Missouri pair's whopper blue catfish a potential world record
A Missouri man and woman appear to have caught a world record blue catfish.
Greg Bernal of Florissant and Janet Momphard of St. Charles boated a big blue weighing 130 pounds on Monday, according to a report aired by KMOV-TV in St. Louis.
If certified as a record, it beats the Missouri state listing for the species by 27 pounds and the world record by 6 pounds.
It took the pair just 15 minutes to get the fish to their boat, but 30 more minutes and two nets to wrestle it aboard. They were fishing in the Missouri River near the Columbia Bottom conservation area.
The two used a chunk of an Asian carp for bait. That fish had jumped into their boat.
A lot of paperwork will have to be filed with the International Game Fish Association in the couple's quest to certify the fish as a world record, but a spokesperson for the Missouri Department of Conservation said there's no doubt it broke the record.
The IFGA lists a 124-pounder as the world all-tackle blue catfish record. Timothy Pruitt caught it in the Mississippi River in Illinois in 2005.
The N.C. record is 89 pounds, set in 2006 on Badin Lake by Eric Fincher. The S.C. mark is 1091/4 pounds, established in 1991 by George Lijewski while fishing in the Pinopolis Dam tailrace below Lake Moultrie, the lower of the Santee Cooper reservoirs. Observer News Services
George that's what the new boat is for.
flyfishn
A Missouri man and woman appear to have caught a world record blue catfish.
Greg Bernal of Florissant and Janet Momphard of St. Charles boated a big blue weighing 130 pounds on Monday, according to a report aired by KMOV-TV in St. Louis.
If certified as a record, it beats the Missouri state listing for the species by 27 pounds and the world record by 6 pounds.
It took the pair just 15 minutes to get the fish to their boat, but 30 more minutes and two nets to wrestle it aboard. They were fishing in the Missouri River near the Columbia Bottom conservation area.
The two used a chunk of an Asian carp for bait. That fish had jumped into their boat.
A lot of paperwork will have to be filed with the International Game Fish Association in the couple's quest to certify the fish as a world record, but a spokesperson for the Missouri Department of Conservation said there's no doubt it broke the record.
The IFGA lists a 124-pounder as the world all-tackle blue catfish record. Timothy Pruitt caught it in the Mississippi River in Illinois in 2005.
The N.C. record is 89 pounds, set in 2006 on Badin Lake by Eric Fincher. The S.C. mark is 1091/4 pounds, established in 1991 by George Lijewski while fishing in the Pinopolis Dam tailrace below Lake Moultrie, the lower of the Santee Cooper reservoirs. Observer News Services
George that's what the new boat is for.
flyfishn
