After midnight on his secret
spot on the Cape Fear River, Brian Newberger landed the
biggest catfish ever caught in North Carolina.
The Fayetteville man's new entry in the state record book
tells part of the story: 78 pounds, 52 inches long, 3 feet
around. Big.
But some biologists say the sheer size of the catch shows
that flathead catfish are dominating waters where they are
not native, at a cost to other fish.
Late on Sept. 17, Newberger, a lifelong fisherman,
motored his 20-foot pontoon boat to a spot he'd long watched
above the No. 3 lock and dam on the Cape Fear near
Fayetteville. He was certain giant catfish fed there.
Newberger cut a live, 14-inch eel so it would bleed and
attached it to his hook. The big flathead catfish took the
bait. It fought Newberger for 40 minutes before he could
haul it aboard. "They're like a bull in the water," he said.
The fisherman, who set his sights on a record, knew right
away his catch beat the 69-pound state title catfish caught
in the Cape Fear in 1994. He kept his fish alive in a
custom-made tank inside his boat until he could place it on
state-certified scales.
After an N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission biologist
confirmed its weight and girth, Newberger released the fish
back into the river just after 10 a.m.
"I put all my fish back," said Newberger, 45. "That's one
of God's creations."
Maybe. But the flathead's presence in this state is
people's work.
Flathead catfish aren't native to North Carolina. They
hail from the basins of the Mississippi and Rio Grande
rivers. They were introduced to the Cape Fear in 1964 by a
state hatchery manager without his agency's approval, said
Tom Kwak, a biologist with the local U.S. Geological Survey
fish and wildlife research unit.
Although something keeps the flathead catfish population
in check in its native habitat, the fish thrive in the
Southeast. Flatheads live now in rivers across North
Carolina's coastal plain and the lower Piedmont. Fishermen
probably expanded the flatheads territory in the state by
dropping them into rivers where they didn't live before,
Kwak said.
Trouble is, there is only so much space in the rivers for
fish. The big catfish eat their smaller cousins who were
there first, including white catfish and bullheads. They
gobble fish once more numerous here, such as redbreast
sunfish. They munch on shad, even on endangered species such
as redhorse suckers.
"They are a menace," said Wayne Starnes, fishes curator
with the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences. He wants to see
flatheads formally designated an "injurious" species.
But a lot of fishermen love the challenge of catching the
underwater giants.
Newberger, who works by day as a trailer company shop
foreman, said fisherman today can't undo past mistakes. He
has set his sights on beating the national record, a
123-pounder caught in Independence, Kan., in 1994.
"It's down in this river somewhere," he said Tuesday. "I
just have to bide my time."
(News researcher Susan Ebbs contributed to this report.)
Staff writer Catherine Clabby
can be reached at 956-2414 or
cclabby@newsobserver.com.
News researcher Susan Ebbs
contributed to this report.
