Minnesota State Record Channel Catfish

[SteveD]

For you downtown Minneapolis catfishermen, the Minnesota state record channel cat was caught in N.E. Minneapolis in February 1975. Who knows, maybe on the April Fools get together somebody may haul in a new state record - nobody would believe it especially if it was caught on April 1st.

The information on this record is kind of sketchy. The only thing I found in the Minnesota DNR 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 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 don’t know what that was about and there was nothing else in the file to question the catch.

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. Minneapolis would be open at that temperature. It just seems like such an unlikely time of year to make a record catch. I would have liked to have seen the fish.

I posted this information on another forum several years ago and a friend of Terry Fussy responded with more information about the catch. This is what he posted:

“Terry Fussy is a friend of mine. The way he told it was, 2 high school kids, him and another friend were goofing around fishing carp from shore under the Lowry Ave bridge near their home when he caught the big cat. Caught it on a kernel of corn. He said the best part of catching it was the looks they got from passing motorists while they were carrying it home! They didn't realize it was a record. He has since moved to Cross Lake, MN. I'm amazed no-one has ever caught a bigger one!”

As I said, there were no pictures in the record file that I could find. According to the Field & Stream award certificate the fish measure 3 feet 8 inches – that’s 44 inches. That is a big, bruiser of a channel cat. How would you like to have that for one of your KOTC channel cat entries.

I thought you might enjoy reading this information. I’ll see you all under the Lowry Street bridge on 1 April trying to get your 1st KOTC channel cat entry.

[DTro]

Feb 14?

That's mind bottling

I sometimes wonder in 30-40 yrs if people will be questioning todays records like we are today?