TRI-STATE (WEHT) – Memorial Day is a holiday in which many family and friends spend time together making memories — and for two fishermen, they had a day they will never forget.
After 18 years of fishing, Ben Goebel says the waters always find a way of surprising you.
When Goebel hit the Mississippi River, he had hopes of catching some big catfish, but he never imagined he would catch the biggest fish he had ever seen.
“We had winds 20 or 30 mph so we had a tough day as far as my boat trouble,” Goebel said. “We were catching fish and we actually missed a fish prior to that fish. The way we fish, we drift fish so we went back up and restarted the drift and as we went down there that fish hit. I mean he hit hard.”
Goebel wasn’t the only Tri-State resident having luck on the water.
Ben Goebel catches 95lb catfish in Mississippi River. 
Samuel Browning catches 60lb catfish in Ohio River.
Samuel Browning made some memories of his own on his way to catching a 60 pound catfish along the Ohio River near the John T. Myers Lock & Dam in the Mt. Vernon area.
“I stuck that fish and I knew it was a big one,” Browning said. “I told my nephew, I said ‘you might want to roll some film on this get some footage of this because it’s going to be good here in a minute.’ I thought it could be potential record. I knew it was a flat head the way he was holding. I knew it was flat I just didn’t know how big it was.”
Browning and Goebel both say they were in the fight of their life while trying to snag their individual fish.
“It is an experience that you really have to see, the pure size of the fish you really can’t put words on how big these fish are, especially when they get 50, 60, 70 pounds and when break that 70 pound mark– I mean the girth on these fish is just massive,” Goebel explained. “They’re strong and you really have to know how to fight them to get them in the boat.”
After a few pictures and videos both Browning and Goebel released their fish back into the water.
