When fellow fishermen viewed the photo Mike Edmonson posted on social media of his 7-year-old daughter Nevaeh holding a 25-pound flathead catfish, the skeptics weighed in.
“Has to be photoshopped,” one said. “No way can a girl that small hold a fish that big,” another said.
But Edmonson silenced the doubters when he posted a YouTube video on his Kansas Fishing Outdoors page showing the little girl huffing and puffing to bring in the big catfish.
Fishing with her dad below Milford Lake Dam near Junction City, Kan., Nevaeh celebrated her 7th birthday on July 28 by chasing the gift she desired most — a big catfish.
She watched her cousin, Grayson Silver, land a 42-inch blue catfish last summer at a 5-acre city pond in Junction City, and she decided it was time to graduate from the panfish she was accustomed to catching on her kids pole.
She wanted to go for something big with her dad, an experienced catfisherman. So they headed down to the banks of the Milford Lake tailwater, where water was being released through the dam.
She started by catching the bait, a handful of small bluegills. Then her dad put those panfish on hooks and cast the lines into the current. The rest was up to Nevaeh.
When one of the rods started to bend, she jumped up and set the hook. Then the fight was on. Following the instructions of her dad, she moved from a spot where the fish threatened to pull her in and kept reeling with a determined look on her face.
She finally reeled the catfish close enough so that her dad could wade in and grab her catch.
“That fish was strong,” she told Wired2Fish, “but I was stronger.”
When questioned about how a little girl could catch a fish that big, she replied, “I’m not little. I’m 7 years old.”
Nevaeh (Heaven spelled backwards) became an instant celebrity after she landed the fish, which her dad released and then featured on social media. “All of my friends thought it was pretty cool,” she said.
Here’s the backstory. Just as the excitement of that first fish was dying down, Nevaeh and her dad went bank fishing the Republican River one evening and she landed an even bigger flathead — 30 pounds.
Again, Mike was taping the battle as Nevaeh shouted, “Big boy!” when she felt the tug of the heavy catfish.
She posed for pictures after getting it in, then helped her dad release it.
“I think it’s important to teach kids about the importance of catch-and-release on the big ones,” Mike said. “Maybe someone else can come along and have fun catching that fish some day just like she did.”
Nevaeh already is a media star. Mike features her in his videos regularly for his Kansas Fishing Outdoors social media pages. She has grown up catching panfish, searching for nightcrawlers with her dad at night, and just enjoying the outdoors.
“We’ll go fishing every other day when she gets home from school just to let her settle down and relax,” Mike said.
Mike remembers growing up the same way, tagging along with his dad on the catfish-rich waters near Junction City. Big flatheads roam the murky water of the Republican River and giant blue catfish reside in Milford Reservoir, and the Edmonsons had a passion for chasing them. But Nevaeh already has surpassed her dad in one respect.
“I never caught fish like she has when I was her age,” Mike said. “People fish their whole life trying to catch big catfish and she’s already caught two.”
