Anyone who has a fisherman in the family has heard some tall tales about the ones that got away. The Kansans who fished the Kaw River above Bowersock dam may have told some tall tales in their time, but they brought home the proof often enough to give credence to some of their other stories.

The modern day Kansas state records for both blue catfish (90 lbs) and channel catfish (34 lbs 11 oz.) were set in the Kansas River near Lawrence, but these records have only been kept since the mid-1950s. In the earlier days of state history there are reports of a 100-pound catfish taken from the river and sold to a Lawrence grocery store. The local newspaper reported "you have to go in at the back door of the store to get out at the front, the thing's snout sticks a good way across the street."

There are other reports of 200-pound catfish being taken near the Bowersock dam around 1900. These very well could be true. At least one man is known to have been drownd by a catfish he caught (or maybe it was the other way around).

In the late 1800s Abe Burns and his friend, Jake Washington, used to "noodle" for catfish just below the dam. They would fasten a large hook to a board, and then tie the board on to an arm. They would then swim underwater searching holes below the dam where the large cats liked to hide. When they found a big cat they would gaff it with the hook and bring it to the surface. One day while fishing in such a manner Abe hooked on to a cat that was far too big to handle. Neither Abe nor the catfish surfaced until several days later when both he and the fish were found downstream---still joined together! The picture below is of Abe (on the left) and Jake in more successful days showing off their day's catch of a 90 and a 110-pounder.

The episode of losing Abe did institute the beginning of safety precautions to use while noodling for catfish. After Abe's unfortunate demise, noodlers began tying a rope around their waist. When they hooked a big catfish they would tug on the rope and a friend in a boat, or on the shore, would then help haul the big fish in. On one such fishing trip in the early 1900s, Dolly Graber who owned a marina on the reservoir above Bowersock dam, was noodling with a friend on the reservoir. Dolly hooked a whopper. It was reported from his friend on the boat that "first I saw Dolly, then I saw the fish, then I saw Dolly, then I saw more of the fish". Dolly survived the experience; the fish didn't. There is no record of the weight of the fish, but it may have been one of those 200-pounders!

Other huge fish have been taken from the Lawrence reservoir. In the photo below, Doug Smith, Lawrence native, is shown with a 120-pound catfish he caught using a hoop net. A 90-pound and 65-pound cat were caught in the same net. Apparently the "small" ones did not deserve enough attention to have their picture taken!

Since the beginning of the US Army Corp of Engineers' flood control projects on the Kaw and its tributaries, there have been much larger dams and reservoirs than J. D. Bowersock's 1874 dam of stone constructed in Kansas, but remember the current Kansas state record for both blue and channel catfish were set near the dam in Douglas county. Maybe it's "in the water", but clearly the place to fish for records in Kansas is in the Kaw at Lawrence.