Teen Breaks 20-Year State Record With Child-Sized Catfish
on Sep 06, 2019 • Updated Jan 15, 2025
More than two decades went by in the state before anyone broke the record for the biggest catfish caught in a channel – and the fisherman was just 16 years old!
Young Cole Abshere was fishing on Lake Terrell in Washington state with his grandfather when he felt a tug on his line – and after about 45 minutes of struggling he hauled in one monster of a catfish!
Abshere, who made this catch on August 20th, was shocked when he discovered how hefty of a fish he’d caught!
The last record-breaking catch was in 1999 by a local fisherman and weighed in at a massive 36.2 lbs.
But Abshere’s fish broke that, measuring a total of 42 inches long and weighing 37.7 lbs!
“He was shocked and thrilled that his first catfish was that big, let alone a state record,” Cole’s mother Angela Morin Abshere told For The Win Outdoors.
Local Washington Dept. of Fish and Wildlife helped to get the fish officially weighed and measured to meet record-keeping requirements and validate his new state record.
According to For The Win, the head and spine of the catfish were donated to the Fish & Wildlife Department while Abshere and his grandfather harvested about 25 pounds of meat from the giant catfish.
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