40+ Pound Catfish Nabbed at Lake Palestine

It may not be the biggest fish caught in Lake Palestine, but it's certainly big enough!

Lake Palestine Resort re-posted a photo of a 40.23 pound catfish caught in its lake this week. According to their Facebook page, it was caught on a jug line.

Most of y'all commented saying the fisherman should have thrown back a fish as big as this, but then some others just want to catch one themselves. =)

The standing record at Lake Palestine, deemed by Texas Parks and Wildlife, is a Flathead Catfish that weighed 98.5 pounds and measured 53 inches. This behemoth was caught by James Laster on December 2, 1998.

Texas Parks and Wildlife doesn't have a a listed maximum limit to throw back catfish. In fact, here are the limits listed on their website:

Channel, blue, hybrids & subspecies

• Daily Bag: 25 in any combination
• Minimum Length: 12 inches

Flathead

• Daily Bag: 5
• Minimum Length: 18 inches

All I know is this recent catch has me thinking about the Big Bass Bash, which is happening at Lake Palestine on April 8 and 9 of 2017.

It's a pretty big deal in East Texas and there are some pretty solid cash prizes to boot:

• First place: $10,000
• Second place: $2,000
• Third place: $1,500
• Fourth place: $1,250
• Fifth place: $1,000

In addition, $1,700 is paid out each hour of the tournament for hourly weigh-ins. Here are the payouts for the top five fish weighed in on each hour:

• First place: $700
• Second place: $400
• Third place: $300
• Fourth place: $200
• Fifth place: $100

So, for those of you counting at home, one fourth-place finish in one hourly weigh-in and you’ve already made your money back!

We are also paying out $500 to each fish that weighs exactly 3.00 pounds. And for any ladies competing, the woman who brings in the largest bass of the weekend gets $500.

This video on catching catfish at Lake Tawakoni, TX was pretty cool and informative for someone such as myself.