BARBIE ROD HOOKS RECORD-BREAKING CATFISHFrom The News & Observer
A Wilkes County fisherman caught a record channel catfish -- with his granddaughter's hot pink Barbie doll rod and reel.
David Hayes landed the fish, which weighed 21 pounds, one ounce, on Aug. 5 in a private pond in the northwestern North Carolina county. He was fishing with his granddaughter Alyssa, 3, the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission said.
The fish was 2 inches longer than Alyssa's rod and reel, which measured 2 and a half feet.
Hayes and his granddaughter were using black crickets as bait and fishing for bluegill when nature called for Alyssa.
"After catching two or three bluegill, Alyssa turns to me and says 'Papa, I've got to go to the bathroom. Hold my fishing rod,'" Hayes recalled, according to a news release issued by the Wildlife Resources Commission. "A few minutes later, the float went under and I saw the water start boiling up. I knew right then that I had my hands full with that fishing rod."
It took Hayes 25 minutes to land the fish.
The fish was weighed on certified scales at Thurmond Grocery in Thurmond, N.C. It was certified by Kin Hodges, a fisheries biologist with the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission.
The fish was 32 inches long and 22 and a half inches in girth.
The previous record channel catfish was an 18-pound, 5-ounce specimen caught in August 2007.
Hayes told the Wildlife Resources Commission that he and Alyssa have been fishing together since she was old enough to hold a fishing rod.
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