‘That was my goal that day to get a catfish, just didn’t know it would be a big one’
Cole Abshere, 16, recently broke a decades-old state record for largest channel catfish caught in Washington, according to the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Abshere, of Blaine, caught the record-breaking fish at Lake Terrell in Whatcom County. The 37.7-pound catfish measured in at 42 inches long, according to a twitter post by the WDFW.
The size of the fish is what really caught Abshere off guard, he said.
“Basically what I had caught a few weeks before was trout and bass, but my friend had caught a couple catfish, and so I had hoped to catch one also,” Abshere said. “That was my goal that day to get a catfish, just didn’t know it would be a big one.”
Abshere was fishing with his grandfather and says they grappled with the behemoth for about an hour and had to get in the water because they didn’t have a net.
This story was originally published September 10, 2019 at 5:00 AM.
