His Catch Wasn’t a Record, but It Won’t Be Forgotten
It may have been a case of mistaken identity, and Albert Penaloza did not set a record, but the 16-year-old Santa Ana resident can still say he caught a monster catfish.
Penaloza saw the fish moving beneath him while aboard a rental boat last Saturday at Irvine Lake. He cast a shiny lure, and the fish struck immediately. Thirty minutes later, it was netted and on deck. It tipped the scales at 58 pounds 8 ounces. At first, it was believed to be a channel catfish, which would have broken the all-tackle world record by eight ounces.
A state biologist, however, determined that it was a blue catfish, for which the all-tackle record is 109 pounds 4 ounces.
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