Giant Catfish Sets New North Carolina State Record

ACROSS NORTH CAROLINA — North Carolina’s catfish record was shattered last week by an angler who hauled in a 127-pounder.

Rocky Baker went out on the Roanoke River near Williamston looking for a few “eater” fish Saturday night and came back with a whopper of a story.

And a huge blue catfish, too.

The catch broke the state record of 121 pounds and made North Carolina third in the world, behind Missouri and Virginia, for state-record big fish, with Virginia at the top boasting a 143-pounder.

“It was the hardest pulling fish that I ever dealt with,” Baker told Patch. “We hooked it in the middle of the river, and it went to the left side then it went to the right side.”

The Four Oaks truck driver is no stranger to behemoth fish, saying his largest before now was an 80-pound catfish.

After getting this big fish on the line just after 9:30 p.m. Saturday, Baker struggled with the monster fish on the end of the line for about 20 minutes, trusting and hoping his Mad Katz rod and the 40-pound test line would stay in place. Meanwhile, his friend, Justin Clifton, whose 20-foot boat Baker was on, moved around the other 10 rods so Baker’s line didn’t get tangled with them.

Just when it seemed like the fight was over, the fish found a way to prolong the conflict.
“We got it to the back of the boat, he was close enough to net it but he didn’t want to give up,” Baker said. “He would open his mouth and kind of just float away. We couldn’t turn it.”

Eventually, the big fish ran out of steam, and Baker and Clinton were able to get a net on the fish and haul it over the hull and into the boat.

“It was like a baby whale,” Baker said.

They tried to weigh the fish and he said, “my scales just overloaded. That’s when we started freaking out.”

A friend met them at the boat ramp with a sling and a crane scale that showed “130 to 140,” so they needed to get an official weight.

“That’s when the fun started,” Baker joked.

It was nearly midnight, and they had to drive roughly 90 minutes from the boat ramp — with the fish in a containment well to keep it alive — to EZ Bait and Tackle in Goldsboro where there were certified scales and a state biologist to record and confirm the size.

“We got to EZ Bait about 1:30 in the morning,” Baker said. “The owner showed up at about 4 a.m., then the biologist showed up at about 5:30. We weighed him, got some quick pictures and measurements, then got him back in the live well in the boat, and we had to take it all the way back to Roanoke River back at Williamston, an hour-and-a-half away.”

By about 9 a.m., Sunday, the fish was back and the river and Baker was the stuff of legends … for now.

“I mean, that’s a great feeling,” he said about getting the state record. “But I’m expecting that not really to stand very long, to be real honest with you.”

Huge fish have been caught in North Carolina for the past few years. North Carolina’s last big cat -— 121 pounds — was caught in July 2020, according to fishing guide and podcast host Dieter Melhorn. During his podcast earlier this week, Melhorn noted the fish have been getting bigger over the last dozen years, jumping from 105 pounds in 2015 to the one from last year Baker just beat.

“These numbers are just skyrocketing up,” Melhorn said. “Is there something in the water? Yeah. There is. It's called big blue catfish.”

Baker’s was just the next in a growing trend.

“North Carolina’s a hidden gem if people fish the right areas,” he said. “There’s some serious fishing here.”