A birthday fishing trip with his father and grandfather became even more memorable for Drew Gauley when he pulled a 33-inch channel catfish out of the Coralville Reservoir on Friday

The bite from the monster catfish was no different from the others that Drew had caught that day, but as he reeled it in, the Lone Tree senior realized that he had hooked something big. 

“When I saw the pole go down, it didn’t hit any harder than any of the other ones really,” he explained. “Then I started pulling it in. When it got closer to the boat, it started really pulling, and it definitely felt a lot bigger than any of the ones we’d caught so far.

“It came up to the surface and we were about to get it in the net, and then everybody just kind of went crazy, because it was so huge.”

The channel cat weighed in at over 16 pounds. According to Martin Ennor of Enter Iowa’s Outdoors Catfish Guide Service, it was the biggest channel catfish ever caught during a guide trip on one of his boats. 

After the fish was weighed and measured, Gauley released it back into the Iowa River. 

After the trip, Michael Jonesi of Hookset Bait in Solon presented Gauley with a new Rippin Lips supercat rod and bait casting reel, the same combination he used to haul in the monster channel cat on his 18th birthday. 

“It seems only fitting that since Drew gave his fish of a lifetime back to the rez, that Michael gives him something to remember it by,” Ennor wrote in a social media post.

Gauley has enjoyed fishing all his life, especially trips with his father Curt, and grandfather Kenneth. 

“You never really know what you’re going to get, even if you know what you’re going for,” Drew said. “I feel like I’m always surprised with anything, it’s just kind of waiting and then seeing what you can do. And especially when you’re with your family — it’s great.”