iStockphoto / treasurephoto
The state of Arkansas keeps two sets of state fishing records due to the unique methods of fishing in the Natural State. There are records for Rod and Reel and a second set of ‘Unrestricted Tackle Records’ that are fishing records for fish caught “caught by legal means other than rod and reel.”
An example of that would be bowfishing and Arkansas angler Chance Williams just set a new bowfishing record after shooting a 22-inch, 8-pound quillback carpsucker that crushed the previous record of 6 pounds, 9 ounces set back in 2019.
Chance Williams told a member of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission that when he originally shot the fish he’d believed it to be a small buffalo but it turned out to be a bowfishing record for quillback carpsucker.
Williams was bowfishing on Bull Shoals Lake when he shot the record-setting quillback carpsucker and interestingly, this is the second unrestricted tackle fishing record on Bull Shoals Lake. The other was a 5 pound, 5 ounce American eel caught in 2018. Meanwhile, there are tw Arkansas state fishing records on rod and reel at that lake: spotted bass and smallmouth bass.
Interestingly, Bull Shoals Lake straddles Missouri and Arkansas. So the lake actually holds three more state fishing records in Missouri, records for walleye, striped bass, and largemouth bass according to a Facebook post from the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission which announced this new bowfishing record.
The IGFA fishing world record for quillback carpsucker (Carpiodes cyprinus) is a 9 pound, 8 ounce fish caught on rod-and-reel in Manitoba, Canada in 2020 by angler Gerald J.F. Hoy. Chance Williams’ 8-pound fish was certainly sniffing that record.
The quillback carpsucker isn’t the most sought-after fish in America but anglers to often seek them out for various reasons, including checking another species off the bucket list.
Ever caught one?