Keith Lusher 05.15.24
What do you do throughout the wet season in Ohio? You catch a state-record blue catfish! That’s what 15-year-old Jaylynn Parker of New Richmond Ohio did whereas fishing along with her father, Chuck Parker. The daddy and daughter staff have been checking jug strains in a creek that’s related to the Ohio River. When the river overruns the banks these tributaries are recognized for producing catfish. “It’s a good way to make the most effective of a nasty state of affairs,” mentioned Chuck. The Parkers set quite a few strains out within the creek. The strains comprised of 200-pound take a look at baited with skipjack. A easy Clorox bleach jug served because the float. The road is run via the deal with of the jug the place the Parkers then tie the tip of the road to a close-by overhanging tree department that serves as an anchor if any fish try to swim off with the jug.
After recognizing the jug bobbing within the water, Jaylynn grabbed it and began pulling, however didn’t count on to be nearly pulled overboard. Her father and his good friend Jeff Sams shortly helped out by reaching down and lifting the fish into the boat. “There’s no approach I may have gotten him within the boat on my own,” she mentioned. “I’m solely about ten kilos larger than him.”
After the fish was mendacity on the floorboard of the boat, actuality hit. “I couldn’t cease screaming,” Parker mentioned. “I actually didn’t suppose he was going to be that large. I used to be so stunned.” After getting the fish to land the household instantly known as the Ohio Division of Wildlife and Fisheries to have it formally weighed and measured. The monstrous catfish measured 56 inches lengthy with a 39-inch girth. It topped the size at 101.11 kilos which is 5 kilos heavier than Chris Rolph’s 96-pound blue taken from the Ohio River in 2009.
