A huge channel catfish was hauled from the waters of Green Valley Park shortly after the Payson Wildlife Fair started Saturday.
The Arizona Game and Fish Department said Tuy Sayasavanh, of Peoria, used shrimp to catch the 26.9 pound leviathan in the inlet end of the main lake.
More than 500 people were at the park for the annual wildlife fair and fishing clinic, and the massive fish attracted a lot of interest.
The lunker cat, measuring over 37 inches in length, shatters the previous Urban Fishing Program record of 11.4 pound catfish caught in 2002 by Evelyn Hallman Pond in Tempe.
Game and Fish officials said this is the largest channel catfish reported in 20 years and is only five pounds shy of the state record – a 32-pounder from Parker Canyon Lake.
