Catfish state record broken for second time in less than two years
The Department of Natural Resources confirmed the catch of a new state record flathead catfish on Monday, Jan. 13.
The catfish was caught by Dale Blakley of Niles, Mich., on Sunday, Jan. 12, on Barron Lake in Cass County at 3 p.m. The fish weighed 52.0 pounds and measured 46.02 inches. Blakley was ice fishing for crappies when he landed the record fish.
The record was verified by Brian Gunderman, a DNR fisheries biologist, at the Plainwell office.
The previous state record flathead catfish was caught by Rodney Akey of Niles on the St. Joseph River in Berrien County on May 22, 2012. That fish weighed 49.8 pounds and measured 45.7 inches. Prior to that, the record hadn’t been broken since 1943. Read more
Northern shrikes have a subtle beauty, being varying shades of gray, white and black. The blocky head, black eye stripe and hooked beak are important identification marks. They tend to be quite visible much of the time, setting on electric lines, the tops of trees and other conspicuous places. My experience has been that they arrive around the first of December and are gone by mid-February. They seem to prefer old fields and brushy areas here. Michigan is in the midst of the wintering region for this bird. Northern shrikes nest in the far northern subarctic forests and tundra. They only go as far south as they have to in winter, which means they don’t go much below mid-Ohio, Indiana and Illinois in this region. [Northern shrike photo courtesy of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service] 
Candidates range from a college senior to recruits who are in their early 40s and include nine law enforcement employees from other agencies, including the state police, sheriff’s departments, and small-town and urban police forces. Others have degrees in criminal justice. Six are military veterans; two have been conservation officers in other states – Kansas and Wisconsin; and two are employees with the DNR Parks and Recreation Division.