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A 15-year-old girl from New Richmond may have broken an Ohio state record on Sunday, April 7, for the largest blue catfish, with the monster weighing in at a whopping 101.11 pounds.
"He was bigger than we ever imagined," Jaylynn Parker, a sophomore at New Richmond High School, told Fox News Digital.
Parker and her family put out jug lines in a creek off the Ohio River around 8 p.m. the evening before the big catch.
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Jug fishing is a method of fishing that uses lines suspended from floating jugs to catch fish in lakes or rivers.
Fishing lines with hooks are tied onto jugs and weights can be added to the line to keep the jug's location fixed.
Jaylynn Parker, 15, of New Richmond, Ohio, shows off her 101-pound blue catfish, caught in the Ohio River on April 7, 2024. (Kristen Parker)
Typically, they are set out at sunset and checked the next morning.
"Then Sunday comes and we get there about 2 p.m.," Parker said. "It was just a pretty normal day, I guess."
Parker and a family friend, Jeff Sam, got into a boat and went out to check the lines.
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"We go out and we check one, and [the fish] was probably just about 10 to 5 pounds," she said. "We threw him back."
So they moved onto the next jug, where there was another fish waiting.
"I was thinking, ‘This is a pretty good fish.’"
"I started pulling on him and I noticed that he was pulling back pretty hard," Parker said.
"I was thinking, ‘This is a pretty good fish.’"
The fish was wrapped in some debris, Parker said. "So I was trying to get all the debris unwrapped from our line, and he is pulling on me really hard," she added. "He yanked the jug out of my hand. I told Jeff, ‘Get ready.’ I pulled him up and we were like, ‘This is a big fish.’"
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Sam leaned over the side and tried to net the giant — but they almost flipped the boat in their attempt.
"The fish pulled again real hard and started fighting," she said. The adrenaline, she noted, was "really going. I just wanted to get him up … and I was kind of scared he was going to get away."
She gave the fish a good pull — and he rolled over to his side, she said.
"I started screaming, and I was yelling, ‘Net the fish, net the fish,'" Parker said.
Parker and her family forgot their fishing scale — so they had to transport the giant catch to a local feed and supply store to record its weight. (Kristen Parker)
"It was all kind of a blur after that. It was just crazy."
Sam finally netted the fish and the friends began bringing him to shore.
"We had the net in the water still, and I don't really think we could've gotten him in the boat," she said. "He probably would've flipped our boat over if we tried to pull him in there."
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The river was high that day, so they were able to get him onto the dock with the help of Parker’s parents, Chuck and Kristen Parker, and Sam’s son.
"They all grabbed the net and pulled him up onto the dock," she said. "They were like, ‘This is a really big fish. I think this might be a state record fish.’"
"We needed to have it weighed on an auditor’s scale in order to be certified."
Eager to weigh the fish, they realized they'd forgotten to bring their scale. At that point, they called the Ohio Division of Wildlife.
"It was Sunday and the game wardens came out after about an hour," Parker said. "We needed to have it weighed on an auditor’s scale in order to be certified, but nothing was open that had an auditor scale. They spent hours looking for someplace with a scale."
So the adventure continued — until Parker could confirm the weight of her catfish.
"The game wardens told us we [could] bring him to our house," she said. "We have a big tank — so we put him in there for the night until we could get to Bethel Feed and Supply the next morning to weigh him. He stayed in the bait tank all night and my dad was out there every hour checking on him."
Jaylynn Parker and her dad, Chuck Parker. When the family was finally able to weigh the catch, the fish tipped the scales at more than 100 pounds. (Kristen Parker)
When the family was finally able to weigh the catch — the scales tipped at more than 100 pounds.
"I was surprised," Parker said. "I was super excited, but I was definitely surprised."
Logan Oates, communications coordinator for the Ohio Division of Wildlife, confirmed to Fox News Digital the details of the catch.
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"District 5 LE staff were contacted [on] Sunday, April 7, by an angler reporting a catch of a potential record-breaking blue catfish," Oates said.
"I was super excited, but I was definitely surprised."
"The fish was caught in Twelve Mile Creek just upstream from the Ohio River in New Richmond, Clermont County. The certified weight was 101.11 pounds."
State record recognition by the Outdoor Writers of Ohio’s State Record Fish Committee, the official certifying organization, is pending.
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The current record, also confirmed by Oates, is 96 pounds, also caught in the Ohio River, by Chris Rolph in 2009. Meanwhile, the world record is a 143-pound blue catfish measuring almost 57 inches — which was caught at John H. Kerr-Buggs Island Lake near Clarksville, Virginia.
‘Very, very healthy'
After the weigh-in, Parker was anxious to release the fish back into his home waters.
"Oh, it made me so happy to see him swim away knowing that we took very good care of him and that we released him very, very healthy," Parker said.
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"And it just made me super happy to know that we were able to keep him alive and release him where he was caught and where he knows he's from."
The game wardens told the Parkers they could put the fish in their tank, but they were adamant that he be returned to the Ohio River.
("As big as this fish is, this fish could be a big breeder," said Parker.)
"Jaylynn insisted and we agreed with her, with this being a possible state record," mom Kristen Parker told Fox News Digital.
"As big as this fish is, this fish could be a big breeder. I mean, he's probably at least 30 years old. We were not going to put him in our lake because we know he needs to be in the river, where he should be."
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While the family awaits official confirmation, there's a bit of controversy regarding the method by which the fish was caught.
"In Ohio, there’s nothing that separates different fishing categories," Kristen Parker said.
"It’s called an ‘all tackle’ category.’ So if you catch a fish by a rod and reel, a jug line, a limb line or a trot line, it's all considered the same category."
"We do a lot of hiking and she also hunts with her dad and her uncles. She's very into the outdoors."
The state of Ohio considers it a legal catch — but not all fishermen agree it’s the same.
"There are a lot of people that don't think that jug fishing, trotline fishing and things like that [are] actual fishing," Kristen Parker said. "They think it should be caught with a rod and reel. But according to the state of Ohio, that's not the case. So we've been dealing with a little bit of negativity and backlash. But it's not our fault. That's the state rule."
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Her daughter, meanwhile, is taking it all in stride, said the mom.
"This girl, if you would look at her — she always has her hair and makeup done," she said.
"But she will do just about anything when it comes to the outdoors. We go spelunking, cave exploring, and Jaylynn loves it. We do a lot of hiking and she also hunts with her dad and her uncles. She's very into the outdoors."
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Jaylynn Parker said she comes by these traits naturally.
"Both my parents grew up around fishing, so I was kind of bound to become a little fishing girl," she said.
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"Ever since I was two or three, I've just always loved it. Some kids don't want to go get dirty and don't want to touch fish or sit for hours," she said.
"But that's the fun about it because you're outside enjoying nature and it's so relaxing and you never know what you're going to catch."
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