Angler’s catch was so big, it ‘bent the net.’ Now, he holds a record in North Carolina
A North Carolina angler caught a channel catfish so big, it “bent the net,” he said.
Now, his massive 27-pound catch holds a state record, the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission wrote July 10 in a news release.
Justin Hall made his mark on history after years of going to the same Rockingham County farm pond. But after rarely hooking channel catfish there, he said his 13-year-old son caught and released one that might have weighed over 25 pounds.
%20(3).jpg "2023-05-21 Channel Catfish state record (Hall) (3).jpg")
“I told a friend about my son’s catch, and he told me it might have been big enough to beat the state record,” Hall, a Reidsville resident, said in the release.
At the time the teen caught the channel catfish in May, a 26-pounder held the state record. That catfish was hooked in 2021 on the Neuse River, which runs through the Raleigh area and eastern parts of the state.
A week after his son caught the monster fish, Hall returned to the pond on May 21. Officials said he was using “bread dough as bait and his Big Cat Fever Casting Rod and Zebco Big Cat XT reel” when he made the historic catch.
“My wife went down to the waterline to bring it in with the net — and it bent the net,” Hall said.
%20(6_fitted.jpeg "2023-05-21 Channel Catfish state record (Hall) (6_fitted.jpeg")
Now, almost two months later, Hall’s catch has been verified as a state record. The fish weighed 27 pounds, 7 ounces, measuring more than 36 inches long and over 24 “inches in girth,” the wildlife commission said.
To get a N.C. Freshwater Fish State Record, officials said fishermen have to meet certain requirements, including weighing the fish on a certified scale and catching it with a “rod and reel or cane pole.”
Channel catfish are bottom feeders that live in ponds, rivers and other waterways across North Carolina. Rockingham County is roughly 30 miles north of downtown Greensboro, along the Virginia border.
