A Minnesota wildlife official says channel catfish virus is only one of the possible causes of a catfish kill in the Red River at Grand Forks and not the likely cause.

Henry Drewes with Minnesota’s Department of Natural Resources says the preliminary assessment seems to be pointing to columnaris, a bacterial infection.

He says final tests at the department’s pathology lab in St.

Paul might be available next week.

North Dakota Game and Fish biologist Lynn Schlueter said earlier that preliminary test results might point to channel catfish virus as the cause of the die-off. The virus normally occurs in hatcheries where a lot of fish are confined together but Schlueter said it can strike in the wild if conditions are right.

About 1,600 catfish are believed to have died in the Grand Forks area.

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Red River catfish kill still being studied

George Marzeck worked for nearly 40 years tring to persuade lawmakers to name the Channel Catfish as the Iowa state fish. When the bill came up again in April, it once again failed, leaving Marzeck’s and other’s dream unrealized.

‘‘It is dead for the year,’’ said Rep. Paul Bell, D-Newton, chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee. ‘‘There are too many amendments and they’re making a joke out of everything, so we’re not even going to attempt anything.’’

Marzeck, along with seven other men started the push and as one by one the other men have past on, Marzeck kept pushing for their dream by writing letters and promoting the change with his own money. Marzeck died in September 2006 at the age of 82.

His wife, 81-year-old June, said she was disappointed but not surprised by the Legislature’s decision.

‘‘I certainly would hope that someday it would happen for George’s sake,’’ she said. ‘‘He worked so hard trying to have it happen and he won’t be trying any more since he’s gone. I hope that people there in Des Moines some day see fit to do that.’’

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State fish bill dies in Legislature

Surpassing the previous state record by 22 pounds, the new Louisiana’s state record channel catfish weighed in at 50 pounds and had a girth of 24 inches. David landed the fish out of Buhlow Lake on April 3, 2007. The previous record was caught in January 2004 by Rebecca L. Connella.

Greer doesn’t give credit to “Luck” or “being at the right place at the right time” for his record setting catch. Instead, was due to divine intervention.

“I haven’t been to church in 15 years,” David said. “That evening, when I arrived, I looked up in the sky and said, ‘Lord, if you will let me catch a fish 3-foot or better, I’ll start going back to church.’ Needless to say, he answered my prayer.”

David was using a No. 3 white perch hook and a shiner. Not liking the mess, Greer says he doesn’t fish with anything else.

“I like to tight line, so I have little bells on the end of my rod to let me know when I have a fish,” he said. “Suddenly, the bells started going crazy and my rod bent double. I grabbed it right away as my drag was screaming with the amount of line being taken off. I don’t like to set my drag too tight, because if you catch a big fish, it can snap your line.”

“I didn’t know what I had, but I managed to turn it,” Greer said. “It ran back to deep water and I turned it again. I was hollering and cussing, hoping that I wouldn’t lose whatever I had on the end of my line. This couple, who were about a 100 yards away, must have thought I was crazy. They didn’t know exactly what was going on.”

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Greer lands state record channel catfish

Every dream about catching a state record catfish? Nows your chance to get a channel catfish state record in North Carolina.

The recent Channel Catfish record for North Carolina, caught by Pete Paine, was recently decertified by the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission. Seems that when the fish was examined closely, the catfish was declared to be a flathead catfish.

This means that anyone can claim a new state record Channel Catfish that is over 10 pounds. As long as the fish is submitted according to the North Carolina Wildlife rules, you could be declared the new North Carolina state Channel Catfish record holder.

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