Star Tribune, Sunday May 27
Huge catfish caught but not weighed
Last update: May 26, 2007 – 4:47 PM
Sometimes, it’s the fish that have most of the luck
Huge catfish caught but not weighed
Someone may be watching you
Luke Urevig knew he had caught a monster fish.
But he didn’t realize just how big it was … until he let it go.
Only later did Urevig, 22, of Pine Island, Minn., learn that he might have released a Minnesota record channel catfish.
The behemoth he pulled out of Lake Zumbro just north of Rochester recently measured a whopping 49 inches and had a 38-inch girth. Urevig and his fishing partner, Royce Ronningen, 22, also of Pine Island, could barely heft it into their boat.
They didn’t weigh it because Urevig decided on the spot to release it. But he figures it likely was about 40 pounds. The state record, he learned later, is a 44-incher caught in the Mississippi River that weighed 38 pounds.
“I believe it would have beat the record,” Urevig said last week. “At the time I didn’t really know what I had, or I might have kept it.”
The state Department of Natural Resources requires that state record fish be weighed on a certified scale. Kevin Stauffer, Department of Natural Resources area fisheries supervisor in Lake City, has seen photos of Urevig’s catfish.
“There’s no way to confirm it as a state record, but there’s no doubt in my mind it’s right up there.” Stauffer said. “It’s a big fish.”
Urevig said he had no regrets.
“I told Royce that I had this feeling inside to let it go, because maybe someday we’ll catch it again when it’s 50 or 60 pounds. He’s back in there swimming, and I couldn’t be happier for him.”
article by doug smith
See photo in today’s [Sundays] Star Trib And, if anybody knows this guy, buy him a beer from me. Sounds like the attitude we should all have!
Swede
