PITTSBURGH, ALLEGHENY CO., (WOLF) \u2014 A fishing trip on the Allegheny River ended with a state record for David Taylor Jr., whose 36-pound, 2-ounce channel catfish topped Pennsylvania\u2019s previous mark by 9 ounces.<\/p>\n
Taylor, 44, of Munhall, caught the fish the evening of Oct. 3 while fishing in the Tri-State Hawg Hunters tournament with his friend Alex Atkinson of Rillton. They were below the Highland Park Lock and Dam near Sixmile Island.<\/p>\n
Taylor initially thought the fish might be a blue catfish. At the tournament weigh-in the next morning, another angler suggested it was a channel catfish. The two species can be distinguished by counting the rays on the fish\u2019s anal fin: channel catfish have fewer than 30, while blue catfish have at least 30. Taylor\u2019s catch had 26.<\/p>\n
The fish first weighed in at 36 pounds, 2 ounces at a bait shop in Bridgewater. Because that scale could not print an official weight receipt, Taylor arranged a second weigh-in with Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission Waterways Conservation Officer Abigail Luteri.<\/p>\n
At 11:45 a.m. Oct. 4, Luteri witnessed the fish weigh 36 pounds, 2 ounces on a certified scale at Goodman\u2019s Bait and Tackle in Ford City. She provided a written certification for Taylor\u2019s state-record application.<\/p>\n
The fish measured 42 inches long, with a 26-inch girth. The previous Pennsylvania channel catfish record was caught in the Lehigh Canal in 1991.<\/p>\n
After Luteri inspected the fish, Taylor released it alive into the Allegheny River. The Fish and Boat Commission reviewed and confirmed his application.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PITTSBURGH, ALLEGHENY CO., (WOLF) \u2014 A fishing trip on the Allegheny River ended with a state record for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":312533,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154],"class_list":["post-312532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=312532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312532\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/312533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=312532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=312532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=312532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}