In a post about five months ago, I stated that the NC state record channel catfish was "ripe for catching" because the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission had invalidated the long-held state record. The old record held by Pete Paine since 1971 was decertified after a photograph of his catch was published in Wildlife of North Carolina magazine and several readers correctly identified the fish as a flathead catfish.Well, a new record has now been established AND it was caught on a hot pink 2-1/2 foot Barbie fishing rod! It took Davis Hayes 25 minutes to reel in the 32-inch, 21 pound 1 ounce catfish. While he usually uses a "real" fishing rod and reel, he was fishing in a pond in his back yard with his granddaughter Alyssa's fishing gear while she was in the house taking a potty break.
Hayes plans to have the catfish mounted, along with the pink rod (Happily, Lauren Dougherty, a spokeswoman for Mattel, said she's sending a new Barbie rod and reel to Alyssa). The previous record for channel catfish was an 18-pound, 5-ounce specimen caught in August 2007 by Wesley Trucks from New Bern using a Tsunami rod and a Shimano 6500 Bait Runner reel with deep-sea gear, including 100-pound test line. "If you use smaller gear, you'll never get a big catfish to the boat," Trucks said in a 2007 news release announcing his record-breaking catch. Obviously the catfish are not listening to Mr. Trucks. Barbie on Alyssa...
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