The 7-year-old Rijk Ruiters from Naarden fished a large catfish from the waters around the Naarden Vestingeiland on Friday afternoon. The animal was about 110 centimeters and therefore almost as long as the young fisherman himself.
Around one o’clock in the afternoon, Rijk went out on the water with his father Remy. They hadn’t been busy for half an hour when Rijk’s float disappeared below the surface of the water. “Papa, papa! I’ve got a bite! It’s a very big one!”, Rijk exclaims enthusiastically.
“He often calls that, but then I saw his fishing rod bent quite a bit,” describes Remy’s father afterwards. “Then the animal jumped above the water and I was shocked.”
Landing net too small
The catfish was so strong that Remy had to quickly grab his son’s rod. “We’ve been busy for fifteen minutes,” says Rijk. “The scoop net was much too small. It was so strong that it took the whole boat with it. I told my friends, but they don’t believe that he pulled our boat,” Rijk says proudly. Once on board, the fish turned out to be about 110 centimeters. “Rich is about five feet, so it will be about that height.”
Compared to its congeners, the length of this fish was not too bad. Catfish can easily grow to more than two meters in length. It is estimated that the prehistoric-looking fish weighed about twenty kilograms. “We had no idea such large fish were swimming around there,” Remy says.
Finally, Rich and Remy released the animal and the monster fish may still be swimming around the fortress town.