Man catches record blue catfish

An eastern Nebraska man has hauled in a record-breaking fish. Mike Rush of Bellevue was angling with his father and former-brother-in-law along the Missouri River on the Iowa side just south of Council Bluffs. The trio set up four lines, each with a three-inch goldfish as bait. One of them snagged the largest blue catfish ever caught in Nebraska or Iowa. The monster weighed in at 101 pounds, eight ounces. While it sets a new record on Iowa’s books, it won’t be recognized in Nebraska’s records as it wasn’t caught with rod and reel. Rush had plenty of pictures taken with the huge blue cat, which measured 53-inches in length, that’s almost four-and-a-half feet. The monster was caught June 8th and has just officially been confirmed as the Iowa record-setter, beating the old mark by more than 25 pounds. Rush released the catfish that same day and says he hopes someday to catch him again.