 July 11, 1999
Ray Sasser's Outdoor
Sports column
HUGE CATFISH LIKES OATMEAL IN MORNING
Carrollton angler, Chuck Bauer, likes fishing in small lakes.
One of his favorites is a spring-fed, two-acre pond near Dallas.
As small as it is, the pond has yielded several big bass to Bauer,
who releases everything he catches.
Last year, Bauer caught a 33-pound channel catfish that he
submitted for a world line-class record. The fish would have
qualified except that Bauer had to enter the water to free the
fish from a bush where it had tangled his line. He passed his rod
to a fishing buddy to hold while he untangled the fish. Having
more than one fisherman in possession of the rod disqualified his
catch as a world record.
On June 30, Bauer was fishing his favorite pond when he spotted
another huge catfish finning in about three feet of water. He was
using a live bluegill for bait and was certain the big fish would
eat it. He was wrong. The catfish uncharacteristically ignored the
live offering.
Undaunted, Bauer returned to the pond about 10 a.m. the next
day for another try, this time with an unusual bait.
"A friend had told me about using oatmeal for catfish bait,"
said Bauer. "I took a handful of oatmeal and mixed it with enough
water to form it into a ball and molded the ball of oatmeal around
my treble hook. It took the oatmeal about a minute to dry so it
was hard enough to cast without coming apart."
Bauer
spotted a fish about where he had seen the big cat the previous
day, but he couldn't tell much about the fish. He thought it was
another catfish but doubted it was the big one. He cast his
oatmeal ball about 20 feet beyond the fish, reeled it back until
the bait was about where he had seen the fish and let it sink.
He never felt the bite, just saw the line start moving about
the same time he saw the fish's tail, which looked as wide as a
boat paddle, turn in the water.
 Bauer was fishing from the bank, using a nine-foot rod
and a reel loaded with 12-pound test line. He set the hook on the
fish, then put the reel in free-spool and allowed the big catfish
to run with just light thumb pressure on the spool.
The fight lasted a long time. The pond didn't have much brush
in it but the moss was thick around the shallows. The catfish got
a bad angle on Bauer and he waded out into the pond to keep the
fish from fouling his line.
After nearly 30 minutes, the line collected about 10 pounds of
moss and Bauer knew that the 12-pound line wouldn't take much more
abuse. He laid his rod on the bank, put the reel in free-spool and
entered the water after the big fish.
"I managed to get ahold of the line between the moss and the
fish," Bauer said. "She made several more strong runs while I
allowed the line to play between my fingers. I finally managed to
get underneath the fish with both arms and pitched her up on the
bank. I couldn't believe how big she was."
Bauer had an oversized ice chest into which he put the prize
catch. Then he quickly filled the ice chest with water. With a
friend snapping pictures, he carefully measured the fish, which
was 44 inches long, then weighed it on a set of Berkley digital
scales. It weighed 47.9 pounds. Then Bauer released the catfish
back into the small pond.
He's submitting his catch first as a world line-class record to
the National Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame. He then plans to
submit it as a world line-class record to the International Game
Fish Association. It's also bigger than the existing state record
for a channel catfish caught from a private lake (39.62 pounds).
Bauer's catfish tops the Texas public waters record of 36.5
pounds by 11.4 pounds, but private-waters fish are not counted as
state records in Texas. The big catfish just goes to show that big
fish can come from small waters.
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