15-year-old's record catfish could bring change to rules
Jaylynn Parker’s record 101.11-pound blue catfish appears to demand a few adjustments.
Not that it’s ever been quite as simple as catch fish, weigh fish, acclaim fish.
A process exists, of course, and the 101.11-pound catfish Parker pulled from the Ohio River on April 7 at New Richmond in Clermont County fits the going procedure almost like a puzzle piece picked from the wrong box.
Nobody’s at fault, actually. Such a set of circumstances hasn’t before come up.
The catfish was hooked on a jugline. Practiced more frequently in southern states, fishing with a jug consists of letting bait dangle beneath a free-floating canister that in turn is attached by a line to a fixed point such as a root or a tree trunk on shore.
Petty or jealous?15-year-old caught record catfish fair and square. It wrong to question her.
None of the fish listed among 42 species as state tackle records was caught under jug. That, of course, includes the standing record blue catfish, a 96-pounder taken from the Ohio River in 2009 by rod-and-reel angler Chris Rolph of Williamsburg.
Jug fishing, to be sure, is legal in Ohio as long as certain regulations are followed, said Scott Hale, the wildlife division’s supervisor of fish management and research. The 15-year-old Parker, who got help from her dad, Chuck Parker, and family friend, Jeff Sams, adhered to the rules.
“Three wildlife officers spent a good deal of time checking out the fish,” said Chip Hart, a writers group member and the host of a weekly radio show on a Cincinnati radio station. “If there would’ve been any irregularities there would have been a citation issued.”
A couple of hitches in the current process were exposed when Parker chose to release the fish alive.
“Questions arose when two record fish rules were violated,” noted Fred Snyder, a longtime fisheries biologist at Ohio State University and a veteran member of the writers group. “The fish was released before an examination by (wildlife division) biologists. What if we are challenged with a question of weights in the stomach? And it was released before certification.”
One possible outcome is a change in rules, suggested Tom Cross, a veteran outdoors writer from southwest Ohio.
“The rules in this case were not really practical nor obtainable if the fish was to be released alive,” he wrote in an email circulated among writers group members. “Rules need updating for a new era of catch and release.”
Thus, previous rules for eligibility might necessitate tweaking.
Ohio fish records exist in two categories: all-tackle, covering hook and line catches; and bowfishing, covering arrowed fish.
Until Parker’s catch, no reason existed to consider establishing a third category covering fish caught on juglines. However, such a category could emerge, Hart said.
Recognition of the supersize cat under an added category, let’s be clear, might also require freshened rules.
Turkey take
Hunters checked 4,367 wild turkeys during the opening weekend of the spring hunting season covering all but five northeastern counties. The take totaled 289 more birds, an increase of about 7.1%, from the 4,078 taken on the opening weekend a year ago.
The season runs through May 19.