The 66-Pound Flathead and the Record It Beat

On May 14, 2023, an angler on the Susquehanna River caught a flathead catfish that weighed 66 pounds 6 ounces and let it go alive. It beat the Pennsylvania state record by more than ten pounds. This is the catch, drawn from the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission (PFBC) announcement.

The catch

Michael Wherley, 46, of Fayetteville, was fishing from a 16-foot bass boat with Walter “Tommy” Clark on Lake Aldred, near Conestoga in Lancaster County. Around 10 a.m. he caught the flathead on a live rainbow trout, using a large circle hook, a 1.5-ounce sinker, a heavy-duty surf rod and 25-pound monofilament, cast into a channel about 50 feet deep.

The fish weighed 66 pounds 6 ounces at Columbia Bait and Tackle and measured 50.25 inches long with a 35-inch girth. It was released alive. The previous record was 56 pounds 3 ounces, caught by a Philadelphia angler in the Schuylkill River in May 2020.

Why it is remarkable

The new fish beat the old record by more than ten pounds. Pennsylvania certifies records by weight only, and a new fish must beat the old one by at least two ounces.

Connection to the waterway

The Susquehanna’s flathead and large channel catfish are covered by a one-meal-a-month advisory above stated sizes, and bass in the same reach are catch-and-release only. Those details are in the Susquehanna River guide. The Delaware file’s Lums Pond flathead record is a comparable story, in the first flathead record tale.

The river behind the record

The Susquehanna between Sunbury and Holtwood is a 98-mile reach that runs through Northumberland, Dauphin, York and Lancaster counties, among others. Bass here are catch-and-release only, year-round: largemouth, smallmouth and spotted bass may not be harvested between the Sunbury inflatable dam and Holtwood Dam. American shad, hickory shad and river herring may not be taken either.

Catfish follow the normal rules. PFBC surveys in 2016 through 2018 found channel catfish from 12 to 31 inches in the river, with fish 24 inches and longer common in both surveyed sections, and no evidence of overfishing. The survey did not mention flatheads, so we do not say anything about them from those data.

An advisory on big catfish

The DEP advisory for this stretch, from the West Branch confluence to the Maryland border, is one meal a month for channel catfish over 20 inches and flatheads over 30 inches, because of mercury and PCBs. A 66-pound flathead is far over that size, so check the current advisory before you eat any big catfish from this water. Wherley released his fish alive.

What anglers can take from it

A heavy rod, a strong line and a circle hook suit this fishery, and releasing a big fish alive keeps it in the river. More stories from Pennsylvania waters are in the Dock Tales index.

Sources and caveats

This tale uses the PFBC release of June 6, 2023 and the PFBC state record list, which agree. We have not checked whether the record has been broken since. We have not cleared any photo rights.