Cary Winchester (right) and partner Harold Dodd proudly display the 108-pound blue cat Winchester caught to establish a new record for the largest catfish ever weighed in a tournament.
CAT-aclysm in Memphis: A Tournament to Remember
By Keith “Catfish” Sutton
“Move over Elvis, a couple of new kings are in town!”
That was the opening line in a news story I wrote after participating in one of the first big-money catfishing tournaments in the history of the sport—Bass Pro Shop’s Big Cat Quest Championship, November 3-4, 2007, in Memphis, Tennessee.
It was an event I was glad I could attend because everyone who was there—anglers and onlookers alike—got a huge surprise. Veteran catfishermen Phil King of Corinth, Miss. and Cary Winchester of Cape Girardeau, Mo. weighed in two Mississippi River catfish the likes of which had never been seen in a catfishing tournament.
On Day 1, fishing with partners Tim Haynie and Leland Harris, King landed a 103-pound blue cat, a record for the largest catfish ever caught in a tournament at that time. Then, on Day 2, despite all odds, Winchester caught an even bigger blue—a 108-pounder that took 45 minutes to subdue.
As one cat man put it, “Even on the Mississippi, one of the world’s best trophy catfish waters, odds of that happening are a million to one.”
King’s team won the championship with a two-day, 10-fish total of 291 pounds.
