Fish out of water — 89-pound flathead breaks record, travels Southeast Nebraska before going home - Beatrice Daily Sun

Posted: 10 Jun 2020 08:00 PM PDT

Record catfish — Richard Hagen caught an 89-pound flathead catfish -- a new state record -- in the Missouri River on Saturday night.
Courtesy photo

Richard Hagen had just landed a 12-pound channel cat on one rod when his other twitched, bobbed and then bent.

He picked it up -- and didn't let go of it for nearly 45 minutes.

"The fight wore me out," he said. "My arms were getting sore."

But that was just the start of their relationship. Over the next two days, the Saline County farmhand would name the flathead cat Brutus, help it earn the state's highest fish honor, carry it around several counties in a water-filled deep freezer, care for it at home, try to find it a forever aquarium and, eventually, return to where it all began.

He didn't know this Saturday night.

"I just knew I had a big fish. That's all I knew."

The 61-year-old likes the fight flathead cats can put up -- how they bend your pole at first, then try to rip it from your hands -- which is why he's been chasing them since he was 13. He's typically somewhere along the banks of the Little Blue and Big Blue rivers two or three times a week, and all weekend.

But that night, he was invited to a birthday party at his niece's place along the Missouri River near Brownville. He won't say where.

"I don't want everyone and their dog to be fishing that area when I go back down there."

He had a live bluegill on the hook and 50-pound line in the reel when the fish bit at about 8:30 p.m. The closer he coaxed it to the bank, the faster his heart pumped.

And when he finally dragged it out of the water, he guessed its weight at 75 to 80 pounds. He was going by experience; he once caught a 64-pounder in Washington County, Kansas.

He had a scale in his pickup, so they hung it from a tractor bucket the next morning: 88 pounds.

Hagen wasn't thinking about state records, but a friend was, and checked. The heaviest flathead catfish in Nebraska, caught 32 years ago in the Loup Power Canal near Genoa, weighed in at 80 pounds.

They put an old freezer in Hagen's pickup, filled it with water, submerged battery-powered aerators to keep the water oxygenated -- and introduced Brutus to his new home.

Hagen posed for a photo first, cradling the fish in his arms like a 90-pound baby.

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The state sets a high bar for recognizing new records. The fish must be caught legally, it has to be weighed on a certified scale -- witnessed by a state conservation officer and at least one other person -- and its species must be verified by a Game and Parks Commission biologist.

And for every legitimate request the state fields -- typically five or 10 a year -- it rejects just as many fish stories.

"I will tell you, anytime I start hearing rumors or my phone starts ringing, I'm cynical," said Daryl Bauer, the commission's fisheries outreach program manager. "Way more often than not, it ends up not being quite as big as they thought it was, or the species was misidentified."

But when Bauer's phone rang Sunday, he liked what he heard. Hagen had met a game officer at the smokehouse in Tecumseh, where the fish registered 89 pounds on a certified scale.

Bauer, a biologist, was able to verify the species through photos. His conclusion? A record flathead. All that's left is the paperwork, he said.

New records are often set by narrow margins, sometimes ounces. Brutus topped the old record by a landslide.

Game and Parks offers fishing information online.

"An 80-pound flathead catfish is a big flathead catfish," Bauer said. "For him to beat it by almost 10 pounds, that's blowing it away."

That Sunday, Hagen drove Brutus to his house in Swanton and started working the phones, looking for a home for the fish. He tried the park system's aquarium at the Schramm Education Center, but they didn't have space. He tried Cabela's but never heard back.

He worried about the big cat. "I was babysitting the fish at nighttime, making sure it stayed alive."

Monday, they hit the road again, back to his niece's place along the Missouri.

Brutus returned to the water flopping and splashing.

"I said, 'Have a happy life.' And he got me all wet again."

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Photos: Big fish caught in Nebraska

Check out the big and record catches reeled in at Nebraska lakes and rivers.

Josh Kern of Fremont took this 40-pound, 13-ounce blue catfish July 11, 2013, in the Platte River in Dodge County, setting an archery record.

A shovelnose sturgeon rests atop a digital scale as a crew of Nebraska Game and Parks personnel and volunteers from the Army Corps of Engineers record data from the fish they caught on the Missouri River Wednesday. April 11, 2012, while fishing for the endangered pallid sturgeon.

Diane Weir of Gibbon caught this 16-inch triploid crappie, a state record, while ice fishing at an Interstate 80 lake at Kearney in March 2015. In 2017, a bigger triploid crappie was caught.

Jake Rodiek in 2014 caught and released this 45-inch northern pike while ice fishing on public water in Nebraska.

Tom Keller of Malcolm set a state record when he caught a paddlefish weighing 113 pounds, 4 ounces on Oct. 9. Keller was fishing the tailwaters of Gavins Point Dam when he snagged the biggest fish ever caught in Nebraska.

Scott Johnson of Chadron caught this state record 13¼-inch, 12-ounce tiger trout from Soldier Creek on May 21.

Brad Cochran of Imperial holds the 16-pound walleye he caught in 2010 at Lake McConaughy. The fish weighed just 2 ounces below the state record for walleye, caught in 1971 by Herbert Cutshall at McConaughy.

Louis Maring of Merna shows off the state-record paddlefish he caught on Oct. 6, 2011, from the tailwaters of the Gavins Point Dam. The fish weighed 107 pounds, 12 ounces, shattering the 1998 record of 93 pounds. In 2015, an even bigger paddlefish has been caught.

Douglas Hyde of McCook caught a 2-pound, 1-ounce tiger trout on March 11, 2017, at Lake Maloney in Lincoln County. The fish was 18 3/8 inches long and ate a minnow.

