James Klauzer’s flathead: Fish of the Year

When I asked James Klauzer if he had any regrets on releasing his Illinois-record flathead catfish after verification rather than keeping it, he said on Sunday, “No. [In fact] it was probably the seventh or eighth hour of trying to get it verified that I almost left it go because I did not want the fish to die.”

Klauzer’s 81.4-pound flathead was a remarkable catch in itself, but also the first major Illinois record to be caught, verified and released (in both my memory and that of Illinois” assistant fisheries chief Dan Stephenson). It’s also the best documented record I’ve covered in my nearly 20 years doing the outdoors for the Sun-Times.

It’s a thoroughly modern Fish of the Year, a credit to the community of catfishermen.

“Man, a village came together to help me in my time of need,’’ Klauzer said.

Klauzer, who has pursued big catfish for years, started out the night of Aug. 28 simply catfishing on Sangchris Lake with Scott Gapen, a man he met on a mission trip.

Then, in the early hours of Aug. 29, the trip turned from a stringer of eater-sized channel catfish to landing and documenting Klauzer’s flathead record. It was caught on shad on Double Action hooks, a hybrid circle hook from Team Catfish, and hand-landed with a jaw lock by Klauzer.

He had the equipment to handle a record: Abu Garcia Ambassador C4 6600 series reel with the Carbon Matrix drag system with SpiderWire Stealth 80-pound braid.

The village of help started with Gapen photographing the catch.

When Klauzer could not find officials to verify the fish in the early Saturday hours, Trevor Miller at Big Red’s Bait and Tackle put Klauzer in contact with Pete Ochs, the leader of catfishermen around Springfield.

When Ochs knew the record potential was legitimate, he went into action. Bill Parfitt, a top tournament catfisherman, yanked the oxygen system they used in their tournament boat and set it up to keep Klauzer’s fish alive. Ochs reached Stephenson, who met them at Midstate Meat Co. in Springfield.

Paul Donelan, who owns the shop with his wife, sanitized a deer sled to move and weigh the fish. Bill Blankenship climbed around a pickup and filmed the weighing. After it was verified at 81.4 pounds (81 pounds, 6.4 ounces), the big flathead was transported by Parfitt and Klauzer back to Sangchris, where Parfitt filmed the release.

The release was vital to Klauzer’s ethics.

“I want to get them that big,’’ he said. “A fish that big, it has survived droughts; it survived changes in the water; it has good genes. That is the fish I want in the water reproducing.’’

With good reason.

“I believe with 100 percent of my being that there are bigger fish out there,’’ Klauzer said.

CLOSURES: Site and program closures caused by flooding build statewide. Click here for the online updates on closures.

HUNTING: Weather looks favorable for the first late-winter antlerless and CWD seasons for deer in select Illinois counties Thursday through Sunday.

STRAY CAST: Jimmy Butler begins to remind me of the sounds a just landed channel catfish makes.