A 15-year-old woman from New Richmond could have damaged an Ohio state file on Sunday, April 7, for the biggest blue catfish, with the monster weighing in at a whopping 101.11 kilos.
“He was bigger than we ever imagined,” Jaylynn Parker, a sophomore at New Richmond High School, instructed Fox News Digital.
Parker and her household put out jug traces in a creek off the Ohio River round 8 p.m. the night earlier than the massive catch.
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Jug fishing is a technique of fishing that makes use of traces suspended from floating jugs to catch fish in lakes or rivers.
Fishing traces with hooks are tied onto jugs and weights could be added to the road to maintain the jug’s location fastened.
Jaylynn Parker, 15, of New Richmond, Ohio, exhibits off her 101-pound blue catfish, caught within the Ohio River on April 7, 2024. (Kristen Parker)
Typically, they’re set out at sundown and checked the following morning.
“Then Sunday comes and we get there about 2 p.m.,” Parker stated. “It was just a pretty normal day, I guess.”
Parker and a household buddy, Jeff Sam, obtained into a ship and went out to test the traces.
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“We go out and we check one, and [the fish] was probably just about 10 to 5 pounds,” she stated. “We threw him back.”
So they moved onto the following jug, the place there was one other fish ready.
“I was thinking, ‘This is a pretty good fish.’”
“I started pulling on him and I noticed that he was pulling back pretty hard,” Parker stated.
“I was thinking, ‘This is a pretty good fish.’”
The fish was wrapped in some particles, Parker stated. “So I was trying to get all the debris unwrapped from our line, and he is pulling on me really hard,” she added. “He yanked the jug out of my hand. I told Jeff, ‘Get ready.’ I pulled him up and we were like, ‘This is a big fish.’”
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Sam leaned over the aspect and tried to internet the enormous — however they nearly flipped the boat of their try.
“The fish pulled again real hard and started fighting,” she stated. The adrenaline, she famous, was “really going. I just wanted to get him up … and I was kind of scared he was going to get away.”
She gave the fish a great pull — and he rolled over to his aspect, she stated.
“I began screaming, and I used to be yelling, ‘Net the fish, net the fish,'” Parker said.
Parker and her family forgot their fishing scale — so they had to transport the giant catch to a local feed and supply store to record its weight. (Kristen Parker)
“It was all kind of a blur after that. It was just crazy.”
Sam finally netted the fish and the friends began bringing him to shore.
“We had the net in the water still, and I don’t really think we could’ve gotten him in the boat,” she said. “He probably would’ve flipped our boat over if we tried to pull him in there.”
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The river was high that day, so they were able to get him onto the dock with the help of Parker’s mother and father, Chuck and Kristen Parker, and Sam’s son.
“They all grabbed the net and pulled him up onto the dock,” she stated. “They were like, ‘This is a really big fish. I think this might be a state record fish.’”
“We needed to have it weighed on an auditor’s scale in order to be certified.”
Eager to weigh the fish, they realized they’d forgotten to convey their scale. At that time, they referred to as the Ohio Division of Wildlife.
“It was Sunday and the game wardens came out after about an hour,” Parker stated. “We needed to have it weighed on an auditor’s scale in order to be certified, but nothing was open that had an auditor scale. They spent hours looking for someplace with a scale.”
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So the journey continued — till Parker might affirm the load of her catfish.
“The game wardens told us we [could] bring him to our house,” she stated. “We have a big tank — so we put him in there for the night until we could get to Bethel Feed and Supply the next morning to weigh him. He stayed in the bait tank all night and my dad was out there every hour checking on him.”
Jaylynn Parker and her dad, Chuck Parker. When the household was lastly in a position to weigh the catch, the fish tipped the scales at greater than 100 kilos. (Kristen Parker)
When the household was lastly in a position to weigh the catch — the scales tipped at greater than 100 kilos.
“I was surprised,” Parker stated. “I was super excited, but I was definitely surprised.”
Logan Oates, communications coordinator for the Ohio Division of Wildlife, confirmed to Fox News Digital the small print of the catch.
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“District 5 LE staff were contacted [on] Sunday, April 7, by an angler reporting a catch of a potential record-breaking blue catfish,” Oates stated.
“I was super excited, but I was definitely surprised.”
“The fish was caught in Twelve Mile Creek just upstream from the Ohio River in New Richmond, Clermont County. The certified weight was 101.11 pounds.”
State file recognition by the Outdoor Writers of Ohio’s State Record Fish Committee, the official certifying group, is pending.
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The present file, additionally confirmed by Oates, is 96 kilos, additionally caught within the Ohio River, by Chris Rolph in 2009. Meanwhile, the world file is a 143-pound blue catfish measuring nearly 57 inches — which was caught at John H. Kerr-Buggs Island Lake close to Clarksville, Virginia.
‘Very, very healthy’
After the weigh-in, Parker was anxious to release the fish back into his home waters.
“Oh, it made me so happy to see him swim away knowing that we took very good care of him and that we released him very, very healthy,” Parker said.
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“And it just made me super happy to know that we were able to keep him alive and release him where he was caught and where he knows he’s from.”
The game wardens told the Parkers they could put the fish in their tank, but they were adamant that he be returned to the Ohio River.
(“As big as this fish is, this fish could be a big breeder,” said Parker.)
“Jaylynn insisted and we agreed with her, with this being a possible state record,” mom Kristen Parker told Fox News Digital.
“As big as this fish is, this fish could be a big breeder. I mean, he’s probably at least 30 years old. We were not going to put him in our lake because we know he needs to be in the river, where he should be.”
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While the family awaits official confirmation, there’s a bit of controversy regarding the method by which the fish was caught.
“In Ohio, there’s nothing that separates totally different fishing classes,” Kristen Parker stated.
“It’s called an ‘all tackle’ category.’ So if you catch a fish by a rod and reel, a jug line, a limb line or a trot line, it’s all considered the same category.”
“We do a lot of hiking and she also hunts with her dad and her uncles. She’s very into the outdoors.”
The state of Ohio considers it a authorized catch — however not all fishermen agree it’s the identical.
“There are a lot of people that don’t think that jug fishing, trotline fishing and things like that [are] actual fishing,” Kristen Parker stated. “They think it should be caught with a rod and reel. But according to the state of Ohio, that’s not the case. So we’ve been dealing with a little bit of negativity and backlash. But it’s not our fault. That’s the state rule.”
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Her daughter, in the meantime, is taking all of it in stride, stated the mother.
“This girl, if you would look at her — she always has her hair and makeup done,” she stated.
“But she will do just about anything when it comes to the outdoors. We go spelunking, cave exploring, and Jaylynn loves it. We do a lot of hiking and she also hunts with her dad and her uncles. She’s very into the outdoors.”
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Jaylynn Parker stated she comes by these traits naturally.
“Both my parents grew up around fishing, so I was kind of bound to become a little fishing girl,” she stated.
“Ever since I was two or three, I’ve just always loved it. Some kids don’t want to go get dirty and don’t want to touch fish or sit for hours,” she stated.
“But that’s the fun about it because you’re outside enjoying nature and it’s so relaxing and you never know what you’re going to catch.”
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