Kahuna,

Kentucky Lake was impounded in 1944 and big catfish stories have abounded here since then! I am a fisheries biologist for TVA, stationed at Paris, TN; my area of responsibility has included Kentucky Lake for nearly 30 years. I know of several large cats caught below Kentucky Dam, the largest just over 100 pounds back in about 1972 (if I remember the year correctly). A fellow by the name of Jewell Copeland, from Marshall County, KY caught the big cat.

Other big cats, including a fish around 130 pounds in Alabama, have been verified from the Tennessee River. Most of these fish are blue cats, although some big flatheads are occasionally caught. I've worked with some diving crews in the Kentucky tailwater, but they have not reported any "Volkswagen" sized cats during the dives I was a party to. However, one of our TVA divers did collect a super-sized washboard mussel from the depths of the river there. It weighed almost 10 pounds and was aged at 99 years. But I digress.

I sincerely doubt car-sized catfish in the Tennessee River. Fish of 150 or so pounds would not be too far-fetched, but I would be looking for wheel weights in any catfish caught that weighed over 200 pounds (again, from the Tennessee River)!