NEW RICHMOND, Ohio – Since she’s only 15, Jaylynn Parker may someday get a fish story to top her tale of April 7, but it’s doubtful. That’s the day she caught a record-setting 101.11-pound blue catfish.

The behemoth was 56.5 inches long with a 39.5-inch girth. In other words, bigger than a small child. She caught it on a jug line on Twelve Mile Creek, an Ohio river tributary. The water was high. She was using 200-pound test, braided line using skipjack for bait.

Parker, a sophomore at New Richmond High School, loves to fish and has been doing it since she was a little kid. Her parents, Chuck and Kristen Parker, grew up with fishing poles in their hands, so it’s a tradition.

“We put jugs out Saturday evening at around 8,” Parker said. “When we put jugs out, we want the line to go around a tree branch so that the jug doesn’t go anywhere, and we can see where it sits.”

Their headquarters was the camper of a family friend, Jess Sams. It was in an RV park on the river. After setting the jugs, the Parkers went home. They returned at about 2 pm on Sunday. Jaylynn’s dad had just been to the hospital for back problems; he couldn’t help with checking the jugs.

“We had just got there and Jess said ‘Let’s get started,’” she explained. “It was starting to get hot out. We go out (in a small Pelican boat) and we pull up the first fish. He was about 10 to 15 pounds, and we threw him back. We get to the next one and I noticed that the jug was bouncing pretty good. I thought ‘This might be a pretty good fish.’ So, I started pulling on it and I thought ‘This is pretty heavy!’

“I started pulling up on him and the closer I got to him, there was a lot of debris wrapped around the line so I was trying to get him loose from all of that and he was jerking on the line and I’m trying to get everything unwrapped and he’s pulling and my hands are getting stuck in the debris on the line,” Parker continued.

“I got him untangled, pulled him and he came up. Jess tried to net him. He leaned over too far and we almost flipped our little boat,” she said. “That just made the adrenaline go even more. We were screaming at that point.”

Parker pulled the fish up again. He pulled the jug out of her hands. She pulled again and he rolled on his side. He was massive. Finally, Sams got him netted.

Chuck Parker continues the tale.

“They couldn’t pull him in the boat so they had to keep him swimming alongside until they got to shore,” he said. “It took four of us to get him out of the water onto the dock and at that point, we were like, this is a really big fish. We need to get somebody down here to check him for us because this looks like a state record fish.”

They found a scale at the campground but it hit the bottom at 100 pounds. The state record was 96 pounds. Chuck Parker called the Clermont County wildlife officer, Chase McDonald, to find out what they should do.

“We found a plastic toolbox that goes in that back of a pickup truck,” Chuck explained. “We put water in that. We put him in there and the game warden showed up.”

McDonald arrived with Gus Kiebel, the Adams County wildlife officer. Word spread and soon the Brown County officer, Micah Collier, was there, too.

“They needed to measure him,” Chuck said. “We pulled him out and they got all of their measurements, the length, and the girth. He sent a picture to a wildlife biologist to confirm that it was a blue cat, which we all knew it was, and they made a bunch of phone calls.”

Next, they needed a certified auditor’s scale. They found one at Bethel Feed and Supply. Trouble is, it was Sunday. They were closed.

“They (the wildlife officers) told us that we could take him home,” Parker said. “We have a big plastic bait tank hanging off the side of our dock (at their farm pond) so they told us we can put him in there and wait until Monday morning and go get him weighed.”

Again, word spread and 20 to 30 people were gathered at the feed store for the weigh-in. The certified scale showed 101.11 pounds. The wildlife officers then went with them to return the fish to where it was caught. Everyone took photos, and then he was released.

“Keeping the fish alive to be released was the most important thing to me, even above having a state record,” Chuck said. “He sat there for a second and within 10 seconds he swam off right down into the water.”

The record fish was certified on April 27 by a vote of the Outdoor Writers of Ohio.

They maintain Ohio’s record fish list in consultation with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Wildlife. It is the only journalistic organization in North America that maintains such a list, and as such it is endorsed and supported by the Division of Wildlife, according to the Ohio Outdoor News.

Life has returned to normal for Parker. She hopes someday to get a replica made of the big blue to hang on the wall. When she’s not fishing, she enjoys all kinds of outdoor activities, even spelunking. But her passion? Hair and makeup. She was just accepted into cosmetology school for next year.