# New Whopper Club Weight



## Matt Jones (Mar 6, 2002)

The current minimum weight for a catfish to get into the whopper club is 12 lbs. IMO that is way too small of a cat to consider it a whopper. They need to bump that requirement up to at least 18 lbs. When you look at the list, the catfish is far and away the easiest to get. 12 pounders are a dime a dozen.


----------



## Burly1 (Sep 20, 2003)

Where you are, 12 lb cats are common. Where I live cats that large are rare. Even so, I would support raising the whopper minimum to 20 lbs. Of course that would make a whopper almost impossible, in ND, unless you made a few trips to the lower Red. It's a darned shame to have to kill a fish to get a whopper certificate. Unless you can get her to a certified scale and back to the water quick. I can't see killing the big spawners between twelve and twenty lbs for a 3" patch and a piece of paper! Tight lines, Burl


----------



## Matt Jones (Mar 6, 2002)

That's a good point, why isn't there a catch and release club for cats? Even though I'm one of the few people who enjoy a catfish dinner this far north, there's no way I'm cleaning a fish over 5 lbs. The big ones need to be left for spawning, plus they tast like crap. So what are you going to do with a 20 lbs fish?


----------

