Examples:
Posted on 05/24/2005 5:00:04 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
ALTON, Ill. - It sounds like the sort of tale Mark Twain might have cooked up: A man fishing in the Mississippi River hauls in a blue catfish roughly the size of a sixth-grader. But this is no fish story. Early Sunday, Tim Pruitt caught a 124-pound blue catfish.
To get a sense of just how big that is, the state record holder was a mere 85 pounds and the world record holder tipped the scales at 121 pounds, 8 ounces.
Now, Pruitt, whose fish has already been weighed in the presence of a conservation police officer and measured by a biologist for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, is expected to submit documentation to the International Game Fish Association so that it can be certified a world record holder.
Once that is done, the catch should be approved as the world's largest blue catfish, replacing the current champion that was caught Jan. 16, 2004, in Lake Texoma, Texas, said Becky Reynolds, a spokeswoman for the association.
Pruitt's fish, measuring 58 inches long and 44 inches around, was swimming below the Melvin Price Lock and Dam on the Mississippi River at Alton on Saturday night when it grabbed Pruitt's line. The two struggled for more than half an hour, and at one point the fish dragged the boat carrying Pruitt, his wife and a friend before Pruitt could reel it in.
The fish has been kept alive and will be on display in a tank at the Cabela's Outfitter store in Kansas City, Kan., according to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.
Pruitt, 33, of Godfrey, told the (Peoria) Journal Star's outdoors columnist that he considered releasing the fish in the river but decided to donate it to Cabela's "because I thought it might be neat to give people a chance to see a fish that massive."
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On the Net:
Illinois Department of Natural Resources: http://dnr.state.il.us
International Game Fish Association: www.igfa.org/
We've caught fish just as big using a "telephone". Yellow cats get huge.
I've done it.
I think Sandy Berger's done it too.
: )
P.S. Guy caught a 2 lb 4 oz crappie around here the other day....
Yeah, it's really groovy and far out, man!
Here's a link to a falsified report of the record fish. Real picture....location is inaccurate, however.
http://www.snopes.com/photos/animals/graphics/txcatfish_small.jpg
Examples:
I thought they used to fish for catfish in the mighty miss with chains and had a team of mules to pull the catfish out. i.e. much largr than 125 pounds.
That thing is alive and he is HOLDING it????
That will take his arm off!
Why not carry a shark.
Damn!
90 pound king salmon.
355 pound Alaskan halibut.
Sorry guys, couldn't resist.
Catfish can stay alive a while, a good while, without water.
I think the angler may have a hard time getting certified as a record by the IGFA - depending on how it's entered. I believe that the use of nets is not allowed - as well as only one person may fight the fish and land it.
At least that's how I remember it. Now - the National Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame (I think that's the name) allows the use of nets to land the fish.
Should be interesting, though. That's one HUGE catfish!
Closer to home, Jim Bringhurst nailed a 16-pound, five-ounce brown trout at Lower Twin Lake near Bridgeport in the Eastern Sierra. He was trolling a hand-painted, #13 Rapala.
Twin Lakes, wrong time of year but you get the idea.
Just wow.
that fish looks like it has just eaten a couple of six graders..
You didn't keep those little babies did you? Surely they have a minimum size requirement in Alaska, don't they?
My stomach's growling just lookin' at it!
Steve doesn't understand it, being from the Great Lakes of Minnesota, but catfish is my favorite fish to eat.
Mmmm!
:-)
Put me on your catfish ping list, Norm!
pssssssht. 124 pounds big deal now you guys shoulda seen the one that got away from me last weekend 200 pounds easy if only i could have landed it no seriously it really was :-)
world record big head carp shot by a bowfisherman in minnesota (87 pounds )
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