Harrisburg, PA — The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission announced on Wednesday that they have certified a new state record catfish.
The PFBC says that 34-year-old Jonathan Pierce of Philadelphia was fishing from the bank of the Schuylkill River at East Falls on May 24, 2020, when he reeled in a massive 56-pound, 3 oz. flathead catfish.
"The best way to describe it is like a torpedo," said Pierce, who was accompanied by his girlfriend, Angelina Wilson, who witnessed the catch. "In all the years I've been fishing for flatheads, the fish did something I had never seen. It surfaced, and then ran away from me into a pile of rocks and just stuck there. It was panic mode."
After roughly three minutes of being unable to move the fish from the rockpile, Pierce eased tension on his rod and released several feet of slack from his line, hoping the fish would believe it had been freed.
"It worked and the catfish started swimming again," recalled Pierce.
After a five-minute fight, Pierce landed the catfish with the help of his girlfriend.
After some initial measurements, Pierce suspected the catfish could be a contender for the state record, which had been previously set just over one year ago, in April 2019, when an angler caught a 50-pound, 7-ounce flathead catfish in the Susquehanna River in Lancaster County.
"My previous biggest catch was 37 pounds and this one made that one look small," said Pierce. "It just had so much girth to it. When I tried weighing it on my digital scale, the scale malfunctioned. A friend brought a larger scale that showed the fish weighed around 57 pounds. At that point, a night of fishing turned into a dash to get this thing officially weighed. The whole time, I wanted to keep it alive."
As is required for state record consideration, Pierce contacted PFBC law enforcement officials and arranged for an in-person identification and examination of the fish. Waterways Conservation Officer (WCO) Troy Merrell and WCO Cadet Aaron Steager conducted the inspection and verified the weight. A completed state record fish application including color photographs was reviewed by PFBC officials and confirmed.
Upon weighing the fish, Pierce returned the flathead catfish alive to the Schuylkill River.
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