A 9-year-old New Mexico boy caught a 42-pound catfish over the weekend after it put up a fight for several minutes.
Alex Flores, of Las Cruces, was on a Nov. 10 fishing trip with his father, Kris, at Elephant Butte Reservoir when he caught the blue catfish.
“I’ve been a fisherman since I was 6 months old. When I had my son, I had him out on the water, too, when he was very young,” Kris Flores told The Las Cruces Sun-News. “Right before he caught the fish, it was getting cool on the lake and the kids wanted to go back in and warm up. The sun had just set and the lake was like glass when one of the rods doubled over and Alex began to reel.”
In this photo taken Nov. 10, Alex Flores, 9, holds a 42-pound blue catfish. (Kris Flores via AP)
Alex, a fourth-grader, named the fish Wailord after a Pokemon character.
The fish was released back into the water after taking photos and videos, said Kris Flores, who runs a catfish guide service at the reservoir and has his own YouTube channel, “Muddy River Catfishing.”
He said he has a policy of releasing any fish weighing over 10 pounds.
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“Anything over 10 pounds we release back into the water because that means that fish is the one that passes the genes,” he said.
The largest blue catfish ever caught at Elephant Butte weighed 78 pounds and measured four feet long, according to the New Mexico News Port.
