iStockphoto / deyanarobova
An Oklahoma angler just fished his way into the record books after landing a Bighead Carp that weighed 28 pounds heavier than the current IGFA fishing world record for the species.
Angler Bryan Baker’s world record-sized bighead carp has gone viral. And he landed the first-ever Oklahoma state fishing record for this species while fishing on Grand Lake.
However, due to the nature of how he caught this carp, Bryan Baker is unable to apply for a new fishing world record. He ‘snagged’ or ‘foul hooked’ the fish and since he didn’t hook it through the mouth, it won’t qualify as a world record despite weighing 28 pounds more than the current world record.
Bryan Baker runs Spoonbill Wreckers and also caught these lunkers on his epic day on the lake:
Bighead Carp are an invasive species in the state of Oklahoma. Anglers are encouraged to capture and remove them from lakes as they “consume large quantities of zooplankton, aquatic insect larvae and adults.”
Suffice it to say, getting a fish this size out of a lake will have a major impact on the local ecosystem.
Baker’s Spoonbill Wreckers Instagram page has some photos of truly gargantuan carp. It’s amazing that the world record Bighead Carp, a 90lb, 0z fish caught in Guntersville Lake, Tennessee, is 30 pounds smaller than this fish that’s an invasive species in Oklahoma:
He also caught this 112.4 pounder that is 22 pounds heavier than the existing world record:
Based on his ‘Spoonbill Wreckers’ Facebook and Instagram pages, he specializes in a sort of ‘snag fishing’ style to catch paddlefish, aka spoonbills. Paddlefish, or spoonbills, are vegetarians and anglers have to get clever with how they get them to bite.
Evidence would suggest this same style of fishing for spoonbills is also highly effective for catching Bighead Carp in the state of Oklahoma.