Posted on 09/30/2021 3:08:10 AM PDT by blueplum
COVENTRY, Conn. (AP) — Uncertainty about the species of a massive catfish that was eaten before it could be vetted by authorities in August has led Connecticut to withdraw its awarding of a new state record.
Connecticut Fish and Wildlife wrote in a Facebook post on Monday that because it was not able to examine the actual fish, authorities cannot confirm it was a white catfish....
...Ben Tomkunas, 25, of Coventry, who caught the 21.3-pound (9.66-kilogram) fish, said he gave it to his grandfather the morning after he caught it and it was eaten.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
He can enjoy telling that fish story well into old age.
Later, when Tomkunas told fishing buddies how he caught the catfish, he explained the error in first reporting the fish’s weight. It was actually transposed. The real weight was 31.2 lbs. (Golden Rule of Fishing: you can’t correct the record when it is a record.)
I always vet my catfish before I eat it. I think.
The Fisherman’s code:
Early to bed, early to rise.
Fish like hell and make up lies!
The whole idea is to eat them, isn’t it?
...Ben Tomkunas, 25, of Coventry, who caught the 21.3-pound (9.66-kilogram) fish, said he gave it to his grandfather the morning after he caught it and it was eaten.
—
“It was 21 pounds, and it was delicious!”
I have a big white in my pond. Last time I did catch and release he weighed 38 lbs and that was 2 yrs ago. I feed these cats daily and they have a surplus of bluegills to eat so it would be cheating to catch and turn him in.
So..: what if the grandfather who ate the catfish took a cologuard test, and then sent it to 23 and me?
Could you identify the catfish??
Whoever wrote the article is all backwards, a 21 pound white (blue) catfish would be nothing unusual. A 21 pound channel is a biggie.
The record for a blue cat in Mo. is 130 pounds. A 40-50 pounder is fairly common.
A family in my old home town had a couple of hailstones land in their yard this summer.
The smaller one is now the official state record - the larger one was used for making margaritas.
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