MISSOURI – A Festus man recently reeled in a state-record fish from the Mississippi River that also appears to be a world record, according to Missouri conservation officials.
The Missouri Department of Conservation reports that George Chance snagged a 97-pound bighead carp on March 19, which shattered a recent state record of 80 pounds for that species.
The International Game Fish Association currently recognizes a 90-pound catch out of Tennessee from 2005 as the world record for a bighead carp, according to Game & Fish Magazine. Chance could formally own the world record if the IGA certifies his results through an application.
The fish looks to be the second world-record fish caught in Missouri this month, with another man recently catching a world-record, 164-pound paddlefish out of the Lake of the Ozarks on St. Patrick’s Day.
As for Chance’s big catch, he told the Missouri Department of Conservation that he was bank fishing for catfish with a bottom-bouncing crankbait when he hooked onto the bighead carp.
“You kind of know what a fish is once you hook into it based on how it fights,” Chance said via a news release. “It was moving pretty slow and I originally thought it could be a flathead.”
It took Chance nearly 20 minutes to reel the catfish to shore. He took the fish to a nearby recycling center to use their scale, which prompted him to call his local conservation agent.
“They told me it was a state record, and I said, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me!’”, said Chance. “Then later they said ‘It’s not just a state record, it’s a world record!’ and I said ‘You’ve got to be kidding me!’ I had no idea this would happen would I woke up that morning.”
Chance says he chopped up the fish, put it in his garden, and plans to eat some of it in the form of tomatoes and cucumbers.
Missouri conservation officials say bighead carp are an invasive fish from Asia. MDC encourages people to harvest carp to help remove them from Missouri waters.
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