Covey Bean| Oklahoman
Mark Amspacher wouldn't think of going bear hunting with a switch, but judging by what the Norman angler accomplished a while back at Lake Texoma he might be able to get the job done.
Amspacher landed a 49 1/2-pound blue catfish, which is nothing unusual, but he did it with a light spinning rig and 6-pound line, which the record books say is so unusual it may have never been done.
Amspacher got both fish and line certified so his catch can be considered for a world line-class record.
However, the International Game Fish Association does not maintain a 6-pound classification, which means Amspacher's blue would go to the 8-pound category where it would fall shy of a 58-pounder.
But the latest listing available from the National Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame, another organization that recognizes angling records, does have a 6-pound class, and Amspacher's fish would oust a 26-pound, 10-ouncer for the world record.
Amspacher hooked the catfish purely by accident after a fruitless day of fishing for smallmouth and stripers with guide Charlie Vernon.
"I was bored, tired, disgusted or whatever," he said, "so I picked up my spinning rod and started throwing a Texas Shad and letting it go down to the bottom and bringing it in real slow.
"I had made five or six casts," he said. "I knew a fish hit it. I set the hook, but then I thought I was hung up because nothing gave. It was just like I had hit a stump. I started jerking on my rod and popping my line, but it was stuck.
"We started back toward it in the boat when all of a sudden my line took off and my drag started whining. I said I thought I might have a fish, and an hour and a half later I found out I did."
Vernon ran the boat as Amspacher carefully played the cat, letting it go its own way.
"It took us out toward the Willis Bridge and into the river channel," he said. "Then it turned around and went back to where I had hooked it. I just kept working him ever so gently, and when I stopped I started pumping him up ever so gently."
Amspacher said when he got the 43-inch-long catfish alongside the boat, Vernon gaffed it in.
Texoma holds the blue catfish records for 15- , 17- , 20- and 40-pound test line, plus the unrestricted record for that species.BIOG:NAME:
Archive ID: 414122
