From Georgia Outdoor News

A behemoth of a blue catfish shattered a long-standing record on Lake Jackson—by 25 pounds!

Walter Dorough, of Hillsboro, was fishing the 4,750-acre middle Georgia reservoir on June 28, 2025 when he got the bite of a lifetime at about 10 p.m. and boated a 71.6-lb. blue cat to set the new Lake Jackson record. The digital scale weight converted to pounds and ounces, which is how GON keeps official Lake & River Records, converts to 71-lbs., 9.6-ozs. The previous blue catfish record for Jackson was a 46-lb., 7-oz. fish caught by Luke Chandler on Nov. 15, 2018.

“I was fishing by myself that night, and never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d catch a fish like this,” Walter said. “Our next tournament is on Jackson (July 26), and I was actually just trying to find some new spots.”

Walter fishes with Middle Georgia Catfish Anglers under the team name Fat Kat Fishing, and he is one of the directors for the tournament trail. When the big fish hit, Walter was anchored on a flat that’s produced for him the past—he caught a 53-lb. flathead earlier this year on the same spot that helped him win a Middle Georgia tournament.

“I had multiple lines out—eight, that’s our trail limit—and I had just reeled in a fish when this one hit. I knew it was big, and at first I thought it was a flathead because that’s the only big ones I’ve caught in Jackson. When it finally came up and I saw it was a blue, I couldn’t believe it,” Walter said.

“She put up the best fight I’ve ever had. My biggest previous was 69 pounds in Alabama, and that fish didn’t put up a fight… just kind of came up like a log, which a lot of the really big ones do. Not this fish. This one gave me a run for my money. You should have seen me trying to net it, only the head would fit.”

Walter knew he had a lake record, but his priority was to release the giant catfish alive and well. His first call was to another Middle Georgia Catfish Anglers tournament director, Clay Bishop, who had the trail’s scale, which was certified last year after a club member tried to weigh a potential lake record at Sinclair and had all kinds of trouble finding a certified scale. Walter’s big blue catfish wouldn’t fit in the livewell, so he laid it on the floor of the boat and ran to the boat ramp to meet Clay and other witnesses. They videoed the weighing of the fish, and then Walter released the huge catfish back into Lake Jackson. It swam off in great shape.

Walter said he first got into chasing the big catfish and tournament fishing after he reached out online to another angler about using planer boards.

“I wanted to learn how to use them, and that guy, Murray Kitchens, he’s the one who got me into it. I’d been catfishing my whole life, but he got me interested in the tournaments and big fish. He went striper fishing with me to show me how to use the planer boards, and he said, ‘You should try those catfishing.’ Most people think catfish are just bottom feeders, but they’re not. They’re predators. We drag baits at about .5 mph and cover water and not wait on fish to come to us. I also use a Santee rig for dragging. These ways of more active fishing are what got me into it.”

Walter encourages anglers to reach out to him about fishing the Middle Georgia Catfish Anglers tournaments. He can be reached at 706.819.0212.

The Georgia state record blue catfish weighed 110-lbs., 6-ozs. and was caught by Tim Trone on Oct. 17, 2020 on the Chattahoochee River above Lake Eufaula.