Nebraska angler Alex “Flathead” Doty had a heck of a night on Oct. 1. Fishing a small Nebraska creek, he landed a rare 49-pound leucistic flathead catfish, and then a few hours later he caught a 72-pounder that is his personal best.
“The charm of fishing is that it is the pursuit of what is elusive but attainable, a perpetual series of occasions of hope,” he wrote in a Facebook post. “Last night I caught a very rare 49# albino or Leucistic Flathead Catfish. Then not too long after that I caught my pb Flathead of 72# again for the second time this summer. When conditions are perfect u can find me on the water.”
The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission explained that leucism occurs when the melanin producing gene is masked, but not eliminated. It is the cause for the ghostly coloration of Doty’s fish. While leucistic catfish do show up on occasion, including a spate of leucistic blue cats on the Tennessee River over the last few years, this is a huge one.
From his Facebook posts, Doty is a hardcore flathead fisherman who fishes from the bank and from a kayak. Check Flathead Doty out at https://www.facebook.com/alex.doty.94