N.C. angler Zakk Royce catches state-record 105-pound blue catfish

For Zakk Royce of Murfreesboro in northeastern North Carolina, Christmas came a few days early. As a fisherman, a feat he accomplished is somewhat akin to hitting the lottery twice in an 18-hour period.

Royce, 25, set a state record for blue catfish on Sunday when he caught a 91-pounder at Lake Gaston. Just 18 hours later, on Monday, he bettered his own mark, boating a monster blue weighing 105 pounds at the same reservoir near Roanoke Rapids.

Both fish were weighed on certified scales and their size accredited by a N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission fishery biologist.

“This is a dream come true for me,” said Royce, who runs Blues Brothers Catfish Guide Service and attends Cape Fear Community College in Wilmington, studying marine technology. “I’ve been after a state record blue cat for 14 years. And now I’ve broken the record twice on consecutive days.

Royce’s back-to-back records topped the previous listing for blue catfish, an 89-pounder caught at Badin Lake in 2006 by Eric Fincher of Mount Pleasant.

“The very best feeling for me is being able to keep both fish alive throughout the verification process and release then back near where they were caught,” Royce continued in a Facebook post.

He “baby sat” the 91-pound fish overnight in a special live well designed to hold big catfish. He had to wait to weigh it because no nearby business was open Sunday with certified scales large enough to handle it. Once it had been weighed at Lake Gaston Ace Hardware, Royce headed back to free it at Lake Gaston, accompanied by his father, Jon.

Not surprisingly, Royce had trouble boating both behemoth fish. He was fishing alone Sunday, and though he got the catfish’s head into his net, he couldn’t lift it over the side of the boat. He telephoned a friend fishing nearby to come help.

On Monday the Royces decided to start fishing again en route to releasing the first big cat because Zakk had good fresh bait left, cut white perch. Jon Royce caught a 20-pounder, then Zakk got a harder hit.

“I thought I was hung up (on bottom),” the younger Royce told North Carolina Sportsman Magazine. “I gave the rod a couple good jerks. When I gave it the second yank, the fish took off and started ripping drag. It was taking out 50 yards of line at a time. It came to the top, tail slapped and rolled, and we both thought we had a fish over a hundred pounds.”

The fish was so large it wouldn’t fit in the net, so the Royces put their arms under it and lifted it in.

Then they returned to the hardware store and its scales to learn Zakk was a record-holder all over again. That fish also was released back into Lake Gaston.

Incidentally, the South Carolina record for blue catfish is 109.4 pounds, caught in the tailrace below Pinopolis Dam at Santee Cooper in 1991 by George A. Lijewski. The world all-tackle record listed by the International Game Fish Association for the species is 143 pounds, pulled from the Virginia side of Kerr Reservoir by Richard N. Anderson in 2011.

Catches of the week

▪  A 113-inch bluefin tuna estimated to weigh 900 pounds by John Dosher of Oak Island Fishing Charters. The fish was hooked and fought for three hours near the Knuckle Buoy off Frying Pan Shoals and brought to the dock at Southport. It’s thought to be the largest bluefin ever caught in Brunswick County waters.

▪  A 98-inch bluefin tuna off Ocean Isle by skipper Joe Seegers aboard the Hooked Up.

▪  A 90-inch bluefin tuna off Ocean Isle by Brant McMullan.

▪  Limits of crappie at Lake Norman by brothers Bo and John Crutchfield of Denver, N.C.

This story was originally published December 23, 2015 at 11:54 AM with the headline "N.C. angler Zakk Royce catches state-record 105-pound blue catfish."