KOTC Icing on the Cake? $1000 Catfish

[Scott M]

For those of you fishing the Minnesota River, keep your eye out for a Flathead Catfish, in excess of 40 pounds, tagged by the Minnesota DNR and released in New Ulm, to be pronounced the Official Catfish of the Minnesota River by the governor. Anyone who catches the tagged flathead prior to October 1 (released May 15) gets $1,000. Just read about it in yesterday's Outdoor News, Fellegy article.

That would be pretty nice. A huge fish of KOTC quality and 1K.

[AceintheHole]

Sweet!!!!!!

[DTro]

I'd like to say I'm excited......

but I'd be lying

spose we'll have to kill it to claim the dough

[Larry FlatCaster]

show us a link to something official....

Not that we don't take your word mate. but you know how fish stories go

[sparcebag]

LFC you use mate alot,I'm totally gob smacked,are you from Barramundi country,If so whats gob smacked?

[Larry FlatCaster]

 Originally Posted By: sparcebag

LFC you use mate alot,I'm totally gob smacked,are you from Barramundi country,If so whats gob smacked?

Dude..... Mate....

I'm just a former sailer from the good ole USN... On board the ship every one is a Mate!!!

Mate...

I wish I could spend some time in Barramundi Country maybe some day........(I wish)

As far as Gob Smacked. Never used the term before, I might have heard it a couple of times..... But I might have to start when I see the first 60lb Flathead or Sturgeon pulled in the boat. Or..... that 40lb with the tag thats gonna win me 1000 bucks.

Here is what I came up with.

1. gob smacked

1. When someone is left speechless after witnessing or being told something incredible.

2. To be hit forceably in the mouth.

1. I was completely gob smacked when my girlfriend told me she was really a man!

Seeing that water skiing squirrel has left me gob smacked!

tags astonished speechless surprised astounded incredulous gobsmacked

Irish Slang

Speechless, stunned, surprised, in disbelief,

I couldn't believe it.

tags speechless stunned surprised in disbelief irish slang

[muc33]

If my girlfriend told me she/he was a dude, he/she/it would get way MORE than gob smacked!!!!

Now I'm having real bad mental visions!!!

[Shack]

Cool DC31! Thanks for letting us know.

I do get a mental mind bubble when I read this, that stems from the movie Jaws. You combine money, big fish and people seem to get crazy. Something like this:

We will see though . Might be some more people down with you guys on the MN. Just call tip if they are using dynamite

[wolkie]

Look in outdoor news april 4th edition page 11. It looks like a big deal. They are calling it the celebrity cat. Part of the ( I Quote) "new ulm capital for a day celebration on may 15 Sometime late that day, at new ulm's riverside park, a large flathead catfish, hopefully over 40 pounds, will be released into the river. As of now, NUASF is kicking in a $1,000 prize for anyone catching this tagged flathead prior to Oct.1 (Thew prize may grow with donations in the comming weeks)". The article explains alot more! Check it out.

[crazyice]

I read the same article this weekend. Dtro, I also didn't read anywhere in the piece about what to do if you catch it, but I would think that a few good pictures, and maybe remove the tag? It sounds like it just for a fun contest and not for a study so I don't really see how removing the tag would be a problem, but I could be wrong.

[DTro]

I really think this could be done in a good and fun way.

I just hope that is what they do.

[riverrat56]

O man, New Ulm, Riverside park, I spent my whole youth down there, does that give me an advatage?

No....more than likely it will just bring more pressure to that stretch of river.

[wolkie]

hey D,

Why not try and get KOC into this? Call the city council or DNR and do a promotion! Say all proceeds from your contest go to a New Ulm charity. Just a brain fart.

[DTro]

 Originally Posted By: wolkie

hey D,

Why not try and get KOC into this? Call the city council or DNR and do a promotion! Say all proceeds from your contest go to a New Ulm charity. Just a brain fart.

First of all there are no proceeds from the KOTC. Second I have a feeling I'm going to be up to my eyeballs with the current roster

Promotion not needed

[wolkie]

Thought you could make a charity fishing event or something, just for fun.

