Largest Catfish Dead

How do you keep a 124 pound catfish alive? It looks like we just don’t know the answer to that question.

A record 124-pound blue catfish caught earlier this week by an Illinois man fishing in the Mississippi River died on its way to the Cabela’s Outfitter store where it was to go on display.

Tim Pruitt, 33, of Godfrey, Ill., caught the world-record blue catfish early Sunday near Alton.

The fish, measuring 58 inches long and 44 inches around, was kept alive and was to be displayed in a tank at Cabela’s in Kansas City, Kan., but it died en route to the store.

The best quote I have seen on this: “We’re baffled by this,” by Fred Cronin, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources fisheries biologist.

Baffled?