Lifestyle
Massive Catfish Caught in Lake Conroe
When Mike Gore of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department headed out for a Lake Conroe survey, he didn’t imagine he’d catch this huge blue catfish.
In February, Gore pulled in this 52-inch, 77-pound blue catfish from the depths of Lake Conroe using an 8-foot sampling gear net. He wasn’t fishing — he was just doing his job that day of sampling the waters of the lake.
While the catfish was released, swimmers shouldn’t fear the waters too much. He told Your Houston News that “it’s not very often we get something that big…It was the luck of the draw.”
The weight of the fish was estimated at 77 pounds based on historical catches and size estimates since the scale on board the boat only went to 25 pounds. That proves just how rare this monster is in the lake – they weren’t even prepared for it!
The catfish probably grew to its massive, healthy size because “Lake Conroe’s water shed is in the national forest, which best provides a good habitat for fish.” The fish could have been around 20 years old, which is typically unheard of.
Next time you’re out at Lake Conroe, beware of any fishes nibbling on your toes or the surface — it could be this big mamma jamma!
