Retired Welder Catches New Louisiana State-File Bluegill From His Neighbor’s Pond

Tim Trahan of Arcadia, Louisiana, was fishing his neighbor’s pond when he hooked a better-than-average freshwater panfish. The 65-year-old had no thought what he’d hooked till he landed the outsized fish.

“Really, I used to be amazed by the scale of it,” Trahan, a retired welder, told the Houma Courier. “I assumed I used to be again at dwelling fishing for [saltwater] sheephead.”

Trahan is a local of Houma, on the coast in South Louisiana, the place marine sheepshead are bream-like in form, however a lot bigger and stronger than the common freshwater sunfish. Now he lives east of Shreveport, the place he mainly fishes freshwater for bream and different species.

Bluegills and different bream generally weigh simply 6 to 12 ounces, and a 1-pound fish is taken into account enormous. However Trahan’s catch formally weighed 2.24 kilos on licensed scales at K&M Coffee, Corks and Camo in Farmerville.

“It was enormous, the one query was if it was a real bluegill or if it was a hybrid,” stated Ok&M proprietor Marcy Kavanaugh.

For the reason that catch, the Louisiana Division of Wildlife and Fisheries reportedly confirmed Trahan’s catch is a bluegill—not some sort of hybrid sunfish. In addition they have confirmed that the fish is the brand new state file bluegill. The months-long affirmation course of will not be uncommon provided that the LDWF works with the Louisiana Out of doors Writers Affiliation to certify state fishing file.

Trahan’s fish surpasses the earlier Louisiana file bluegill of 1.83-pounds, caught by Timothy Delaney in Might 2016 from Lake Iatt.

Trahan tried weighing his buster bluegill on a number of totally different scales with various outcomes. He lastly waited for a state wildlife officer to indicate at Ok&M Espresso to witness and certify his fish’s weight. As soon as the official weighing was made, and submitted by correct channels for state certification, his catch made the Louisiana file e-book.

He has mounted the oversize fish and is delighted with the way in which issues have turned out about his catch.

“It’s all good. Fantastic,” he says. “I’m not any totally different from what I used to be the day earlier than. It simply makes me really feel good to perform one thing like that.”