Hot Pink Barbie Rod Snags NC State Record Channel Cat

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...

NC State Record Channel Catfish Ripe For Catching

In May 2005, North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission invalidated the long-held state record channel catfish. 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.

At that time, North Carolina set the minimum weight for a new state record at 20 pounds. Since then, however, no one has been able to catch a 20 pound channel catfish in North Carolina and after eliminating the minimum weight requirement, several state records have been turned in. The current record is 18.5 pounds caught by Wesley Trucks on the Neuse River. Wesley was using cut eel as bait and since this species of catfish apparently does not have keen eyesight, the bigger and smellier the bait the better.

This may be your best chance ever at catching a new state record - Good luck and happy fishing.