Holy mackerel (or to be more specific, paddlefish).
A fisherman in Kingston, Tennessee broke a state record for reeling in a paddlefish, and it wasn’t even close. The previous state record for paddlefish poundage weighed in at 120 pounds.
The new, record-breaking paddlefish bested the standing one by almost 30 pounds.
Henry Dyer recently caught the monster fish, and after it was officially weighed in, the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency took to Twitter to post the details:
“BIG FISH ALERT! Tennessee angler Henry Dyer of Kingston with the new STATE RECORD paddlefish from Cherokee Lake!
149 lbs., 79 5/8″ length, 44 3/8″ girth.”
That is an absolutely massive fish.
I don’t even think you really needed to have it officially weighed and measured. That paddlefish passes the eye test. If I was the one that would have reeled it in, I would’ve called it just based on the sheer weight of it on the line.
I would’ve loved to see a video of the man reeling it in. I think that fish could pull a houseboat along if it wanted to.
And now this man can literally spread his arms as wide as possible and say that the fish was “this big.” I don’t know if you did the math, but the 79 inch length of the behemoth would be equivalent to a 6 foot 5 inch man. Based on the picture, I’m willing to guess that the fish is bigger than the man that caught it both in weight and in height.
Didn’t mean to demean the Tennessee angler, but just thought I would present the facts.
That is a hell of a fish, and I’m sure it will make for a hell of a story.
