‘Old man’ was ready to go home, but fishing past midnight got him state-record catfish

A self-described “old man” was done fishing and ready to head home, but he was somehow persuaded to stay out on a Michigan river past midnight. That decision paid off with one big fish.

Lloyd Tanner, of Hobart, Indiana, was fishing the St. Joseph River with his nephew and his daughter’s boyfriend in the early hours of Sunday, May 29, when “a big chunk” of cut bait captured the attention of a huge catfish, according to WZZM.

About five minutes later, Tanner had reeled it in, the station reported.

He and his fellow anglers weighed the fish on their own tournament scale and realized the catfish could beat the Michigan state record if verified. But Tanner didn’t want the fish to die.

“Those that know me know I’m all about conservation and releasing fish and would never risk a fish for a record,” Tanner shared in a May 31 Facebook post.

“I was really just wanting to let the fish go,” he continued. But catching a state record has been a dream of his for 30 years.

So, Tanner got creative, finding a way to keep the fish alive and go for Michigan’s state-record catfish. This decision was made a little more complicated given that it was Memorial Day weekend.

He put the fish in a livewell and made some calls — then friends and state wildlife officials came together to officially weigh the fish, he said.

The fish weighed in at 53.35 pounds and 48 inches long, making it the state-record flathead catfish, according to Michigan Department of Natural Resources. The catfish beat out a 52-pounder caught out of Barron Lake by Dale Blakley, of Niles, in 2014.

“I went out and did something almost every angler dreams of and caught a state record fish,” Tanner said on Facebook. “Only took 30 plus years of joking about it on every trip for it to happen, but i actually did it!”

“After a few days letting this sink in, I can tell those out there chasing records that the feeling is pretty cool,” he continued.

Tanner caught the state record from the St. Joseph River, a tributary of Lake Michigan, in Berrien County, according to the news release. The man travels from his home in Indiana to Michigan nearly every weekend to fish.

“I’ve been fishing Michigan for almost 30 years,” he told Michigan DNR. “What draws me to Michigan is fishing for big catfish.”

This story was originally published June 7, 2022 at 11:43 AM with the headline "‘Old man’ was ready to go home, but fishing past midnight got him state-record catfish."