Just how big was the giant blue catfish that John Summers caught and released in the Mississippi River in 2007?
“So big,” Summers said, “that it couldn’t be replicated.”
Summers tells the story of how he tried to order a replica of the big catfish, made from some rough measurements of the fish he had taken using a rope to document both the length and the girth of the fish.
With these in hand, he called Bass Pro Shops in Springfield, Mo., and asked if they could make a replica. The company agreed, Summers placed the order and the replica was built and sent to the fishermen.
However, on the day it arrived, Summers was disappointed. He immediately knew the replica was not nearly the size of the fish he had caught, and was far short of his crude measurements. He called Bass Pro Shops and told them so.
Bass Pro agreed, but said there was a problem. The largest mold they had for replicating a blue catfish was 140 pounds.
Summers calculates that from the dimensions he had, the girth of the head of the replica was eight inches short and, worse, the length of the replica was nearly a foot shorter than the actual fish.
Afterwards, several local restaurants in Bolivar County found out he had ordered a replica of the now famous fish and wanted to buy it to hang in their establishments, since it was a local giant. It was too late.
Just as he had the real fish to the Mississippi River, Summers returned the replica to where it had been produced.
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