ORIGINAL: mauser06

very nice...though our(im a PA boy myself) state record is only 43lbs or so it amazes me it isnt broken yearly....i dont think theres too many die hard catfishermen..i lvoe catfishing but dont have a boat...and bank access to the ohio river is terrible..i got a few spots...but since they closed down all the railroad access (i think because of 9/11) theres not much good fishing around my part...i plan to try harder this summer and use some real bait...but we will see how it goes...i only caught one flathead..on a big glob of night crawlers...about a 10lber....and he gave me a fight and a half.....it was awesome...exspecially because there were some older people enjoying the night on the boat docks....my line was casted not 20 foot from where they were sitting....they watched me fight and fight...i banked it and held it up for them...they about died...i told em its a baby! lol....my norm is little 1-5lb channel cats...easy and fun to catch...but the big ones sure are fun...i need to use good live bait and be more patient though....i know theres ALOT bigger cats in our rivers....catfishing isnt as popular up here as it is in other places...the guys that do catfish usually go after channels with chicken liver like me....just fun to catch and you can get into them in some numbers...my goal when i was a few years younger was to break the record...but then they shut down my railroad access and killed me GOOD spots..i still want to try to tangle with a bigger one....we will see.......good luck.....nice fish too!