A routine day of fishing turned out to be not so routine when an 8-year-old Boerne boy caught a whopper of a memory that will last a lifetime.
Last Friday, while fishing “at an undisclosed location on the Cibolo Creek in Boerne” with his father, David, and his younger brother, Michael, Ryan Graham cast his line baited with chicken liver on a treble hook and waited. It was his second cast of the evening.
“We’ve fished there (Cibolo Creek) a few times this summer and really enjoyed ourselves,” David Graham said. “We are a Boerne family. I’ve lived in Boerne most of my life. My wife and I both graduated from BHS.”
Then …
“Ryan reeled in a fish of a lifetime,” David Graham said. “… Ryan hauled in a whopper.”
The “whopper” was an 8.5-pound, 28.5-inch channel catfish.
“It felt like the fish was going crazy,” Ryan said. “I thought my line was going to break because he twisted and turned and it was hard to reel him in. It felt like it took a long time to get him in.”
A few times the fish started pulling string off the reel, but he maintained his composure and kept the line tight.
Already an experienced fisherman as he began casting lines at age 4, Ryan estimated the fish pulled an “eight out of 10” on a scale of how hard it fought.
“We had a lot of fun with this beautiful fish and reveled in the catch,” David Graham said.
“Ryan was stunned when he saw the size of the fish and said it was the biggest fish he’d ever seen,” his dad said, adding his son also shared his success with other fisherman who were close by at the time.
David Graham noted Ryan stands 48.5 inches tall, “so that fish was well over half his height and just more than onesixth of his body weight.”
Mom and Ryan’s sisters stayed home while the boys went on a hike that afternoon and then fishing in the evening. When they got home, David Graham said his wife was “surprised and aghast” there was a fish that size in her kitchen.
“We don’t bring fish in the house, but we made an exception because it is shocking to see the size of that fish, especially in comparison to Ryan,” David Graham said. “It was so big, she didn’t realize what it was for a moment.”
Then, the family got to thinking. …
“We obviously shared this awesome fish picture with our family, and my father, also a Boerne resident, said it might be fun to share this story with the local newspaper,” David Graham said. “I wanted to compare what Ryan caught versus the record to see how he compared. We found this catch far exceeded the record for this river.”
According to state records for Cibolo Creek, found on the Texas Parks & Wildlife website, the largest channel catfish caught by a junior angler in the Cibolo measured 22 inches and weighed 4.48 pounds. The largest channel catfish caught on record was snagged by Stephen Fong in October 2018. It measured 23.75 inches and weighed 7.73 pounds.
“That is a really big fish,” David Graham said, adding “8-year-old Ryan caught this behemoth of a catfish that measured 28.5 inches and weighed 8.5 pounds.”
When Ryan was 4 years old, he and his family went fishing in the mountains. His dad said he caught the biggest trout in their fishing party of several adults and older children and has been “hooked” ever since.
“Because of his enthusiasm for fishing and the outdoors, he reignited my love of fishing,” David Graham said.
Returning to his son’s catch of a lifetime, David said Ryan was very excited for this catch and knew the fish was exceptional.
“He was stunned and really excited when he found it was largest recorded catfish ever pulled from Cibolo Creek,” David Graham said.
However …
“When we caught this fish, I never contemplated this could be a record-setting catfish for this river, so I doubt this huge fish will be accepted into the record books because we don’t have an official weight,” David Graham said.
But, it really doesn’t matter.
“Ryan knows that he destroyed the Cibolo Creek channel catfish record, and this will make for some fun pictures and a great fish story,” his dad said.
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