We catfishers talk about the 30" club all the time but as far as I know there ain’t really no such thing. I want to make an “official” list. I’ll need a lot of help. I can get this year’s info from the contest scoreboard and I know some (maybe) from remembering the fish posted for the last couple of years. I sure miss being able to access those old records; if anyone has the time/energy/access to check those over it would help a lot. I invite everyone to post what you know here or send me a PM. Any input would be appreciated. Should we limit it to those who have made entries in the contest or include others, too? It might be fun to include an anecdotal record, too. I remember TD saying that when he was younger he got a monster out of UL that was longer than a yardstick, for example.
There are a lot of people that I know should be on the list but I don’t know the longest fish they caught and/or the year. These include: Ahi1953, Ice_sled, sharksugar101, Bottomwatcher, Hogstalker, TubeDude, Paddlingkittys, etc. Please help fill in the blanks and help me make sure I get the usernames spelled right.
I got the files from Jeff going back to 2014 and updated this list. I tried to get the largest cat for each person. Please help if you see anything that is inaccurate or missing.
Well done Craig. Lots of good cats caught over the years we have had the contest. Given my druthers, I’d say leave it as is with entries limited to those entered into the contest. If the total population of fishers is included it would lose some of its significance and interest.
I came into possession of the traveling winners trophy this week when Jeff delivered it to me. Very nice and I feel very much venerated by having it, at least temporarily, in my home. The top scores of the contest winners over the past seven years are recorded on it. The best three fish score was recorded in 2018 when Ahi (John) posted a score of 96 1/2 inches. Impressive!
With the increased interest and participation in the contest this year it makes me wonder if we will ever see a 100 inch score?? Say maybe someone catches one, oh, i dunno, maybe 36 inches long and a couple of 32s to go with it? Watch for it next year.
