15-Year-Old Catches Georgia Record Blue Cat *Certified*

[rsimms]

15-Year-Old Catches Georgia Record Blue Cat http://www.chattanoogan.com/articles/article_130156.asp

 

[josh.schreiber]

I was wondering if that one was ever verified as legit. Congrats to the dude that caught 'im

 

[SpurHunter]

I really had my doubts about this one, but it sounds like they went all-out to verify it. Hard to believe its only 19 yrs old, maybe it was such a "perfect storm" of food and habitat in that pond, it could sustain that kind of rapid growth. Pretty cool story.

 

[rsimms]

Actually Spur, a few BIG fish (100 lb. class) I know of that have been officially aged were often in the 20-25 year range. Personally I believe big fish are a combination of habitat AND genetics. Perhaps the really big guys are the Shaquille O'Neal's of the catfish world. He didn't necessarily have to live extra long to get extra big.

 

[sprestwood]

"private 18-acre neighborhood lake"

"WRD Fisheries Management biologists initially thought that someone might have transplanted the fish into the lake as an adult, making it ineligible for the state record."

"Biologists also indicated that though blue catfish of this size have not previously been documented from small lakes, research showed that
such growth is not impossible."

" and an investigation into the diet of the fish revealed no river species were recently consumed. "

What was it eating then?

You can't support that large of a fish with out a large amount of food, and that means that that lake had to be supplemented.

The future of fishing records will be dominated by private waters fed by private fish food recipies. And "sport" will have to edited out of any "sport fishing" reference. I wish these ppl sould start their own catfish farming records list and quit duping state bioligist.
emoBadLanguage emoTskTsk emoHoppingmad

 

[rsimms]

Here's a photo just received.