The Dever Post report this 1st: A La Junta man last month crushed the state’s record for the biggest flathead catfish catch during an outing at a Bent County reservoir, Colorado Parks and Wildlife said Tuesday. On Jan. 19, Tony Chavez pulled the monster catfish from a stilling basin below John Martin Reservoir in Hasty, roughly 20 miles west of Lamar off U.S. 50, the state agency said.
Chavez’s roughly 40-inch, 27-pound catch more than doubled the state’s previous record catfish, caught in 2011. Chavez said he used chicken liver as bait for his catch.
The catfish were stocked at the reservoir sporadically between 1994 and 2009 after being acquired from Arkansas through “special trades,” the agency said.
“Flathead catfish have tremendous growth potential,” wildlife officials said in a news release. “Fish weighing well over 50 pounds are common in the Midwestern states. The angling world record for flathead catfish is more than 120 pounds. CPW aquatic staff have sampled several large flatheads at John Martin in recent years, so this record may be broken again in the near future.”
The wildlife agency said record fish, which are evaluated based on an angler’s license, must not be frozen, gutted or altered in anyway before they are examined by a state biologist or district wildlife manager.
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