How one Iowa fisherman caught a monster catfish

Steve Zamzow, 59, likes to go fishing two or three times a week. Zamzow has caught his fair share of fish, but his most recent catch on Monday caught him by surprise.

At 6-foot-5 and 280 pounds, he's had to reel in his share of 30-pound fish, but this flathead catfish on Saylorville Lake was on a whole 'nother level.

The Grimes native had a 48-inch measuring board and this catfish stretched out well past that. It proved to be quite the struggle.

"The fish was pulling the boat around," he said. "When I got to see it, I knew that it was bigger than any I've ever caught."

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Once he got a hold of its head, he grabbed its tail and then pulled that sucker into the boat. After he took a proud picture with it, he let it go.

As the president of the Central Iowa Anglers, a multispecies fishing club located in Des Moines, he practices and preaches the conservation of fish. A fish of that size lays "pounds and pounds of eggs," he said.

"It doesn't make sense to kill something that special. I had a thrill catching that fish and I'd like to see somebody else have that same thrill."