86 Pound Blue Cat Pulled from Missouri Waters and Freed

A man fishing in Missouri now has a whopper of a fish story to tell after he landed a blue cat weighing more than 86 pounds and then simply let it go.

Check out this huge blue catfish that the Missouri Department of Conservation just shared on their Facebook page. They say Wally Klein was fishing in the Missouri River near Washington, Missouri when he caught a more than 86 pound blue catfish. This is a monster.

The Missouri Department of Conservation says that Wally was using gizzard shad as bait.

Is this the largest blue cat ever caught in Missouri?

Believe it or not, no and it's not even close. According to the Missouri Department of Conservation, the largest blue catfish ever caught in the state was an incredible 130 pounds on July 20, 2010. That was also an all-tackle world record back in 2010, too.

The largest fish I ever caught in Missouri was a 7 1/2 pound bass when my dad and I fished in a pond near a rock quarry. It was part of a fishing trip by my Boy Scout troop and I remember having a hard time sleeping that night for fear that my fish would escape back into the pond. Good times, good memories.

Congrats to Wally Klein on his big blue catfish catch and great sportsmanship letting the fish go back to doing blue catfish things in the wild.