Around 5:30 p.m. on Dec. 22, Tim Webb got an early Christmas gift. He was fishing from the shoreline of Sunrise Beach when he felt a tug on the end of his line. He set the hook and proceeded to reel reeled in his catch, much to his surprise, a 71.4-pounder, 51 and 3/4 inches long with a 33-inch girth blue catfish. For some perspective, the fish was almost as long as Webb is tall. He’s 6 feet 3 inches tall.

According to Texas Parks and Wildlife, the current lake record for Lake LBJ is 41 pounds with rod and reel and 49 pounds on a so-called trot line or jug line.

“I caught it on a rod and reel with some shad,” Webb revealed. “I had caught the bait in the fall and froze it and was able to use it and cut big chunks of it for my bait.”

He was reported as saying that if somebody would have videoed him hauling the fish up on the bank, dancing, hollering and trying to catch his breath, he probably would have been sent to the state hospital for an evaluation. “I went out there and just got lucky.”

Since the sun was already setting at the end of his tangle with the big cat, Webb tied the fish up along the boat dock with a rope and fish stringer. He jokingly says he spent the night with “big blue.” The following morning, the stringer hook was broken and the rope was barely hanging on, but the fish was still alive.

On Dec. 23 the fish was thoroughly documented by the park rangers at Inks Lake State Park and released back into Lake LBJ.

“I wasn’t happy about releasing it, but I thought I was doing the right thing,” he shared on social media, “for conservation. At one point I almost jumped back in to catch it,” he said. “It’s back in its home waters and living to be caught another day. Hopefully, it goes and hides out for a little while.”

Photo: Courtesy: Community Events in Sunrise Beach/Melodie Bradbury