A Midwest angler broke a world record last week by catching a female carp weighing nearly 100 pounds.
The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) announced the large catch by fisherman George Chance in a March 22 press release. During a fishing trip along the Mississippi River, I accidentally caught a carp that weighed 97 pounds.
“It all started on March 19th when I hooked a fish while fishing for catfish from the shore with a crankbait bouncing off the bottom,” MDC said in a statement.
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“Chance fought the fish for about 20 minutes and finally brought it to shore.”
George Chance of Festus, Missouri, recently caught a giant carp in the Mississippi River. (Missouri Department of Conservation)
A Festus, Missouri, resident told state officials that he thought the fish weighed only 50 to 60 pounds when he reeled it in. The mother fish “had a lot of eggs,” Chance said.
“Once you catch a fish, you can tell what it is by the way it fights,” the angler said. “At first I thought it might have been a flathead because it was moving quite slowly…The more I fought it, the more I saw its tail and realized it was a type of carp.”
“I was able to hook [her] with hay hook [her] Out of the water. ”
MDC said Chance’s catch broke the world record for the largest carp caught using pole-and-line fishing.
The largest carp ever caught was 90 pounds and was discovered in Tennessee in 2005, according to the International Game Fish Association website. There are unconfirmed reports of larger carp being reeled in from lakes and rivers, but MDC maintains that chance carp are verifiable. The largest carp that can be caught by pole-and-line fishing.
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A giant carp swims in the Great Lakes Exotic Species Tank at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago on Tuesday, January 12, 2010. (Nancy Stone/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
“They said it was a state record, and I said, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me!'” Chance recalled. “Then they said, ‘This isn’t just a state record, it’s a world record!'” “You’ve got to be kidding!” I said. I never expected something like this to happen when I woke up in the morning. ”
Instead of frying the giant carp or throwing it in the oven, Missouri residents told state officials that they used the aquatic animals as fertilizer for plants.
“I cut up the fish and put it in the garden,” he explained. Eat it with tomatoes and cucumbers.
MDC said in a statement that the giant carp is an invasive species from Asia. The opportunity came at the right time. If not caught, the mother fish would have spawned immediately.
A giant carp photographed on Wednesday, August 7, 2019 at Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, Illinois. ( (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
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“MDC is encouraging people to trap carp to remove them from Missouri waters,” the agency said.
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