World Record Fish Caught in Pedernales River

Johnson City, Texas resident Ben Christensen just made history.

            Twice.

            The local rancher and teacher, 7th-generation Texan set at least two records in mid-October when he wretched a monster catfish from the Pedernales River – on a fly rod. Yeah, things like that don’t happen very often.

            Ben was fishing the Pedernales River from his Flycraft raft on October 11, 2021 when he spotted a catfish. “He was on the surface under the shade of some pecan trees, which is something that anyone who knows anything about catfish can see is uncharacteristic.” Ben flipped a cast from his lightweight fly rod in the cat’s direction, careful not to snag the low-hanging branches. After a half-dozen casts, none of which spooked the fish, it turned all at once and sucked the handtied Olive Damsel Variation fly to its maw which was “big enough to easily take in a chicken.” Ben set the hook and the fight was on. The monstrous whisker cat tried diving for brush, but Ben kept him at bay and after a 40-minute fight had him in the boat.

            “I realized he was a lot bigger than I bargained for,” Ben said. “I had a hard time holding him aloft for the pictures.”

            The fish was so large that Ben drove it to Texas Parks & Wildlife’s Inland Fisheries in San Marcos to be weighed and measured. The beast of a blue cat weighed 31.5 pounds and measured 40 inches long. Although not a record chaser, Ben did some research only to discover that he had landed something truly special. The catch was certified a world record by the International Game Fish Association (IGFA) for the 12-lb. tippet class fly rod world record blue cat and a Texas Parks and Wildlife Department water-body record blue catfish for the Pedernales. One catch, two records – not bad.

            Given that the fish had nothing in its stomach, was old, blind in one eye, and the way he was simply hanging out near the surface of the water when first spotted, leads Ben to believe the fish might have been on his last legs.

            Or is it, he was on his last fins?

            Regardless of its health the fish found Ben’s fly irresistible. “My son Daniel tied the fly. It’s an Olive Damsel Variation meaning it looks like a damsel fly. It carries a pattern Daniel calls ‘chips n’ salsa’ because that everything that sees it wants to eat it.”

As for the record-breaking fish, it died shortly after being landed. “I took thin fillets off the fish and composted his body.”

Want to learn how to catch big fish like Ben? Go fishing with him. Contact him at PearlSnap Flyfishing through Instagram at @pearlsnapflyfishing

This piece first appeared in the Fredericksburg Standard.

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