I’m guessing that strange encounters are probably a common occurrence for a guy like Wesley Strader. Referred to as “the clown prince of bass fishing” by Weighmaster Chris Jones, Strader is known for his cut-up sense of humor, and scenes like the one I recently witnessed with the Tennessee pro do nothing but fuel his storytelling sessions at boat ramps and registration meetings.

A few days ago Strader and I were fishing below Wheeler Dam on Wilson Lake for a media event hosted by T-H Marine when we witnessed a quarter-mile duel between a local angler and a mammoth blue catfish.

The angler, who said his name is Parkey (“That’s all you need to know. There’s only one in the world,” he told me.), turned down Wesley’s offers for assistance but still managed to eventually win the fight and haul the fish over his gunwale – it took him two attempts to get it in the boat. That’s when Wesley gleefully hopped aboard to help him weigh and show off the beast.

Strader tried to hoist the fish by hand, but that was pointless. The big blue clenched its gills down on his right hand and drew blood from every finger.

“Watch your leg,” Parkey warned. “I had one break my leg last year.”

Parkey then handed Strader a hook and cable to lift the fish for a photo, and together they hoisted it up on a scale.

It registered 89 pounds, but according to Parkey, it was a 95-pounder.

“My scale is off by 6 pounds,” he said.

“That’s a true fisherman,” Strader later joked.

If his claims are true, and why wouldn’t they be, Parkey has recently landed two 100-pound-plus cats below Wheeler Dam. A Tennessean, Parkey caught the 95-pounder on just his third cast that day, using a fist-sized lead weight to keep his baited rig down in the current.

In case you were wondering, the International Game Fish Association recognizes a 143-pound blue cat as the all-tackle world record. That fish was caught from Kerr Lake in Virginia.

Here are some photos from the encounter. Next time you see Strader at a weigh-in, you can ask him for the rest of the details yourself.