ATHENS, Texas — Call something a "big fish story"
and everyone knows immediately it's a tall tale.
Not in this case.
"Splash," the new world-record blue catfish (who weighed
in at 121.5 pounds upon being caught) now resides at the Texas Freshwater
Fisheries Center in Athens.
On Jan. 16, 2004, dedicated big blue catfish angler Cody Mullennix
of Howe was fishing alone from the bank of the Hagerman National Wildlife
Refuge on Lake Texoma. Mullennix loves and respects big fish, and when he
caught a 56-pounder, he released it and continued fishing.
That's when the big fish now known as Splash took the bait, a
three-inch shad. After a half-hour battle using a 14-foot surf rod spooled
with 20-pound line, Mullennix wrestled the big fish onto a shallow ledge.
He knew immediately the fish was not only his biggest catch ever but something
special as well.
"There was something about it that grabbed hold of me,"
Mullennix said. "I gave it everything I could to get it over the ledge.
I kept it out there in 10-12 inches of water and kept pouring water over
it. I was too scared to put it on a stringer, or back out in deeper water."
Mullennix called a friend on his cell phone and asked him to
bring a 100-pound-capacity scale. The fish bottomed it out, and Mullennix
realized he probably had a new state record, so they loaded the fish into
a pickup truck and took it to a bait shop that had a certified scale. The
big blue weighed in at 121.5 pounds, not just a new state record but a new
world record as well. (After reviewing x-rays of the fish to be sure it
held no foreign objects, the International Game Fish Association certified
Splash in May as the new world record blue catfish).
Word had spread quickly as the fish was being held in a minnow
tank at the store, and a local game warden came by and suggested that Mullennix
donate the fish to the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center. One phone call
later, Lisa Griggs from TFFC was headed north with a fish-hauling truck,
and a few hours later, the fish that was soon to be known as Splash had
a new home.
After being held in an isolation tank for a few weeks, Splash
was put on public display during a press conference attended by Mullennix,
his family and friends, members of the press and many of her new fans. The
26,000-gallon aquarium where she now lives holds a number of fish of various
species, but there's no doubt that Splash is the "Big Fish" in
this tank.
That fact is never more obvious than during the daily dive show,
when a diver goes into the tank and hand-feeds the fish. Splash eats when
she wants to, delicately taking a frozen smelt from the diver's hand. When
Splash approaches the diver, other fish make themselves scarce.
In the three months Splash has been in the tank, she has progressed
from being a recluse hiding out in the back of the tank to a "curious
cat" that likes to cruise close to the glass and check out visitors
who've come to see her. She will actually swim up to the glass and look
you in the eye. When a Fort Worth newspaper reporter visited recently, Splash
appeared to belly up to the glass for an interview.
