By Cory Boothe
Coryboothe@hotmail.com
One of the most longstanding state record fish in West Virginia happens to be the flathead catfish. In 1956, L.L. McClung pulled a 52 inch, 70 pound giant out of the Little Kanawha River in the Wirt/Wood County area. For reference, the United States was recently out of the Korean War and transistor radios were first invented in that era of time. Fast forward fifty-seven years and a larger flathead has yet to be caught and verified as the state record.
Is a state record flathead lurking the muddy bottom of our state's waters? In my opinion, their are probably multiple state record cats alive today in West Virginia. The Ohio, Kanawha, and Little Kanawha can all have one sipping down hand size bluegills on their mud bottoms near a brush pile. Burnsville Lake has had flatheads caught and released that pushed the scales way past sixty pounds. It is even rumored that a state record was caught and released at Burnsville because the fisherman thought the record weight was more than 70 pounds.
Anyone targeting the state record flathead would need to use exceptionally large gear and bait. I know of forty pound catfish that have fallen victims to baits almost twenty inches long. If I was going after a state record flathead, I would be using a live channel cat or smallmouth bass in the right location. It is legal to use gamefish for flatheads if the gamefish was caught on rod and reel.
In conclusion, if anyone has any info on a Levaga McClung, I would be highly interested. Rumor has it that he was the lockmaster at Burning Springs. Anyone with info, please contact coryboothe@hotmail.com
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