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ATLANTA (AP) — An Alabama teenager has set a Florida state record for catching the biggest flathead catfish.
Multiple news media reports that the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission says 13-year-old Charles Patchen of Gordon, Alabama, caught a 63.8-pound flathead. Patchen pulled in the enormous catfish on a Zebco 33 reel with a 14-pound test line on May 15 in the Chattahoochee River in Jackson County.
It took Patchen nearly two hours to land the big fish. The fish needed to be rolled into the boat because it was too large for the net.
The previous certified state record flathead catfish weighed 55.05 pounds and was caught on the Yellow River by James Auston Jr. in 2011.
FWC biologist Katie Woodside certified the measurements the day after the fish was caught.
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