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/
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1410672/posts
ITS DEAD!!!!
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) A record 124-pound blue catfish caught earlier this week by an Illinois man fishing in the Mississippi River died on its way to the Cabela's Outfitter store where it was to go on display.
Tim Pruitt, 33, of Godfrey, Ill., caught the world-record blue catfish early Sunday near Alton.
The fish, measuring 58 inches long and 44 inches around, was kept alive and was to be displayed in a tank at Cabela's in Kansas City, Kan., but it died en route to the store.
``We're baffled by this,'' Fred Cronin, a fisheries biologist for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, told The Kansas City Star. ``We took a lot of precautions to see that the fish was comfortable.
``But we're talking about a fish that was very old, very heavy,'' he said. ``The stress of being transported like that could have been too much.''
What a neat website!! lots of old pics and 8mm clips from Ethiopia! fascinating.
That reminds me of a segment on the Discovery Channel (or TLC?) show called Dirty Jobs.
They followed a pair of good 'ol boys from Oklahoma while they "noodled" an abandoned and flooded old highway.
Very funny, as were some of the other dirty jobs they highlighted.
Gonna be a Kansas vs Texas shoot out
Sorry to burst your bubble, but Kansas City, Missouri is where the fish will reside. Sort of lives up to the name of being the Show Me state
Wrong! The fish never made it to Cabela's. It's dead Jim. Sorry, this is an update from IOWA.
I am asking everyone if anyone knows the fate of free trapper, this thread would be right down his alley.
This looks like a good link...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/search?s=catfish&ok=Search&q=deep&m=any&o=score&SX=4293d71ab5fb599c313ee71ff8638e74d5562b62
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