PHOTO AT END OF ARTICLE

Fishing

Giant 72-Pound Clarks Hill Blue Cat Shatters 45-Year Record
When 16-year-old Walker Crowe isn’t riding bulls, he’s fishing.
Mike Bolton | May 14, 2024


Walker Crowe caught a Clarks Hill lake record 72-lb., 3-oz. blue cat that broke the lake record of 62 pounds caught by Ralph Barbee in 1979.

You would have to consider it quite unusual if a 45-year-old lake fishing record was shattered by someone fishing from the bank in a community fishing hole that everyone knows about.

Well, Walker Crowe is a quite unusual 16-year-old.

While others his age are playing video games and worrying about teenage anxieties, Walker is dominating catfish tournaments and riding bulls. And maybe most unusual for any teenager, he has patience.

The Hartwell resident caught a Clarks Hill lake record 72-lb., 3-oz. blue cat that broke the lake record of 62 pounds caught by Ralph Barbee in 1979. It also surpassed Walker’s personal best by almost 30 pounds.

“I started fishing with my Paw Paw (grandfather) when I was 2 or 3,” the home-schooled youngster said. “There has never been a time since I haven’t loved it. Clarks Hill is about 45 minutes away from my house, but I try to go fishing there at least once a week. I’ve been fishing there my whole life.”


On Tuesday, May 7, Walker went to the lake for a little afternoon fishing. It turned out to be a trip like no other.

“I got off work and I went to the river without my boat,” he said. “I went to a community fishing hole that everyone knows about. It’s a long stretch of shallow water with this one deep hole in it. It’s really good when the lake gets muddy, and it was muddy that day.

“It’s a place that has been really good to me through the years.

“I took four rods and some bream for bait. I cast the bream into the deep hole and waited.”


Walker said you must be patient to fish there, but catfish will eventually leave the shallow water to check out the deep hole.

“I was there about 45 minutes,” he said. “At first, I noticed my rod tip twitching a little bit, then the rod bent double. I grabbed the rod and set the hook, and the fish about dragged me in. I knew I better loosen the drag. The fish started dragging out line and almost spooled me. I fought him for about 20 minutes, and I finally got him to the bank. I saw that he was barely hooked. I jammed my hand down his throat and got the other hand under his belly and got him in.”


Walker was using Mad Katz 30-lb. test line. The big catfish was taken to Ace Hardware in Royston to be weighed on certified scales.

Walker said the one happiest about the record fish was probably his Paw Paw who taught him to fish.

“He was smiling from ear-to-ear,” Walker said. “He was so happy for me.”

Walker won seven catfish tournaments from his boat last year. He said fishing is his favorite hobby with riding bulls in rodeos a close second.

“Riding bulls and fishing is about all I do,” he said.


GON’s Official Clarks Hill Lake Record Fish
Largemouth Bass 14-lbs., 14-ozs. Carl Sasser 02/16/72
Spotted Bass 5-lbs., 7.2-ozs. Tanner Hadden 04/23/2404/23/24
White Bass 3-lbs., 9-ozs. Ed Lepley 03/09/15
Striped Bass 55-lbs., 12-ozs. Sam Porter 05/27/93
Hybrid Bass 16-lbs., 12-ozs. Jim Hankinson -----
Black Crappie 4-lbs., 8-ozs. Dewey Marks 1979
White Crappie 4-lbs., 12-ozs. Weldon Clark 03/30/06
Blue Catfish 72-lbs., 3-ozs. Walker Crowe 05/07/24
Flathead Catfish 70-lbs. Michael Dollar 03/04/23
Channel Catfish 25-lbs., 2-ozs. James Gunn 05/13/93
Yellow Perch 2-lbs., 8-ozs. Brad Murphy 12/89
Sauger 4-lbs., 3-ozs. Stuart Bowers 04/05/86
Warmouth 13-ozs. Daniel Rawlins 04/15/01
White Perch 1-lb., 4-ozs. Dennis Franklin 02/22/15
Shellcracker 1-lb., 9-ozs. Kathleen Weeks 06/23/11

Managed to get out of the city and up to the Lake for a couple of days over the last two weeks. Lots of activity, but only pickerel - no bass. Including here pics of two biggest - one 21", the really big one (doesn't all fit into the photo) about 23" and 3 lbs. 1 oz. Followed Fredfish's advice and used a plastic fish gripper to hold them up while I snapped the photo. The big one was still twisting and flopping around, and actually worked his way out of the grippers about 2 seconds after I took his picture.

Got to go up to Lake Sonoma and do some boat in camping and fishing this week. Tuesday evening fishing the main lake, drifting over the points on the north side. Got a couple of nice bass using drop shot with 4" red worms. Picked up another nice one and a couple of nice crappie right outside my campsite, Broken Bridge. Wednesday morning started slow, but once the sun broke thru got a few more doing the same thing. Got a couple flipping worms back in Smith creek. Over the 2 days got about a dozen total. A lot of small fish, but any tug on the line feels good!
There were some fish chasing bait, jumping that looked like smallmouth, but had orange bellies. Couldn't get them to hit on anything, threw just about everything in my tackle box. I didn't think smallmouth had orange bellies, anyone have an idea on what they might be?
Anyway, I'd say if you have the chance, get up there.

Good morning!
It's another Thirsty Thursday. 🍺 🍻 🍺

Currently 59° and heading to 77° later

Back to an AC install today. I'll try to get as much done today as possible since it's supposed to rain all day tomorrow. I was actually able to get the garden tilled up last evening. There may be hope yet?!?!

*****

I'm In Trouble...

My wife was shopping and sent me a picture of her in a dress she was thinking of buying and asked me, “Does this dress make me look big?”

I answered back, "Noooo..."

Autocorrect changed my answer, to “Moooo...”

Please send help!

*** Bonus groan ***

Debt free!

I am overjoyed! Soon I will be able to payoff all my loans and at last be debt free.

I'm on my way to the bank, thrilled to know that in a very short while I will finally have all the money I need to begin enjoying life for once.

I am so excited I can hardly get my ski mask on!"

Have a great day folks! 🍻

Decided to skip lunch on shore and head out fishing for smallmouth bass at noon today. The plan was for a game of catch and release, and as good luck would have it...three fish accepted my impromptu invitation.

The surface temperature of Lake Michigan has finally reached 55 degrees around here, so I was glad that at least a few fish were up to the challenge and showed up hungry. I set out 2 rods with mid sized shallow diving Rapala crank baits and started a Westward troll in ten feet of water. The action began almost immediately, so that was a good sign!

After the initial action subsided, the next hour was very quiet so I figured that I probably caught the tail end of the morning bite. It made sense to wrap things up and call it a day so I pulled lines and headed back to the beach.

The trip ended up being defined by a 2, 3 and 4 pounder. All strikes were nice and aggressive, with solid hook ups and safe releases.