George Chance, 78, wasn’t talking about the world-record fish he caught when he said, “The good Lord is looking down on me.”
The retiree said he goes fishing at least three times a week at one of the several spots he has permission to fish near his Festus home.
“If (fishing) was a drug, you could say I was addicted,” Chance said. “I have three or four lakes or creeks that are no more than 10 minutes from the house. I tell my wife, ‘If they’re not biting, I’ll be back in an hour or so. If they’re hitting, I’ll call and let you know when I’ll be home.’ I’m liable to be there until dark.”
He was fishing for catfish on the Mississippi River just north of Truman Access March 19 when he hooked a world-record bighead carp. After 20 minutes of fighting to reel in the big fish, he said the real struggle came when he had to haul the 90-pounder up the riverbank and into his truck.
“When I got him far enough up on the bank where he couldn’t flop back in, I looked up the state record on my phone,” Chance said. “I wasn’t sure what kind of carp it was, but the state records were 60, 70 and 80 pounds. I estimated it to be in that range.”
He drove to the Bloomsdale Recycling Center, where he knew they had a big scale, and the catch registered at 98 pounds. He called Jefferson County conservation agent Ben Bardot, who met him there.
“I was impressed. He was there in a half hour,” Chance said. “He certified the scale, the weight and certified that it was a bighead carp. He said, ‘George, you’ve got a state record here.’”
Bardot added that in a few weeks Chance would receive a plaque acknowledging his state record catch. The next day Chance said he received a call from the state Department of Conservation to tell him that his fish qualified as the new world record for pole-and-line fishermen.
Officially the new record is 97 pounds. Chance’s fish broke the previous state record of 80 pounds and the world record of 90 pounds.
He said he was hoping to catch something big, but he wasn’t expecting a carp or a record.
“I don’t eat catfish, but I have friends who are lined up to get them if I catch some,” Chance said. “I like to hook into a 20- or 30- or 40-pound flathead or blue catfish. I have pictures of me with 40- and 50-pound catfish.”
On March 19, he was fishing with 50-pound test line and had his reel set to 30 pounds of drag, he said. He was using a modified crankbait, bouncing the lure along the river bottom when he hooked the carp.
“You can tell what a fish is once you hook into it, based on how it fights,” Chance said. “At first it was moving pretty slow, and I thought it could be a flathead. Then it took off fast and stripped line off my reel like it was an ultralight. Over the next 20 minutes, it kept taking less and less line. By the time I got him in, he had pretty much given up.”
Chance said he removes the front treble hooks from the deep-diving crankbaits he uses, leaving only the tail hook. The missing hooks do not limit the catches, he said, while almost completely eliminating snags.
“If the lip gets hung up, you can usually give it some slack, and it will float back out,” Chance said.
The bighead carp is one of several invasive species in Missouri, and anglers are encouraged to harvest them when they can.
“I chopped up the fish and put it in my garden,” Chance said. “I’m going to eat it in the form of tomatoes and cucumbers.”
Missouri state records are recognized in pole-and-line and other methods categories. The state record bighead carp taken by bowfishing weighed 125 pounds, five ounces, and was caught at Lake Perry in 2021.
John Winkelman has been writing about outdoors news and issues in Jefferson County for more than 30 years and was the Associate Editor for Outdoor Guide Magazine. If you have story ideas, e-mail ogmjohnw@aol.com, and you can find more outdoor news and updates at johnjwink.com.
Cutline Missouri Department of Conservation photo
George Chance of Festus was fishing for catfish in the Mississippi River when he landed in the world record book for catching a 97-pound bighead carp.