Nice fish Chaseasl! I feel bad that some members have jumped so hard on you, but the reality is a rod and reel fishermen is not going to put a dent in the population of our catfish. It's probably the most underfished specie we have. Obviously if our DNR thought it was a problem, they'd step in with a different reg on keeping big fish. If folks want to squawk about keeping fish, they should squawk about the commercial guys raping tons of fish for profit, not the sport angler.
Enjoy those fish, and if you find they didn't taste as good as smaller ones, well, you'll know next time. On the other end of the scale, personally I like my catfish in the 5 - 10 pound range. I think killing anything less than 5 pounds is a waste for what little meat you'll gain. Let it go and grow, but then like everyone else on here, it's just my humble opinion
