When fishing with a rod and reel gets too boring, what do you do?
Just try bowfishing.
I can honestly say I’ve never tried, nor witnessed someone bowfish myself, but I can imagine it’s pretty difficult.
The Missouri Department of Conservation called it “quite tricky,” and even says:
“Connecting with a fish is harder than you might think.”
So, with that in mind, it makes this story that much more impressive.
But for Mitch Dering out of Fairdealing, Missouri, it must come pretty easy, because he’s now a bowfishing world record holder, according to The Kansas City Star.
Dering told the state department:
“I got off work that day and went out to one of the ditches in Duck Creek and just got lucky honestly.”
He admits he’s used to shooting smaller fish while bowfishing, but on this March 14th trip, it would be one he’ll never forget.
He recalled the second he shot the fish:
“I knew it was a bullhead, but didn’t know if it was a brown bullhead. But I knew it was large for its size.”
He contacted the MDC Southeast Regional Office the next day, and requested the fish to be weighed on a certified scale.
They confirmed he shot a four-pound brown bullhead while at Duck Creek Ditch, which was enough to land him both a state and world record. The previous Missouri state record was set at two-pounds seven-ounces, which Jerry D. Cox caught from Wappapello Lake in 1994.
The bowfishing brown bullhead world record was previously at three-pounds four-ounces, until Dering shattered it.
He couldn’t contain his excitement:
“That’s honestly pretty awesome. I’ve bowfished for quite a while. We’ve won a few tournaments in Kentucky and Tennessee and have placed in numerous other tournaments. That’s cool, I didn’t know that!”
He intends to mount the bullhead:
“I’ve never mounted anything before. I broke the state record for spotted gar a few years ago, but some guy broke the record two years later so it’s not in the record books anymore. But I’m working on getting me a collection of state records. I guess potentially world records now!”
Have a day.
