Complaints and objections brushed aside as 15-year-old girl claims record for 101-pound catfish

Not everyone seems happy with Jaylynn Parker’s blue catfish record, but when has universal happiness ever been achieved in actions involving the human race?

Suffice to say that after showing a few loose hairs initially deemed made to be split, the 101.11 pound blue cat taken from the Ohio River on April 17 in New Richmond in Clermont County was certified by the organization that carries out these calls as the biggest. never landed in the state.

Replaced last weekend in the all-tackle category of the record book organized by the Outdoor Writers of Ohio, the 96-pound blue cat was caught in the Ohio River in 2009 by Chris Rolph of Williamsburg.

What is a coincidence? Parker’s fish was weighed on the same scale as Rolph’s.

Outside: 15-year-old’s record-breaking catfish could bring rule change

Here’s more: Rolph’s fish was identified not by personal inspection by a wildlife biologist, as the rule states, but by photography, in the same manner as the fish landed by Parker, 15 years.

That being established, a blue catfish doesn’t have many look-alikes, which makes for a pretty compelling photograph.

Thus was brushed aside a potential objection, namely that a fisheries biologist had not inspected the fish and declared it to be as everyone knew it to be. Additionally, as the rules state, no member of the five-member Fish Registration Committee was able to observe the fish before it was released alive.

Someone had raised doubt about the added weight, although three Ohio Division of Wildlife agents sent to review the legality of the capture probably wouldn’t have missed an attempted shenanigans.

Two main differences in the capture and handling of the last two recorded blue catfish were in the noise regarding recognition.

Rolph’s fish was caught on a rod and reel, Parker’s on a bank line attached to a floating bait. Both methods are legal as long as the requirements written into Ohio fishing rules are followed, which was the case in both cases.

The other difference is that Rolph’s fish ended up dead, while Parker’s fish is doing something pretty much what it was doing before it was caught. Parker’s fish timeline did not include a trip to the ice to check it out.

Good for her.

People who called for a category differentiating fish caught on a bank line from fish caught with rod and reel were not satisfied. However, depending on who is speaking, some changes to the rules could still take place.

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: 15-year-old holds record for 101-pound catfish, complaints dismissed