Hoppy4 & a Long Cat

[Newt]

Wish I'd caught this fine fella but it was Hoppy4 - long time member here who is an American civilian assigned to the US Army in Germany. He asked if I'd put the pic on here.

 

All I know is the catch was from a recent trip. Hopefully he will come on and give some details.

 

[Richard Harvey]

Hi Newt,

I think Hoppy4 is going to upset some of his buddy's back home in the states with the size of that Catfish ! You don't grow them that that big back home i believe?

What is the biggest growing Catfish in the states, is it the Channel Catfish or Flathead?, i have seen photo's of a 30 pound Flathead from a USA river.

Hoppy4 looks pleased, i know i would be

Richard.

[davidP]

Blues & Flatheads go well over 100 & Channels well over 50. The records are kept state by state though so it's difficult to find the maximums, but the weights really do vary throughout the country - for example Washington State only has 1 record over 30 but Alabama is well over 100 for blue & 80 for the flathead. So it really does depend where you live. Nothing quite as big as a big wels though, but they do have 300lb alligator gar!

 

[ 13. August 2002, 11:31 PM: Message edited by: davidP ]

[Newt]

davidP has it right. Oddly enough, while the largest is the blue catfish, there are more large flathead caught than large blues. I classify over 50lbs as large.

 

But none of them will get anywhere near as large as a big Wels.

 

Re: Hoppy4's fish - it may be partly perspective in the picture but that surely is a long, skinny fish. Wonder how heavy it could get if fat?

 

[ 14. August 2002, 02:58 AM: Message edited by: Newt ]

[chevin]

Newt:

Wish I'd caught this fine fella but it was Hoppy4 - long time member here who is an American civilian assigned to the US Army in Germany. He asked if I'd put the pic on here.

 

All I know is the catch was from a recent trip. Hopefully he will come on and give some details.

 

Is there two fish in that picture? There seems to be one partly covered by the fish that Hoppy4 is holding.

[HOPPY4]

Newt,

First let me THANK YOU for posting the picture for me. To all of you that are viewing this post, it was a Pleasure that only an Angler would ENJOY.

The weight was 53lb. and it's length was 1.7 meters long. It was caught on 26 July 02 at 23:50 hours on the Saone River above Macon, France. It was one of 4 fish caught during the week of 20-27 July 02 by Devin, Shelley and myself. The largest fish caught during the week was 107lb. and was 2.6 meters long that Devin brought in on Wednesday night at 23:15 hours. It took him 23 minutes to bring this massive fish in as it made 3 long runs and a short run at the bank. Shelley's fish was a 35lb. 1.2 meter fish that was caught on a dead eel. We Enjoyed ourselves and are looking forward to going back again.

[/QB]

 

[ 14. August 2002, 01:08 PM: Message edited by: HOPPY4 ]

[Newt]

And another from the trip. Not so long but obviously satisfactory. Not for us US folk are the stoic expressions I see on so many UK anglers when they are holding a nice fish.