MANCHESTER - The fish Caroline Socha's 10-year-old son Jacob caught while ice fishing was too heavy to pull up using just the line on his tip-up that sat above the hole in the ice.

So, Jacob, of Manchester, pulled the line to draw the fish closer to the hole, stuck his arm in, grabbed it by the mouth and pulled it out. His mother said the fish barely fit through the hole and ended up weighing 5.37 pounds.

The hefty haul in New London County could be near a state record for a brown bullhead, which William Flood, media relations manager at the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, said is 4.9 pounds and 20 inches.

The problem is the fish's identity has sparked debate within the online fishing world, drawing hundreds of comments among both anglers here and across the U.S. trying to identify just what type of fish it is.

"It's really shocking to get all these different answers, especially from reputable sources," Socha said.

The American Catfishing Association identified the fish as a black bullhead. Ice Fishing Magazine thought it was a channel catfish. DEEP believes its a white catfish.

Socha said her son was shocked to have caught something so big while out on Feb. 22, especially since he was only getting little nibbles from perch.

She said she was "getting a bunch of pictures and a video phone call" from her son.

"I knew it was either something really exciting or really bad, as moms do," Socha said. "Fortunately, it was that they wanted to share something exciting."

When the species of fish alluded the family, Socha took to the internet for help.

Socha started with local Connecticut Facebook fishing groups, where she received "a lot of comments and a lot of likes," but the feedback varied. She said she needed to find a "more niche group," so she joined two groups dedicated to fishing catfish.

Same issue there: Too many different answers.

"People were really kind and helpful but I was just getting such a mix of answers," Socha said. "I didn't really know. I still don't really know."

One post of hers, Socha said, got over 400 comments on it as of Feb. 27. Some anglers, she said, even started to "bicker" in the comments.

"I was really surprised," Socha said. "I was not expecting that."

Members of the local Facebook groups eventually pointed Socha toward DEEP.

Jacob did a video call with Andrew Bade, a supervising fisheries biologist for DEEP, where he showed him the fish.

Bade said catch is "very highly likely" a white catfish, calling the fish a "perfect type specimen."

Bade said as catfishes grow, their defining characteristics, whether it be color or physical characteristics, can be worn down with age and make it more difficult to properly identify the fish. To the untrained eye, the species can look similar and be hard to tell apart.

Socha said her son was just as shocked as her when he heard how his catch had spurred an online debate that spanned the country.

"He was pretty excited," Socha said. "To be a 10-year-old and hear that is not something that happens every day."

This article originally published at Connecticut 10-year-old's ice fishing catch sparks national debate amid potential state record.