Ffather and son land 70lb. catfish for charity. Photo courtesy of WYFF News 4

Blake Visin and his son Tyler wanted to do a little fishing and help out the United Way while they were at it. Neither expected to reel in the 70 lb. blue catfish they caught that day.

Blake Visin work as the director of information technology at ReWa which is the renewable water resource based in Greenville. Each year, ReWa sponsors a fish fry with the proceeds going to help the United Way.

Visin, along with some family members and a few friends, took to the Wateree River in the Lugoff-Camden area to catch what they suspected would be the usual array of flathead and channel catfish. These are the fish most commonly found in the Midlands River. The great blue catfish they landed came as quite a surprise.

The catfish was an amazing sight, once they got him reeled in and he far outweighed anything else caught that day, tipping the scales at an amazing 70 lbs.!

All the fish caught will be used for the fish fry Thursday night but the net yield from Visin’s catch alone is expected to feed more than 100 employees.

The United Way of America is a non-profit organization that has local offices in more than 1300 locations throughout America. Each office determines which charities and community services will receive support from the organization. All money raised in a given location is funneled back into the community. The employees of ReWa are helping create a better community with their fundraising efforts and the 70 lb. catfish is doing his part, too.

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