All three records fell on the same day.
Note: This post was originally published in February 2018.
Most anglers go their whole lives without even getting close to catching a state-record fish. And then there's 12-year-old Parker Welch. She set three Wisconsin state records in a single day!
Welch's incredible day came back on July 4, but the Wisconsin DNR is just now sharing the story of a day Parker and her father, Alan, will never forget. Believe it or not, the press release from the Wisconsin DNR says the father-daughter duo actually did set out for the day with this exact goal in mind.
Parker's records are for lesser-known fish in golden redhorse, shorthead redhorse and stone cat.
The idea to go after more unusual fish came from Alan.
"I caught thousands of walleye and musky," Alan Welch said. "To keep it interesting, I got into fish identification and I'd start going after weird stuff-fish like gar and carp. They're harder to catch because people don't target them and there's no information on them."
Alan then had the idea to try and break some of these lesser-known records all in a single day. Parker and Alan set out to do it July 4. Parker's first record was the shorthead red horse, which hit a nightcrawler in the morning on the Prairie River. The second fish, the golden redhorse, hit at noon.
Likely the most obscure of the three fish, the stonecat was caught on the Wisconsin River after daylight. The father and daughter later took the fish to be weighed at a fish market in Wausau, Wisconsin.
"I like spending time with my dad," Parker said in the press release. "Whatever he's trying to catch, I try to catch too."
The record-breaking day isn't the sixth-grader's only accomplishment, however. She also shot her first buck this fall and excels in school, too, maintaining a 4.0 GPA.
Catching multiple state-record fish in one day isn't unheard of, but it is unusual, as only a few lucky anglers will be able to make the claim. The last one we heard of was Illinois fisherman Ken Maggiore who broke two Illinois records last March.
Congratulations to Parker on her record-breaking day!
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NEXT: NORTH CAROLINA'S BLUE CATFISH BREAKS STATE RECORD, POTENTIALLY TWO WORLD RECORDS
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