{"id":32434,"date":"2021-01-06T08:00:49","date_gmt":"2021-01-06T13:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/?p=32434"},"modified":"2021-01-06T14:14:07","modified_gmt":"2021-01-06T19:14:07","slug":"cecil-county-angler-catches-record-flathead-catfish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/2021\/01\/06\/cecil-county-angler-catches-record-flathead-catfish\/","title":{"rendered":"Cecil County Angler Catches Record Flathead Catfish"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Invasive Fish Weighed 57 Pounds<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Photo

Photo courtesy Joshua Dixon<\/p><\/div>\n

A Cecil County resident has officially been recognized by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources<\/a> as the first-ever state record holder for the invasive flathead catfish. Joshua Dixon caught the 57-pound, 50-inch long flathead catfish<\/a> (Pylodictis olivaris<\/em>) on Dec. 27, 2020 fishing near the Lapidum Boat Ramp on the Susquehanna River.\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 34-year-old angler was fishing from shore with Zoom plastic swimbait, and said it took nearly 30 minutes to pull in the flathead. Dixon was using medium-weight spinning tackle, which added to the intensity and length of the battle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was really weird because I thought I snagged a tree,\u201d Dixon said. \u201cIt didn\u2019t feel like a fish but after a while, it was going crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dixon\u2019s record-breaking catch broke the state\u2019s minimum flathead catfish weight of 40 pounds. The flathead catfish\u2019s weight was officially certified by Jack Manning of Keen Compressed Gas in Elkton. A Maryland Department of Natural Resources biologist confirmed the catch. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dixon donated his record-breaking catch to friends who harvested the fish\u2019s protein-rich filets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The department maintains state records for sport fish<\/a> in four divisions \u2013 Atlantic, Chesapeake, Nontidal, and Invasive \u2013 and awards plaques to anglers who achieve record catches. Fish caught from privately-owned, fee-fishing waters are ineligible for consideration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anglers who think they have a potential record catch should download and fill out the state record app<\/a>lication<\/a> and call 443-569-1381 or 410-260-8325. The department recommends the fish be immersed in ice water to preserve its weight until it can be checked, confirmed, and certified.<\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Invasive Fish Weighed 57 Pounds A Cecil County resident has officially been recognized by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources as the first-ever state record holder for the invasive flathead catfish. Joshua Dixon caught the 57-pound, 50-inch long flathead catfish (Pylodictis olivaris) on Dec. 27, 2020 fishing near the Lapidum Boat Ramp on the Susquehanna  Read the Rest…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":146,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[957,11],"tags":[2934,5060,3069,3454],"class_list":["post-32434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-appnews","category-fisheries","tag-cecil-county","tag-flathead-catfish","tag-state-fishing-record","tag-susquehanna-river"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32434"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32434\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32443,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32434\/revisions\/32443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}