Big Fish
REELING THEM IN
Leah Friedman: David Hayes has been fishing since he could walk, and his weapon of choice is an open-face spinning reel with a 6-foot rod.
But Hayes, 56, is a doting grandfather. And that's how he ended up reeling in a 21-pound state record channel catfish with a hot pink 2 1/2-foot Barbie doll rod and reel.
Hayes' 3-year-old granddaughter, Alyssa, leaves her Barbie doll fishing rod and a pink tackle box on his porch so they're handy. She's always asking him to take her fishing, Hayes said.
And so it was on the evening of Aug. 5 in Hayes' backyard in Wilkes County in northwestern North Carolina.
Hayes and Alyssa caught crickets for bait and walked to the dock of his private pond with the plastic rig that her daddy got her for Christmas. They hooked the crickets and quickly reeled in two or three small bluegills, Hayes said. But standing over all that water does something to a girl.
"Papa, I have to go potty," Hayes recalled her saying. She handed over her rod and ran.
