolina, landed a staggering 113.7-pound flathead catfish from the Big Pee Dee River. Certified by the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, the giant shattered the existing South Carolina flathead record by nearly 30 pounds. The fish now ranks as the second-largest flathead catfish ever caught on rod and reel in the United States, trailing only the longstanding 123-pound world-record fish from Kansas.
Whether it’s heavyweight blues from the Ohio River or giant flatheads from the Delaware and Pee Dee rivers, one thing is becoming increasingly clear: today’s catfish fisheries are producing the kind of fish anglers once only dreamed about.
If you’re headed to the water this summer, make sure your drag is set, your knots are solid and your camera batteries are charged. The next state record might be just one bite away.
(Keith “Catfish” Sutton served as the Natural State’s state fishing records coordinator during his 19-year career with the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission.)
