One-eyed catfish hooked, gives angler best fight he’s ever had

A Texas angler caught a one-eyed catfish recently on Granger Lake that put up a big fight that drew blood.
 
“The catfish was, of course, not the biggest I’ve ever caught, but it had to be the hardest fighting I’ve ever caught,” Mike Malone said. “I had pliers and was really desperate to get the hook out because he was fighting like crazy; just when I thought I had a good grip, he put in one last jump and jumped two foot over my head.”
 
The result of the one-eyed catfish’s last-ditch effort was a hook embedding itself through the outside of Malone’s finger.
 
“So there I am bleeding, and the string is now through his mouth, back to the reel, and I’m on the other end with a fighting catfish,” he said. “And I’m desperate to get this catfish stopped.”
 
Malone was able to cut the line, successfully separating himself from the thrashing catfish, but found a new problem — nothing he had in the boat was strong enough to cut the hook. Malone was forced to drive back to the dock, get in his truck and drive home to find the right tool.
 
“I fish to eat, so I had one thing in mind for him,” Malone said. “And he had one thing in mind, and that was wanting to go home to the water.”
 
Once Malone finally got rid of the hook, he had time to study the uniqueness of the fish.
 
“The catfish had no place where an eye had been put out or anything like that. I guess it was like that from birth,” he said. “It was a really weird looking catfish. I’ve never even seen one and never heard of one before then.”
 
So did Malone get to eat the fish that caused him so much trouble?
 
“Oh yeah, he was good,” Malone said. “I cleaned him and tossed his head, then got to thinking about it that night and I went out and dug him out of the trash and put the head on a fencepost.”