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| Santee Cooper Cats - Catfish USA presents The State of Connecticut Catfish Records Department |
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| Channel Catfish Weight: 29.39 lbs. Length: 37.5 inches Girth: 24 inches Angler: Appleton Barrows of Ashford, CT Caught at: Mashapaug Lake in Union Bait/Lure: 5" red & black rubber worm Method: Record Date: June 27, 2004 |
| A Fish Tale: An Unusual Catch Lands In Record Book July 17, 2004 By JESSE LEAVENWORTH, Courant Staff Writer Appleton Barrows was fishing in the light of a half moon when he hooked what he thought was a largemouth bass. Alone in a small boat on Mashapaug Lake in Union, Barrows soon learned something else was stretching his line. "The initial hit was just like a bass and it ran toward the boat," Barrows said Friday. "Only when it got to the boat, it kept on going toward the middle of the lake." Almost like "Jaws," huh? "I was beginning to wonder," he said, "because I couldn't see anything and this thing was pulling like a freight train." After a 23-minute struggle, Barrows landed the Moby Dick of channel catfish - a whopping 29.39-pounder that broke the state record by more than six pounds. More unusual still is that the fish was an albino, according to the state Department of Environmental Protection. The condition is rare in nature, but albino catfish are commonly sold in pet stores; and this one, the DEP said, may have been raised in an aquarium and then released into the lake. Barrows, 70, a retired state worker from Ashford, said his bait was a 5-inch-long red and black rubber worm. |
| He hooked the fish on June 27 about 2 a.m. while fishing for bass in a tournament sponsored by the Nor'East Bassmasters Club. The great white catfish had been the subject of anglers' talk around Mashapaug. One man said he had seen it twice; others had caught only a glimpse of the pallid monster. Barrows didn't know what he had until he scooped it into a net, and his reaction, he said, cannot be printed. Barrows put the catfish into a water-filled cooler and took it to a Willimantic supermarket, where it was weighed. He released the fish into a farm pond near his home, but it died about a half day later, apparently from stress, Barrows said. Mashapaug, a 287-acre lake near the Massachusetts line, also was the breeding ground for the state's record largemouth bass - a 12-pound, 14-ounce fish caught in 1961, state senior fisheries biologist Bill Gerrish said. http://www.ctnow.com/news/local/hc-bigfish0717.artjul17,1,4630204.story?coll=hc-headlines-local |
| 2nd Previous Channel Catfish Weight: 22 lbs.-8 oz. Angler: Dana Dodge Caught at: Ashfield Lake - Ashfield Bait/Lure: Method: Record Date: 1989 |
| Previous Channel Catfish Weight: 23 lbs.-0 oz. Angler: Richard J. Tavares Caught at: Quassapaug Lake Bait/Lure: Method: Record Date: 1996 |
| Two-way Tie |
| Bulhead Catfish Weight: 3 lbs.-8 oz. Angler: Roger Aziz Jr. Caught at: Stiles Reservoir - Spencer Bait/Lure: Method: Record Date: 1985 |
| Bulhead Catfish Weight: 3 lbs.-8 oz. Angler: Janet Bourgeois Caught at: White Hall Lake - Hopkinton Bait/Lure: Method: Record Date: 1987 |
| White Catfish Weight: 12 lbs.-12 oz. Angler: John L. Shatas Caught at: Connecticut River Bait/Lure: Method: Record Date: 1999 |
| Previous White Catfish Weight: 9 lbs.-3 oz. Angler: Michael Payne Caught at: Baddacook Pond - Groton Bait/Lure: Method: Record Date: 1987 |
| Blue Catfish Weight: Angler: Caught at: Bait/Lure: Method: Record Date: |
| Flathead Catfish Weight: Angler: Caught at: Bait/Lure: Method: Record Date: |
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