Pa. angler catches what he describes as the new ‘unofficial’ state record flathead catfish

A Pennsylvania angler caught what appears to be a new state record catfish, but he didn’t get it officially documented.

Daniel Brown, 40, of South Philadelphia, was fishing the morning of June 1 in the Schuylkill River just a few blocks from his home when he caught an enormous flathead.

“I go down there every weekend,” he said about fishing with his father-in-law, John. “We do our fishing for a few hours.”

When he threw his Storm Swim Shad lure out on the first cast of the day, the catfish struck the bait.

Brown knew he had a heavy fish on his line.

“It was like a tank. It took that thing and it just rolled. I knew it was a flathead,” he said.

“It took off ripping the drag going down. It’s pretty deep where I fish. It could be at least 25 feet. It was just running,” he said. Brown let the fish run and tire itself out on his 50-pound test braided fishing line.

After a few minutes, he was able to get it to shore and they were able to get it in their drop net. “It seemed like an eternity, but it might have been about five minutes,” the avid angler recalled.

The anglers were thrilled at the size of the catch.

“I was jumping, screaming. I felt great,” he said. They also had people who were walking in the area who were excited about the fish, too. “They wanted to hold the fish.”

When he placed the fish on his fish scale, it weighed 72.5 pounds. “It was tough,” he said about trying to get a fish that size on the mouth-gripping scale.

When the two men saw the number, they realized it was bigger than the existing state record of 66 pounds, 6 ounces. “We were high-fiving and cheering,” he said.

With it being a Sunday morning, he wasn’t sure what to do to get it recognized by the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission or find a certified scale where it could be officially documented. “I didn’t know how to reach out to them,” he said.

After keeping it on a stringer in the water for a while, they decided to take their own measurements and just release the trophy-sized catch back in the water. “For me to get that fish and find somebody to let me weigh that on a scale, I could have went to a scrapyard, it would have been torture on that fish and it would have been a lot of work for us,” he said. They would have had to carry the fish a few blocks back to their car.

The heavy cat measured 50 inches down the back and had a 33-inch girth. The front of its face was 10 or 11 inches, he said.

“We just watched it swim away,” he said. “It was the great fishing experience of my life. I feel good. I hope somebody catches one bigger. I want to see it.”

The river has been good to his family over the past 25 years. The two men caught four flatheads that day, including a 39-pounder.

“We’ve been catching 35-, 40-, 45-pound flatheads pretty much this whole season,” he said. “I didn’t know there was 70s in there.”

The Pennsylvania state record flathead

The state record flathead catfish was caught in 2023 by Michael Wherley of Fayetteville. He was fishing on the Susquehanna River in Lancaster County when he reeled in the 66-pound, 6-ounce fish. That fish was released back into the water after it was officially weighed and inspected by the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission.

Record fish requirements

Mike Parker, communications director for the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, said there are strict guidelines for a fish to become a new state record including having it weighed on a certified scale that can be found at some grocery stores and sports shops. The fish also needs to be inspected by a Fish and Boat employee. The requirements for a new state record catch can be found with the list of state record fish on the agency’s website, fishandboat.com.

“If you are chasing a state record, be prepared to follow the rules to have the state record recognized. Otherwise, it’s a good story but it’s not a state record,” he said.

Brown plans on sending the photos and details to the agency as the unofficial state record.

“Obviously, it wasn’t on a certified scale, certified weight. Nobody (from the state agency) came out, so it can’t be true, but I would love for it to be unofficially recognized. If not, it doesn’t matter, I know what I got,” Brown said.

Reporting by Brian Whipkey, Pennsylvania Outdoors Columnist / Erie Times-News