[hanson]

I'm pretty sure all you'll have to do is report the Tag Number, maybe even get a photo of it as well. My guess would be there are only a select few people who would actually know the number.

As is the case with all tagged fish in the state of Minnesota, you SHOULD NOT remove the tag from the fish if you plan to release it. Just write down and report the number. The fish then has the chance to be recaptured which will provide the DNR even more valuable information for their research!

[Scott M]

"Big D", the $1,000 dollar catfish has been caught. An angler from Franklin can do some upgrading to her boat!

[DTro]

Good for her!

There was a time or two this year that I almost went on a $1k goose chase. Now I don't have to think about that anymore

[Scott K]

So is the info available on how far the fish traveled from were it was tagged to where it was caught?

[Scott M]

Late Saturday evening the fish got caught between Franklin and Fairfax, 50 river miles from New Ulm where it was released on the 15th of May.

[Scott K]

Wow, 50 miles away, I always thought they were more territorial. Thanks for the info, and congratulations to her!

[Shack]

Very well could have been heading home .

I am sure the DNR will have a full report on what went on.

Thanks for the update DC31!

[Scott K]

True Shack, we dont know where the fish came from to begin with!

[rushing]

Glad to hear thats over.

[DTro]

Here's the story from the Makato Free Press:

With one 6-inch sucker minnow left, Tina Miller hooked it up, threw it into the river and waited in the dark.

It was 11 p.m. and she and her boyfriend, Jamie Hale, were fishing on the Minnesota River, which was not unusual for the avid catfishing couple.

A short time later, she pulled in Big D — the giant flathead catfish released into the river a month earlier during the New Ulm’s Capital for a Day celebration— 50 miles from where it was released.

Miller, 38, of Franklin, and Hale weren’t in New Ulm the day Department of Natural Resources officials released Big D (so named by the winner of an elementary school essay contest). But they’d heard about it at a social gathering.

So when Miller pulled Big D into the boat and, by lantern light, saw the New Ulm tag on it, they suspected the catfish in their boat may be the one worth $1,000 to the first person to catch it.

The fish was caught on Saturday, and the chances of someone being available at the DNR office on a holiday weekend are pretty slim. So they kept Big D alive long enough to get a nice snapshot of it, and on Monday brought the tag in to the New Ulm DNR office.

It wasn’t until she met with DNR officials that the gravity of thousand dollars hit her.

“Oh, it was awesome,” Miller said. “It makes you glad you were out there eat 11 o’clock getting eaten by mosquitoes.”

DNR officials, meanwhile, are thrilled Big D was caught — and a little surprised.

“We thought the odds of someone catching it prior to Oct. 1 were probably remote,” said Tom Conroy of the DNR. “That someone caught it on Fourth of July weekend makes it all the better.”

For Miller and Hale, their fateful fishing outing wasn’t a onetime thing. They hunt catfish quite a bit.

Miller said they usually head out sometime around 5 p.m. or 6 p.m., buzz around the river to find a good place to fish, and when it gets dark, they park.

“Once it gets dark, you usually settle in somewhere, fight the bugs and hope you get a bite,” Miller said. “I think they’re about the funnest fish to catch. There’s not a lot of people. And it’s peaceful.”

The idea behind the Big D experiment was to get people interested in the Minnesota River and in fishing.

“We want to introduce more kids to the enjoyment of fishing,” said Scott Sparlin of the New Ulm Area Sportsfisherman Club in a statement. “Young people just aren’t as involved with nature as much as they used to. We want to do something to help change that.”

Attracting kids may have been part of the mission, but more important was to get the message across that the river can be a place for recreation.

For that message, Miller and Hale were the perfect ones to have caught, and claim the booty for, Big D, who was later released.

“What’s neat about these two in particular,” Conroy said, “is that they just have such an appreciation for the Minnesota River. They love that river.”

Big D — which was 35 pounds when released but weighed in at 30 pounds when reeled in by Miller — wasn’t Miller’s biggest catch.

Her biggest was a 44-pounder.

She marveled at how far west from New Ulm the fish traveled, and at how far east they traveled to get the bait.

“It’s kinda funny,” she said, “but the bait came all the way from the Dam Store (in Rapidan).”