Kelly Macke of Lincoln on Jan. 3, 2017, pulled a 1-pound, 14-ounce redear sunfish through the ice at Wildwood Lake in Lancaster County. The 11¾-inch fish ate a tungsten jig and wax worm.

Wade Williby of Grand Island caught a 3-pound triploid crappie March 5, 2017, from Kea Lake in Buffalo County. The 17-inch fish ate a silver jig.

Connor Marcoe caught a record 55-pound catfish in 2017.

Richard Hagen caught an 89-pound flathead catfish -- a new state record -- in the Missouri River on Saturday night.

Reach the writer at 402-473-7254 or psalter@journalstar.com.

On Twitter @LJSPeterSalter

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Can Aquarium Fishing Be Sustainable? - Honolulu Civil Beat

Posted: 01 Jun 2020 12:00 AM PDT

Efforts to reopen waters off the western coast of Hawaii island for commercial aquarium fishing stalled this month after the state Department of Land and Natural Resources rejected a plan from 10 Big Island fishers.

Between 1976 and 2018, more than 8.6 million fish were taken from West Hawaii waters for use in aquariums around the world, before a 2017 state Supreme Court ruling against the practice in the region. Now, aquarium fishers are turning to waters off the eastern side of the Big Island and Oahu for their stock.

The latest episode of "Are We Doomed?" — Civil Beat's Q-and-A podcast about the environment in Hawaii — takes a look at ways aquariums could stock tropical fish without hurting Hawaii's environment.

Yellow tang, seen here off the west side of the Big Island, are one of the most targeted species by the aquarium industry.

Nathan Eagle/Civil Beat

The 10 commercial aquarium fishers in West Hawaii were represented by the Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council, an industry group that spent two years and hundreds of thousands of dollars preparing the environmental impact statement the land board unanimously voted down.

Bob Likins, the group's vice president, said in an email that he was disappointed by the land board's decision and that the group "will continue to support sustainable fishery practices, and use of the best available scientific information in guiding management decisions."

Likins declined an interview request to discuss his plans for sustainable fishing practices, but in documents submitted to the state land board, the group cites research finding that catching 5% to 25% of the tropical fish population in West Hawaii could be sustainable.

Its proposal, however, would have allowed an unlimited number of fish to be caught. DLNR chair Suzanne Case said this was one of the main reasons the environmental review was rejected.

Rene Umberger, executive director of For The Fishes, a Maui-based nonprofit, thinks a sustainable plan would probably only allow for one company to collect aquarium fish.

"If by sustainable you mean historic natural abundance, then there could be no collecting because those reefs have far less fish than their natural abundance," she said.

Coral colonies in Kaneohe Bay suffered major damage in a 2015 bleaching event.

Alana Eagle/Civil Beat

And in the face of climate change, coral reefs will need more herbivorous fish to remain healthy than in previous decades.

When coral is stressed by high ocean temperatures, it can expel the helpful algae living in its tissues. The coral "bleaches" and turns white but isn't dead, just more vulnerable and unhealthy.

"If you have a healthy population of herbivores, including aquarium fish, that can keep the algae down, it gives the corals a chance to recover and then hopefully rebound," said Case. "That's potentially a game changer for the reef."

Case said another reason the land board rejected the West Hawaii environmental impact statement was because it didn't "adequately project" how climate change could impact the reef.

"It's one thing to understand what the environmental impacts are right now under current conditions, but as we know, climate change is causing rapid changes in our reefs … and it's changing so rapidly that you can't really use today's projections to understand the impact of taking out an undetermined and potentially unlimited number of fish from the ecosystem," she said.

A school of yellow tang swims along a reef on the Kona coast of the Big Island.

Alana Eagle/Civil Beat

The yellow tang, a popular aquarium fish, is of particular concern. A study from the Division of Aquatic Resources found aquarium fishing decreased yellow tang populations by about 60% a year since 1999.

"This was never designed to be sustainable," said Kealoha Pisciotta of Big Island-based ocean protection nonprofit Kai Palaoa.

"When you take the herbivores, it affects the reefs below and then up the food chain, the bigger predators," she said. "Which then affects our people's ability to fish and feed their families."

Marine researcher Craig Downs, of Haereticus Environmental Laboratories, said climate change is just one of "1,000 cuts" killing Hawaii's coral reefs.

"Sewage pollution, sunscreen pollution, recreational fishing, subsistence fishing, aquarium fishing, snorkeler/swimmer intrusion, sediment run-off from poor development and construction practices," he wrote in an email. "It's the tragedy of the commons."

Downs instead advocated for a robust domestic breeding program for tropical aquarium fish.

"Hawaii and U.S. NOAA should make serious investments in developing technologies and companies that could culture these products in Hawaii," he said. "Such efforts would only require a 'take' of about 10-30 individuals a year to keep breeding stocks from degenerating from genetic inbreeding."

He pointed to groups in the Florida Keys that started as commercial aquarium fishers and evolved into coral reef advocates after their seed stock disappeared from the waters.

In the meantime, aquarium hobbyists and dentist offices that want to enjoy salt water fish without harming Hawaii's environment can use apps like Tank Watch.

"It's a free educational app that teaches hobbyists which fish are available at a moderate to regular level that are captive bred, and which fish are only coming from the wild and should be avoided at all costs," Umberger said.

"Are We Doomed? And Other Burning Environmental Questions" is funded in part by grants from the Environmental Funders Group of the Hawaii Community Foundation and the Frost Family Foundation.

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