MANCHESTER – Caroline Socha’s 10-year-old son, Jacob, caught the fish while ice fishing and the fish was too heavy to pull up with just line on the tip above a hole in the ice.
So Jacob, of Manchester, pulled the line to bring the fish closer to the hole, then stuck his arm in, grabbed the fish’s mouth, and pulled it out. His mother said the fish could barely fit through the hole and ended up weighing 5.37 pounds.
New London County’s harvest may be close to the state record for brown bullhead, which weighed in at 4.9 pounds and 20 inches, said William Flood, media relations manager for the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.
The problem is, the fish’s identity has sparked debate in the online fishing community, prompting hundreds of comments from anglers in and around the U.S. trying to determine exactly what type of fish it is.
“It was really shocking to get all these different answers, especially from reputable sources,” Socha said.
The American Catfish Association identified the fish as a black bullhead. Ice fishing magazines thought it was a channel catfish. DEEP thinks it’s a white catfish.
Socha said her son was shocked to catch something so big while out on Feb. 22, especially since he only took a small bite off the bass.
She said she had “received a bunch of photos and video calls” from her son.
“I knew it was either a really exciting thing or a really bad thing, just like moms do,” Socha said. “Luckily, they had something exciting to share.”
When the type of fish mentioned to the family, Socha went online to seek help.
Socha started in a local Facebook fishing group in Connecticut, where she received “a lot of comments and a lot of likes,” but the feedback was mixed. She said she needed to find a “more niche group,” so she joined two groups that specialized in catfish fishing.
Same question: too many different answers.
“People were really nice and helpful, but the answers I got were all mixed,” Socha said. “I really don’t know. I still don’t know.”
Socha said that as of February 27, one of her posts had received more than 400 comments. Some anglers even started “fighting” in the comments, she said.
“I was really surprised,” Socha said. “I didn’t expect this.”
Members of a local Facebook group eventually pointed Socha to DEEP.
Jacobs had a video call with DEEP fisheries biologist Andrew Bade and showed him the fish.
Budd said the fish caught was “most likely” a white catfish, calling the fish a “perfect specimen.”
As catfish grow, their defining characteristics, whether color or physical characteristics, disappear with age, making it more difficult to correctly identify the fish, Budd said. To the untrained eye, these species may look similar and be difficult to tell apart.
Socha said her son was as shocked as she was when he heard how his catch sparked an online debate that swept the country.
“He was very excited,” Socha said. “For a 10-year-old to hear something like this is not an everyday occurrence.”
This article was originally published on Connecticut 10-year-old’s ice fishing catch sparks national debate, could set state record.
