New world record blue catfish?
ST. LOUIS (AP) - Greg Bernal has some fish story to tell.
The 47-year-old Florissant man was fishing in the Missouri River just before 1 a.m. Tuesday when he snagged a 130-pound blue catfish measuring 57 inches long and 45 inches in girth.
STLtoday.com, the website for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, reported it appears to be a state record, topping a 117-pound catfish caught on a trotline in the Osage River in 1964.
Bernal said he fought the fish for 15 minutes and spent another half-hour lifting it into his boat near the Columbia Bottom Conservation Area. His girlfriend, Janet Momphard of St. Charles, was on hand to help.
“I am still numb,” Bernal said. “I’m still in shock that he’s actually that big. That’s the biggest fish I’ve ever seen.”
Officials said Bernal’s fish appears to be a world record-setter among blue catfish, beating a 124-pounder caught in the Mississippi River in 2005 by an Alton, Ill., angler.
Of those cau ght in Missouri, the biggest previous blue catfish listed on the state Department of Conservation website weighed 103 pounds and was taken in the Missouri River in 1991.
Bernal told the Post-Dispatch he can hardly believe the size of his fish.
“This is pretty much it for me,” he said. “This is pretty much it. But I’m still gonna go out there. I’m gonna go out there and catch a bigger one. We’ll just have to see what happens. You never know.”
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Snagged it??
St. Louis news said he fought it for 45min there was a mistype somewhere. They also reported that he had no plans to eat the fish but he was going to have a fiberglass replica made. So I wonder if the fish survived. One picture I saw showed it in a tank but the rest of the pictures showed them dragging it around on the front of the boat.
Everything I’ve read says he caught it on a a piece of Asian carp; he did not snag it.
He used a Hot Dog sprayed with WD-40.
Yeah, his wife said they used Asian Carp in the video.
thats a lot of tartar sauce
Well at least if he used the asian Carp someone finaly figured out, something they are good for ....lol
Either way he caught it, the fish was on his last leg or fin so to speak. Its good to know there’s still some big ones out there. Hopefully it gets more people out there fishing, and releasing them when there not that big. Catch and release.
If this is a new world record we need to bring it back to ILLINOIS!!!!! Step up Pruitt!!
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