Record-breaking catfish caught at Holt Reservoir

Many of you anglers in the reading audience will be interested to hear that a Tuscaloosa man recently caught a record-breaking blue catfish. According to the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, John Nichols broke the state record when he caught a 120-pound, four-ounce blue cat on March 9 in the Holt Reservoir, a 3,296-acre lake on the Black Warrior River, north of Tuscaloosa. Nichols caught this monster catfish with a chicken gizzard on a large circle hook on a 40-pound fishing line.

The previous record was held by a 111-pound blue cat caught by William P. McKinley in 1996 at the Wheeler Reservoir. That fish held the world record for some time until it was broken by a 143-pound blue cat that was caught at Buggs Island Lake, Va. That 143-pounder remains the world record holder.

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This past week was a big week in statewide high school awards. Nathan Riley Spence of Albertville High School and Justin Levins of Prattville High School were named the overall winners at the 27th annual Bryant-Jordan Student Athlete Awards Banquet Monday of last week at the Birmingham Sheraton Hotel.

Spence was the recipient of the Larry D. Striplin Jr. Scholar-Athlete of the Year Award while Levins received the Ken and Betty Joy Blankenship Student Achievement Athlete of the Year Award.

On Wednesday of last week, Craig Sword of Carver-Montgomery and Jasmine Jones of Bob Jones earned the Alabama Sports Writers Association’s Mr. and Miss Basketball Awards at the annual Player of the Year luncheon at the Alabama Activity Center in Montgomery.

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The “Ripley’s Believe It or Not!” feature Tuesday of last week included an unusual sports-related item. According to this popular weird news cartoon, a guy named Zack Hample has caught more than 5,300 home run and foul baseballs from Major League baseball games in 48 different stadiums.

Hample’s an interesting guy. He runs a Web site (www.zackhample.com) that purports to be “The Place to Learn About Baseball – And How to Snag One at a Major League Game.” Known as “The King of Snagging,” Hample has also written a number of books, including “How to Snag Major League Baseballs: More Than 100 Tested Tips that Really Work” (1999), “Watching Baseball Smarter: A Professional Fan’s Guide for Beginners, Semi-experts and Deeply Serious Geeks” (2007) and “The Baseball: Stunts, Scandals and Secrets Beneath the Stitches.”

According to his Web site, most of the home run and foul baseballs that he’s caught over the years in major league stadiums were caught during batting practices, but he’s “caught lots during actual games.”

Some of the balls that he’s caught could be considered historic. In September 2008, he caught two of the last 10 home runs hit in the old Yankee Stadium. A week and a half later, he caught the last Mets home run to ever be hit at Shea Stadium. He also caught Barry Bonds’ 724th career home run at PETCO Park in San Diego.