A Successful Father-Daughter Outing

Catmaster Joe Venable is as adept at landing big carp as he is big catfish (see my post dated April 18). I submit for evidence this photo of Joe holding the 16-lb. 3-oz. carp he caught yesterday during an outing with his 22-year-old daughter, Ashley.

Said Joe, "This fish was another new personal best for me."

In my earlier post about the catfish Joe caught, I was talking about the fact it easily qualified for a Virginia citation, but that was when Joe thought he had caught a channel catfish. Turns out, though, that Chad Boyce, who works with the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, saw Joe's catfish on Charlie's blog and said, "Wait a minute. That doesn't look like a channel cat to me. I think it's a blue cat."

Since then, Joe and Chad have been in communication with each other, trying to resolve the issue, and I'm waiting to hear what they decide, so I can post an "update" to my earlier article. Once I have that information, y'all will be the first to hear--I promise.

Getting back to yesterday's success story, however, I should point out that it was Ashley's first-ever carp-fishing trip, and she made it memorable in that she landed one weighing 10 lbs. and another weighing 12 lbs. I'm sorry, but I don't know which one she's holding in the photo at left.

As Joe explained, "We had a gorgeous day and a great time being together." Fishing, though, wasn't the only thing on the agenda. Joe and Ashley ended the day with a late lunch at Moe's Southwest Grill. How was it? you may be asking. "Umm umm good!" is how Joe described it.

Just moments after posting the above article, I received an email from Joe, telling me that Chad Boyce officially has declared Joe's earlier catch a blue cat, instead of a channel cat. "So no trophy certificate for me (sob...)," Joe joked. The cutoff for a Virginia blue-cat citation is 30 lbs. or 38 inches.