Young Nick Parcus of Langston, Alabama loves catching catfish and crappies with his grandpa Larry Stephens. That’s what they were doing after Nick got out of Collins Elementary School on Friday Oct. 28.
They were fishing off a dock at the South Sauty Creek Resort at North Alabama’s sprawling Lake Guntersville. That’s where Parcus battled a better-than-average fish, according to a report from Huntsville’s TV-19.
The heavy fish hit a skipjack herring bait, and when Stephens handed the rod from a dock holder to Parcus, it took 20 minutes for the 10-year-old student to battle the brute of a fish and draw it near the dock.
When the big cat wallowed in the shallows at the dock, Nick excitedly handed his fishing rod to his grandfather and jumped into the water to wrestle the thrashing fish closer. Nick and his grandfather then wrangled the catfish from the lake and up onto the dock.
“Papa, this thing is huge! Now I’m tired,” Nick said to his grandfather.
The oversize catch was an estimated 70-pound flathead catfish, nearly as big as the youngster who caught it. The fish was so big Stephens checked the state record book to see if it had a chance to break a Bama record.
A bit of research found that the Alabama record flathead is 80 pounds, caught from the Alabama River in 1986 near Selma by Rick Conner.
So, Stephens took photos of his grandson cradling his biggest fish, which surely will make for generational memories of family anglers.
“Now, it’s someone else’s catfish to catch,” Larry said as the anglers released the big catfish back into Lake Guntersville.
