FORT WAYNE, Ind. (Fort Wayne’s NBC) – A Fort Wayne man found out just what’s lurking in the Fort Wayne rivers. Fishing stories can sometimes be difficult to believe, but this one is true! There’s even proof to show it.

“I just know this whole area pretty good,” Adam Madison says, “The Maumee River, you just got to find that hole.”

Adam Madison has fished since he was a kid. He has been fishing the Maumee River in Fort Wayne for about three years. For this fisherman, things got intense early Sunday morning.

“Cast out there, waited for about, it took about half an hour,” Madison says, “He took it, he ran with it, and I had to pick up my reel and reel down on it, and he was hooked, and he snatched me pretty good.”

After that, a fight was on between Madison and whatever he had on the line. He knew quickly it was something big.

“I had to climb up here and wind, and wind, and wind, and then he finally came up,” says Madison.

The struggle to bring the fish up on the Tecumseh Street bridge lasted close to ten minutes according to Madison, and with a sturdy line and help from a friend he was with, the two were able to bring in a flathead catfish weighing forty pounds.

“He just kept pulling the rope up, and then once you get him about right here, toss him up on the pier, and of course, we jump up and down with excitement,” says Madison.

The weight of the fish tied his personal record for largest caught out of a river. What makes this story even better is the limitation he faces.

“I really can’t see that much,” says Madison.

Madison has retinitis pigmentosa, which limits how much and how clearly he can see.

“Thank god I have my fishing reels, they click,” Madison says, “You can hear the loud clicker, and you just grab the pole, but besides that, I don’t let my sight stop me from doing anything.”

It’s clear, this Fort Wayne man wants more.

“I want that bigger one. I got to break that fifty. I hope it will happen.”

Madison and his friend released the fish back into the Maumee shortly after catching it, proving there is at least one, and likely many other big fish in the three rivers that meet in Fort Wayne.