HAMILTON COUNTY, Tenn. — It was just a normal Saturday night for David Anderson; he wanted to go fishing since he didn't have to work the next day.
David invited friends, but, no one accepted. Now his friends are all wishing they had gone with him to see the 103-pound blue catfish that he reeled in.
Anderson was fishing in Hamilton County at Suck Creek on Nickajack Reservoir.
While talking to a friend on the phone, he saw he had a bite, then the line broke. Around 11:45 p.m., his pole, which had been lodged into the rocks, was jerked from the rocks. That's when he knew he had something big, so he went on Facebook Live.
He fought with the fish for an hour before it finally got close enough to the bank where he could go into the water with his net, hoping to scoop the fish out of the water.
Anderson says, “I saw it roll and I saw the tail fan. I was in disbelief. I put the net under the fish, and it dropped its head and bent the net.”
He says he knew he had to get to shallow water to get control of it and to be able to manage the net. Once in shallow water, he tried again to scoop the fish, but, the net broke.
“I was not going to let this fish get away after the fight and I gathered both net and fish and took them to the bank,” said Anderson.
The state record, set by Robert E. Lewis in 1998, is 112 pounds, which was caught on the Cumberland River.
