New Richmond, Ohio teen lands record 101-pound blue catfish: See the mammoth catch

A 15-year-old girl from the Midwest beat the state record when she landed a mammoth blue catfish in the Ohio River.

With a touch of help from her dad, Jaylynn Parker, a sophomore from New Richmond, Ohio, snagged the 101-pound beast on April 7 in Clermont County, the Cincinnati Enquirer, part of the USA TODAY Network reported.

New Richmond is a historic village on the Ohio River, about 20 miles southeast of downtown Cincinnati.

Jaylynn caught the massive catfish jugging – when a person lets bait dangle beneath a free-floating canister attached by a line to a fixed point like a tree trunk or something else on shore. The process is sometimes also called juglining.

The Outdoor Writers of Ohio, who crowed Jaylynn with the title over the weekend at a conference, keeps Ohio’s official angling records, Fred Snyder, chairman of the Outdoor Writers of Ohio Record Fish Committee, told the Enquirer.

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What’s the Ohio state record for blue catfish?

Jaylynn’s catch weighed precisely 101.11 pounds and spanned 56 inches long and 39 inches around.

The fish was so heavy, Jaylynn’s father, Chuck Partner, and family friend, Jeff Sams, helped the teen pull it in.

It was not immediaty known whether the teen used a lure or bait to reel the fish in.

Photos taken of Jaylynn’s huge snag show the teen posing behind the fish grinning ear to ear.

Video obtained by the USA TODAY Network shows the fish being released back into the river after the catch.

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How much did the previous blue catfish caught in Ohio record weigh?

The standing record blue catfish − a 96-pound fish, was pulled from the Ohio River in 2009 by rod-and-reel angler Chris Rolph of Williamsburg.

What is the world record blue catfish?

According to Field and Stream, the biggest known blue catfish caught weighed 143 pounds and was reeled in by Richard Nicholas Anderson from Kerr Lake in Virginia on June 18, 2011.

Anderson used chicken as bait to lure the monster, the American magazine reported.

Contributing: Bebe Hodges with the Cincinnatti Enquirer and Dave Golowenski, special to the Columbus Dispatch.

Natalie Neysa Alund is a senior reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at nalund@usatoday.com and follow her on X @nataliealund.