State-record catches (clockwise from left): Tyler Goodale, Missouri, flier, twice (11 ounces); Ryan Mejaski, Oregon, record-sized bull trout (25 pounds plus); Stacey T. Pope, Georgia, vermillion snapper (5 pounds, 5.56 ounces); and Mitchell Dering, Missouri, brown bullhead/bow-angling (4 pounds)
April 21, 2023
By Game & Fish Staff
One Missouri angler is getting good at breaking fishing records. Tyler Goodale of Doniphan did it twice on the same day last month at Duck Creek Conservation Area.
He caught two 11-ounce fliers on March 26, breaking the previous pole-and-line record of 10 ounces set in 1991, the Missouri Department of Conservation confirmed. "Fliers are a species of conservation concern in Missouri. Largest populations are found at Duck Creek Conservation Area and nearby Mingo National Wildlife Refuge, where extensive areas of standing-water habitat remain. Fliers prefer quiet, clear bodies of water with little current and considerable aquatic vegetation and mud bottom," the agency said in a news release.
This is the second state record for Goodale—his 5-pound, 4-ounce spotted sucker caught at Duck Creek in 2020 is also an International Game Fish Association world record .
Read more about this story . More information on Missouri record fish .
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World Record-Sized Bullhead Also in Missouri, the state-record brown bullhead that bow-angler Mitchell Dering of Fairdealing shot last month could be considered for a world record. The Missouri Department of Conservation said Dering's confirmed alternative-methods state-record brown bullhead weighed 4 pounds, significantly larger than the world bowfishing record of 3 pounds, 4 ounces.
Dering shot the fish at Duck Creek Ditch #105 on March 14. The previous state record was 2 pounds, 7 ounces (1994; Wappapello Lake). Read more about this story.
GEORGIA Women's Vermillion Snapper Record Snapped Stacey T. Pope of Brunswick broke the Georgia women's state record for vermillion snapper with a 5-pound, 5.56-ounce fish caught April 7 while fishing 70 miles offshore of Sapelo Island. The previous record (caught in 2018) was 3 pounds, 14.4 ounces.
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The Georgia DNR reported that Pope was bottom fishing during a charter trip with a "7-foot Eureka Charter Special rod and Avet SX G2 reel terminating with a knocker rig baited with menhaden." She was fishing with Capt. Quentin Van Heerden of Eureka Charters.
"It was amazing to catch the fish,” Pope said in a new release. "It was a little scary, but it was exciting. We just bought a boat in December, and this was only our third time offshore fishing. It's a lot of fun, I love it."
Read more here . More on Georgia state saltwater records .
OREGON Released Bull Trout Could Have Been Record Ryan Mejaski may have caught the largest bull trout ever in Oregon on April 8, but he released the 25-plus pound fish because "it was the right thing to do."
The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife said in a news release that the bull trout, which was caught at Lake Billy Chinook, was 33.5 inches long, had a 16-inch girth, and maxed out the fishing-net scale at 25 pounds. The current state record is 23 pounds, 2 ounces, caught in 1989, also at Lake Billy Chinook.
Mejaski told ODFW that the fish was perhaps 30 pounds or more. The IGFA world record is 32 pounds. "I'm a little bummed out we didn't keep it so we could get the official record, but it was the right thing to do at the time. We really didn't think about keeping it, we were so excited," said Mejaski.
Mejaski and Joe Wilhite were fishing for kokanee on the Deschutes arm of Lake Billy Chinook without much luck when they decided to move spots. After casting into a group of small kokanee that were jumping to the surface, he got a big strike that took off screaming. It took him 10 minutes to boat the fish on 6-pound line and medium-lightweight gear.
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