Catfish guide Justin Conner of Milton, West Virgina, was fishing the Kanawha River in Putnam County on May 9 with his fiancé, Tabitha Linville. They had caught their own bait that morning for a client trip Conner had booked for the following day.
“There were still a few hours left in the day and we decided to try and locate some catfish,” Conner, 37, tells Outdoor Life. “We headed to a flat rocky area in 10 feet of water that dropped off to 20 feet. My side sonar spotted some deep big fish. I dropped over my Spot-Lock and we bounced some mooneye cut baits deep behind my boat.”
The’d only had the baits out for 20 minutes when Conner hooked a heavyweight catfish. As he settled in to fight his cat, which was ripping 80-pound test braided line against his revolving spool reel drag, Tabitha hooked another huge catfish.
“It was pretty hectic with two big cats in strong current, trying to position the boat, getting our landing net, and trying to turn off the Spot-Lock motor to follow fish,” said Conner, a machinist by trade from the town of Milton.
Tabitha got her 30-pound class blue catfish to the boat, then netted and released it. Meanwhile, Conner was still battling his brute of a blue cat. Ten minutes later, though, he got his fish close to the boat. Tabitha netted it and they hauled it aboard.
“I knew right away it was a state length record blue cat,” said Conner. “I also knew it was a catfish I’d caught previously that we call ‘Spotty.’ We weighed the fish, and did a quick length measurement, then I called the state DNR to document it.”
They met state fisheries biologist Ryan Bosserman at a nearby boat ramp. Bosserman weighed the cat on certified scales at 66.30 pounds and measured it at a length of 51.49 inches. Conner’s cat sets a new state length record for blues, edging out the previous record by less than an inch.
Conner’s cat was shy of the current West Virginia record blue, which weighs 69.45 pounds and was caught by Mike Drake in 2023 from the nearby Ohio River.
After Conner’s catfish was weighed and measured — and certified by Bosserman for a state record — they released the catfish into the Kanawha River.
Conner is certain “Spotty” is the same catfish he caught in 2020 to set the then-state record with. He also believes the same catfish was caught by Drake in 2023 to set the record with. If Conner is correct, that means the fish has been caught and released no fewer than three times, and set a state record each time.
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“The fish has the same distinguishing features, including an overbite, two red scars on its lips, and the same black spot on its side, with the top fin appearing unchanged,” says Conner. “Its weight varies depending on its diet, and the time of year. The fish also moves around a lot according to seasons, food supply and water conditions. This really shows how important catch and release is in preserving these trophy catfish.”
Conner also believes “Spotty” is about 20 years old, one of the original blue cats that West Virginia stocked in its waters in 2006. Conner won’t have a replica mount made of Spotty, because he’s sure this catch was also made to be broken.
“That next day on my guided catfish trip, my clients had a great time,” Conner says. “The first fish we caught-and-released was a 51-pound flathead catfish. The Kanawha is loaded with blue, flathead and channel cats.”
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