NEWS RELEASE

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission

June 6, 2000

CONTACT: Robert G. Faith (850) 626-4273 or Fisheries Biologist Fred Cross (850) 265-3676

MILTON ANGLER CATCHES RECORD FLATHEAD

For the last three-to-four-years Robert G. Faith of Milton has been a man on a mission. On May 12 he fulfilled that mission by boating a new state record flathead catfish from the Escambia River.

Faith's record flathead weighed 47.5-pounds and measured 46-inches in total length. His fish easily surpassed a 43.5-pound fish taken by Jason Brown from the Apalachicola River in 1997.

"I've been trying for several years to break the record and it finally happened," said Faith, who was fishing in the Escambia near Quintette Landing at 11:30 pm. "The biggest flatheads I've ever caught were 25 - 26 pounds and when I got this one in the boat, that finished my fishing." Using a pair of hand scales Faith saw he had boated what was apparently a record flathead. He immediately went to the Tom Thumb store on Berryhill Road and called the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission office in Panama City for instructions in getting his fish weighed and certified.

Faith was using a rod and reel and a small live skipjack herring as bait. He was anchored upstream from a 30-foot hole but was fishing an adjacent area only 10-feet deep when he landed his big fish. He largely credits his catch to learning about fishing for flatheads from Catfish Insider, a catfishing magazine published by In-Fisherman magazine.

"That magazine has stories just about catfishing, and I figured the way people fish and the techniques they use in other places will work in our rivers," Faith said.

While Faith's record may stand for a while, FWC fisheries biologists say it's likely to be broken again. Already two flatheads weighing over 50-pounds have been caught from the Escambia by anglers using bush hooks. However, the use of bush hooks or trotlines is considered a commercial method of fishing and species taken by either method aren't eligible for the state's record fish program.

In their historic range of the Mississippi River and rivers of the Midwest, flatheads have been caught weighing over 100-pounds. Fisheries biologists are unsure if they'll grow to that size in Florida, but expect to see larger fish.