The information on this record is kind of sketchy. The only thing I found in the file was a Field & Stream Sixty-Fifth Annual Fishing Contest Certificate of Award. The certificate states, “This is to certify that Terrence Fussy, Minneapolis, Minnesota on the date inscribed below did hook and successfully land a Channel Catfish which has been weighed and measured, and a true record thereof duly entered in the official register of the Field & Stream Annual Fishing Contest. The information shown on the certificate is: Date – February 16, 1975; Weight – 38 pounds; Length – 3 feet 8 inches; Class – Unrestricted Line Test. There is a handwritten note on the certificate that says: Miss River, northern Mpls, Feb 14, 75.
I did not find any pictures to verify the catch. There was a handwritten note card dated 8/13/91 with a handwritten message: Anonymous caller claims catch was at Hudson, WI on the St Croix River in 1975.
I’m sitting here on 4 February looking out the window on a bitterly cold day trying to envision catching a 38# channel cat on 14 February 1975 on the Mississippi River in N.E. Mpls. I did a National Weather Service search for the weather on 14 Feb 75. There was no precipitation that day, the high temp was 23 and the low temp was 9. I would think the river in N.E. Mpls would be open at that temperature. It just seems like such an unlikely time to make a record catch. I would have liked to see the fish.
