You’ve heard all about the death and destruction caused by Hurricane Helene. But there was at least one bit of good news connected to the huge storm.
Kim Feltner caught a West Virginia state-record blue catfish on the Ohio River in the immediate aftermath of the hurricane. And it probably would have never happened if it weren’t for the giant weather front that moved through.
SECOND THOUGHTS
A little backstory on the 50.82-inch catch, which set a length state record: Kim and her husband Shawn set up a guided fishing trip with Chris Souders on the Ohio River in advance. But when they set out Sept. 27 on the 3 ½-hour drive from their home in Madison, Ind., they almost had second thoughts.
“The wind was howling, it was pouring, and we saw emergency vehicles everywhere,” Feltner told Wired2fish. “There were trees down and alerts on the radio. At one point, I pulled over and said to Shawn, ‘Is this worth it? Are we insane?’ But it kind of let up and we kept going.”
To make things worse, Souders had texted them before they even set out to tell them the fishing had been poor in the unseasonably warm weather. He gave the couple an out, telling them they could reschedule.
“I told them there was no water moving and the fishing had been poor,” said Souders, who operates Slunger Cat Outdoors. “This storm was the first flow these fish had seen in three months.”
But the Feltners decided to go anyway. They had fished with Sonders before, and immediately hit it off with the well-known guide. They even hosted Souders and his family for a spring getaway, in which Shawn guided Souders to one of his ultimate goals — shooting a big tom turkey.
QUESTIONABLE CONDITIONS
It was still raining when they set out on Sept. 28, but the worst of the storm had passed. Souders originally planned to launch on the Ohio side of the river, but a large bass tournament filled the parking lot with trailers and the water with boats. So he switched to a launch on the West Virginia side and headed to a spot near Point Pleasant, where the Kanawha River flows into the Ohio.
There was current, but not so much that Souders couldn’t hold his boat in the channel. He used the spotlock on his trolling motor and stayed in place in the middle of the channel.
“When there is flow, especially in the fall, these big fish will gather in the center of the river,” Souders told Wired2fish.
Souders threw out lines baited with cut mooneye and the anglers waited.
“Shawn and I take turns on the rods,” Feltner said. “I caught the first one, then he landed one, so it was my turn. It was just luck of the draw.”
RECORD CATFISH ON!
When the big fish hit, there was no mistaking that it was a monster. It bent the rod over, then started peeling off line as it bulldozed toward deep water.
Feltner began reeling and felt the power of the giant blue cat. After a few minutes, she knew she had something special. “I remember thinking, ‘Please, Lord, don’t let me lose this fish,’” she said. “My forearms were just burning.”
After about 12 minutes, she brought the fish into a waiting landing net and Souders slid it into the boat.
The guide immediately called a West Virginia fisheries biologist who was on the water for a catfish tournament. That biologist measured and weighed the fish at the site. It measured 50.82 inches, just enough to edge out the existing state length record of 50.51 inches. It weighed 64.15 pounds, just short of the state weight record of 69.45 pounds (which was caught by Michael Drake in 2023).
“Chris just started hugging me and told me, ‘You have no idea what you have just done,’“ Feltner said. “I never in a million years would have thought I would catch a state-record fish when we started that day.
“I know it might get broken, but at least I can say I was in the record books.”
SEASONED ANGLERS
Kim and Shawn Feltner aren’t exactly beginners when it comes to fishing. They live on the Ohio River in Indiana, and are on the water whenever time allows. Shawn has caught some big catfish before, and Kim has landed blues in the 35-pound range.
They released the record catfish in the exact same spot they caught it. Now the fish adds to the growing legend of West Virginia blue-cat fishing.
Blue catfish are native to the portion of the Ohio River that runs through West Virginia, but they eventually disappeared due to poor water quality, according to Mark Scott, assistant chief of fish management for the West Virginia DNR.
When pollution was reduced due to clean-water regulations, the state saw an opportunity to build a new fishery. It began stocking the Ohio and Kanawha rivers regularly with blue catfish, and that fisheries management has paid off handsomely.
Scott said blue catfish state records have been broken five times since 2020. In 2022, one mark lasted only seven weeks before it was broken again.
“Catfishing on our navigable rivers has just taken off,” Scott said. “We’re getting a reputation for our opportunities.
“The nice thing is that we’re seeing a lot of catch and release. Even when these big fish are being caught, they’re put back.”
