In what was hailed as a lifetime achievement for an angler, Lavon Nowling landed a state-record flathead catfish while fishing the Yellow River in Florida, using live bait to catch a 69.9-pounder.
“I’ve caught some good ones before this fish, but none of them were more than 54 pounds,” Nowling of Santa Rosa County told the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. “I’ve been fishing since I was old enough to hold a pole and have been fishing on the Yellow River as long as I can remember.”
No doubt the flathead catfish, certified by fisheries biologists, will be remembered for a long time by Nowling, whose catch barely beat out the previous record of 69.3 pounds caught by Marvin Griffin in 2019, also in the Yellow River, located in the Florida panhandle.
“I’ve been deep-sea fishing to creek fishing and I never expected to catch a state-record fish,” Nowling said. “I was fishing for channel catfish and can’t believe I caught a huge flathead. I was in the right place at the right time.”
The flathead catfish was taken to the Blackwater Hatchery near Holt where it was weighed on a certified scale. The fish measured 48.5 inches in length with a girth of 38.25 inches.
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“Flathead catfish are a nonnative fish found in many northwest Florida Panhandle river systems,” the FWC stated. “Flatheads prefer long, slow flowing, moderately turbid rivers. Their solitary lifestyle makes them more difficult to catch than other catfish. Adult flathead catfish feed primarily on live fish, crawfish, freshwater clams and mussels.”
On the FWC Facebook page, some commenters wondered why the fisherman didn’t release the fish, but others argued that because it’s non-native and decimating bream and bass stocks, these fish ought to be removed from the river. At any rate, officials from FWC lauded the catch.
“A state-record catch is a once-in-a-lifetime achievement for an angler,” said Jon Fury, FWC’s Director for the Division of Freshwater Fisheries Management. “We are pleased to award this state record to Mr. Nowling.”
Photo courtesy of Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.