(WBIR) An East Tennessee man's weekend fishing haul came in just a bit short of a new state record.
David Houseman, who goes by the nickname 'Catfish Dave,' said he caught a 93 pound Blue Catfish while fishing Sunday night near Northshore Drive.
TWRA's Matt Cameron told 10News that two fisheries biologists measured the catch and confirmed its weight on Monday morning. They determined it was healthy enough to release back into the water.
"We commend him for keeping it alive and then turning it back loose so it could be caught again," Cameron said.
The current state record for catfish is 118 pounds, so Catfish Dave's catch came about 25 pounds short of that. But Cameron said this is one of the biggest that they've been notified of in a while.
