The Largest Flathead Catfish Ever Caught in Illinois Was a Behemoth

There are plenty of places to fish in Illinois and many different kinds of fish to catch. You can expect to find crappie, sunfish, bass, and catfish in the various bodies of water throughout Illinois. One type of catfish you can expect to find in the state is the flathead catfish, Pylodictis olivaris. These are unique catfish that, as the name suggests, have flat heads and an outer lip that sticks out. These fish get fairly large, and there are even competitions to catch the largest flathead catfish in Illinois.

Want to know the record for the largest flathead catfish found in Illinois? You’re in luck, this article has the answer!

Average Flathead Catfish Size

Flathead catfish grow quickly. They gain somewhere between two and five pounds a year. Some flathead catfish, known as “monster cats,” grow ever quicker. They may grow by over 10 pounds every year.

With an average lifespan of 12-14 years, it’s easy to imagine how big some of these individuals potentially get. If a flathead catfish managed to live to 50 years old, they would reach over 100 pounds. Of course, those are just theoretical sizes. The oldest one to be caught so far was somewhere between 22 and 24 years old, and most flathead catfish reach somewhere between one and three feet in length.

Though there have not been many studies on it, many fishermen believe that the better the water quality, the bigger flathead catfish grow. While they can reach over 100 pounds in a good environment, most tend to be around 20 pounds or less.

Some states can only boast a record slightly above the average, but the largest flathead catfish in Illinois is quite a bit bigger than this average.

Flathead Catfish Compared to Other Types of Catfish

Flathead catfish are on the smaller end when it comes to catfish. On average, only channel catfish and bullhead catfish are smaller in size.

However, when it comes to catfish in North America, flatheads rank as the second largest. They are right behind the blue catfish in terms of size and weight. In Texas, they are widely popular to catch and is the second largest sport fish behind the blue catfish.

While Texas doesn’t have the record for the largest flathead catfish in the world, it still has a pretty good record. The biggest flathead catfish found in Texas was 95.5 pounds, quite a few pounds over the largest flathead catfish in Illinois. In comparison, the largest blue catfish found in Texas was 121.5 pounds.

Largest Flathead Catfish in the World

The largest recorded flathead catfish caught in the world was not caught in Illinois. Instead, Kansas holds the record. The flathead catfish was caught in Kansas by Ken Paulie. They found the fish in 1998, specifically on May 19th. This beast of a flathead catfish measured just over five feet and weighed a whopping 123 pounds. The catch was a lucky one, as he was crappie fishing and not searching for a massive flathead at the time.

Though there were a lot of doubts about the catch, the fish was frozen after the catch and presented to the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks, and Tourism in 2016 for a proper examination. The results were confirmed. It was also found that the fish was around 22 years old, likely a male, and probably a “monster cat,” as it would have had to grow very fast to get to that weight in that short of a time.

Largest Flathead Catfish in Illinois

While the largest flathead catfish caught in Illinois isn’t anywhere close to this size, it is still pretty impressive. In 2015, James Klauzer managed to catch an 81.4-pound flathead catfish. Klauzer waited around until he managed to get in touch with a tournament director and the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. They then took the fish to a certified scale, confirmed the weight, and then released the fish back into the wild to grow even bigger.

Who knows? Perhaps the record by James Klauzer will be broken later on by his very own fish in a few years when some lucky person manages to catch it a second time.

Before Klauzer, the largest flathead catfish caught in Illinois held its record for 20 years. It weighed 78 pounds. Jody Harris caught the fish in Carlyle Lake in 1995. Harris was one of the first people called after they measured the new, record-breaking fish to let him know that after 20 years, his record had finally been beaten.

These records fall short of some other states, like the one in Kansas, Texas, or even Tennessee. However, it’s still a pretty hefty weight and beats out records from other states like Arizona. That state has a record catch of 76 pounds, or Colorado, with only a 30-pound record.

The photo featured at the top of this post is © iStock.com/stammphoto